Diamond Stealth ATI 9250 PCI 256MB Video Card ( S9250PCI256 )

by Diamond Multimedia

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11 x 7 x 2 inches ; 15.7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000B74H10
• Item model number: S9250PCI256SB
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 2, 2004

Product Description

From the manufacturer

Featuring:

• ATI Radeon 9250
• Memory: 256MB DDR
• Slot: PCI
• With: DVI & TV-Out

Take your graphics performance to the next level with the Stealth S9250 Graphics Accelerator Card from Diamond Multimedia

Highly evolved and extremely programmable, the Stealth 9250 opens a stunning new world of immersive play for gamers. Powered by high performance features including a Quad-pipe architecture, the Stealth 9250¹s visual processor delivers a dazzling visual experience optimized to support the most compelling next-generation 3D gaming environments of today and tomorrow.

Key Features

• Four rendering pipelines for the fastest 3D gaming performance in its class
• SMARTSHADERTM supports Microsoft¨ DirectX¨ 9.0, enabling more complex and realistic lighting effects
• SMOOTHVISIONTM delivers the sharpest, clearest textures without sacrificing frame rates
• HYPER ZTM Lossless Z-Buffer Compression reduces memory bandwidth by up to 25%
• FULLSTREAMTM produces smoother-looking, higher quality streaming Internet content
• VIDEO IMMERSIONTM integrates features to provide unprecedented support for digital and high definition video.
• Independent resolutions and refresh rates enhance the gaming experience
• One Year Limited Warranty

Product Description

Graphics Card - ATi Radeon 9250 - 256MB DDR SDRAM - PCI

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highy Recommended for Old Computers, May 12, 2007

By 

James (Madison, WI United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Stealth ATI 9250 PCI 256MB Video Card ( S9250PCI256 ) (Personal Computers)

I'm writing this review mainly in response to the review criticizing the card for not being able to attain a resolution higher than 1280 x 1024. I almost did not try this card because of that review, but in the end decided to give it a go anyway. In short, I am currently running this card at 1680 x 1050 resolution on a brand new Dell 20'' Widescreen UltraSharp monitor. Make no mistake, resoultions higher than 1280 x 1024 are attainable with this card.

I purchased the card to upgrade my computer, a Micron, Intel PIII with integrated graphics purchased in June of 2000. Despite my 150W PS, the card works great for my needs which include web browsing and basic text editing, etc. In addition, I especially like the DVI ability as many of the PCI cards I looked at only included VGA. The image on my LCD with DVI is awesome and it makes me wonder how I lived with CRT for so long. Without this card, the text on my LCD flickered whenever the processor faced a heavy workload (burning, Itunes, etc.); I do not have that problem anymore.

The only complaint I have about this card is that the fan is a little annoying (high-pitched), and my computer produces a little more heat nowadays. You do get used to the noise after awhile!

I would highly recommend this card for anyone in my situation who would like to upgrade an older system and alleviate some of the graphics work from the main processor, along with attaining an incredible image on a new LCD display. I tried two other cards--the PNY GeForce FX5200 256MB PCI card, and the Chaintech P-FX20 256MB GeForce FX5200 PCI card. The former was decent, but I did not like how it did not have DVI-support. In my opinion, if you your monitor supports it, DVI is the only way to fly. The latter, despite having DVI, did not perform nearly as well as my ATI 9250 card (opening windows was slower and choppier--I experience none of this with my ATI). In my opinion, go with the ATI 9250; it's cheaper and I think the performance is markedly better!

Other upgrades I made to this computer include the following: upgrading the 20G HD to 120G Seagate 7200 RPM (from Amazon), upgrading the memory from 256 to 512 using Mushkin RAM (from Newegg), and upgrading the two optical drives from basic CDRW to two NEC ND3550A DVD +/- DL RW (from Ebay). I run Windows XP Professional. I tried Windows Vista Home Basic, but opening windows and performing basic tasks was too slow.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than expected, February 4, 2007

By 

top_down - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Diamond Stealth ATI 9250 PCI 256MB Video Card ( S9250PCI256 ) (Personal Computers)

Bought this to replace the 64mb onboard graphics in an Emachines computer setup as a PVR. Prior to installing this card my ATi HDTV Wonder tuner card would only work on one channel; now it works on all. Still some occasional stutter but I think it is related to my PVR software (BeyondTV 4.5). Despite what the first photo shows, this card does have a fan. The photos that show the red card are accurate. Great price if the rebate comes through.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dell E310 and Radeon 9250, March 6, 2007

By 

R. Baird "Bob" (SLC, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Diamond Stealth ATI 9250 PCI 256MB Video Card ( S9250PCI256 ) (Personal Computers)

Sucessful but somewhat painful. Diamond board I received did have fan and runs DirectX 9. Installation disc would not run automatically but did get the drivers installed. Then went to ATI and downloaded newer drivers and ATI Catalyst. I also downloaded the Diamond Tools Overclocking Utility. Card very stable and runs great. One old game I had I had to go to the VideoCard.txt file and add the 9250 and card ID. It had the 9200 but not the 9250. This was extremely painful for a rookie like me. Even that runs great now. Very satisfied with this old dinosaur card PCI bus card for the $$ paid.