Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I purchase this on Ebay and the video card is what I need for 1920 X 1200 for new LCD Monitor! It must have been a earlier model since the fan blades were clear, thinly finned.

It was killing me with the fan hooked up! It was unbearable. It was such a high pitch; you can hear it through the music I was playing through iTunes.

After a couple of weeks; I just unplug the fan. I only use the computer for surfing and it made a lot of difference in my environment. First, try to cover the fan and muffed the pitch but did no good it just made it higher/worse. Finally, I have just unplugged it. I will see if it affects the video card. There are two medium fans at the front of my computer and so I hoping that it will be adequate to cool the video adopter. If not; I have nothing to loose. My health is more important.

I see the pictures above and it shows a large heat sink in first two and a curved fan in the latter pictures. I think either of them will work fine for the buyer. I guess I should of purchase it through Amazon but I was not thinking. I learn my lesson the hard way!

Well it been months after; and the graphics card has failed and it also recked my sound card too! I read up on my built-in graphics from Intel and it does do the high resolution and replace my sound card with an Creative Labs 24 bit card for around $80 plus sales tax. Of course, I purchased it new and locally, making sure I could return it for 30 days before purchasing it! I am kind of scare to buy cards now since my Ebay incident!

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

This is a great video card. It installed effortlessly and ran with the drivers out of the box. The color was amazing, and the horsepower was incredible. It ran high end games with no problems.

I still have a Compaq Presario Pentium III, I'm yet to upgrade but I got spoiled at work using a 21" monitor and decided to upgrade my monitor at home.

I bought a 22" widescreen for $200 at Bestbuy(Black Friday) and found out my old video card didn't support this monitor.... With the new card the graphics are great. Money well spent. My old card was only 16M also.

So bottom line is it's a great card for the money.

I cannot review this item. I have to return it.

Images do not show the item received. The images show (multiple, different cards) with a PCI interface with notches indicating that it is compatible with both 5 volt and 3.3 volt PCI systems. The item received was not the item shown in any of the images. It had a PCI interface with a single notch indicating 5 volt system only. The description does not provide enough specification to distinguish.

Highly recommended if you have a desktop with an old PCI slot and any new monitor requiring 1680x1050 wide-screen resolution, this video card will do the job with ease; especially with DVI connection. Works great so far with productivity softwares and some video viewing.

Video Card works great. I had a 64 MB card before this. Now games and even visualizations in media player look so much clearer. The video card is actually the red one in the picture not the black one. Great card for the money.

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

I attempted to install device on 2 computers,Everex Explora GS28

and Dell Dimension 3000.The Everex Explora GS28 computer made so much noise I just shut it down and uninstalled.And the Dell Dimension 3000,windows 7 Home Preminum accepted the card but not the drivers.

All in All i had less headache with NVIDIA FX 5200,which i paid $39.99

for 2yrs ago!!!!!!!