ATI Radeon 9550 vs ATI Radeon 8500

Comparative analysis of ATI Radeon 9550 and ATI Radeon 8500 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark.

ATI Radeon 9550

ATI Radeon 8500

Differences

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon 9550

Videocard is newer: launch date 2 year(s) 1 month(s) later
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 130 nm vs 150 nm
5x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 35 vs 7

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	1 October 2003 vs 14 August 2001
Manufacturing process technology	130 nm vs 150 nm
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	35 vs 7

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon 8500

Around 10% higher core clock speed: 275 MHz vs 250 MHz
2.2x more texture fill rate: 2.2 GTexel / s vs 1 GTexel / s
Around 38% higher memory clock speed: 550 MHz vs 400 MHz
Around 1% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 146 vs 145

Specifications (specs)
Core clock speed	275 MHz vs 250 MHz
Texture fill rate	2.2 GTexel / s vs 1 GTexel / s
Memory clock speed	550 MHz vs 400 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G2D Mark	146 vs 145

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: ATI Radeon 9550
GPU 2: ATI Radeon 8500

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

145

146

Name	ATI Radeon 9550	ATI Radeon 8500
PassMark - G3D Mark	35	7
PassMark - G2D Mark	145	146

Compare specifications (specs)

	ATI Radeon 9550	ATI Radeon 8500
Essentials
Architecture	Rage 8	Rage 7
Code name	RV350	R200
Launch date	1 October 2003	14 August 2001
Place in performance rating	1132	1135
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Core clock speed	250 MHz	275 MHz
Manufacturing process technology	130 nm	150 nm
Texture fill rate	1 GTexel / s	2.2 GTexel / s
Transistor count	76 million	60 million
Thermal Design Power (TDP)		23 Watt
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	AGP 8x	AGP 4x
Supplementary power connectors	None	None
API support
DirectX	9.0	8.1
OpenGL	2.0	1.4
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	64 MB	64 MB
Memory bandwidth	6.4 GB / s	8.8 GB / s
Memory bus width	128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	400 MHz	550 MHz
Memory type	DDR	DDR