Card Confusion

[seeker]

I just received an RMA for a PNY FX5500 that I had sent back to the factory, but the card that I received was a FX5200. I have been trying to check out what the differences are at CompUSA, but the FX5200 that they have listed, only indicated 64MB of memory, instead of 128MBs as shown on the cards label. The label on the bag itself was for a 6600 with 256MBs, so I do not trust anything on these labels. I'm trying to figure if it's worth the hassle and wait to attempt to get the right card. What's up with this?

[saturnotaku]

Do you have any pictures?

[seeker]

No. The cards are definitely different though, I do not remember all of the details of the FX5500, but I do know that instead of a gold metal cage around the fan, this card has a rather heavy aluminum finned heat sink that is open to the fan itself. In general, the card just looks plainer, but the rear connectors are the same...2 VGAs and 1 S-Video.

[saturnotaku]

Can you find a picture online somewhere, either at Newegg or PNY's site?

[seeker]

I don't know...I'll try. But, which card do you want the photo of, the FX5500, FX5200 or both? Can you tell me what it is that you are looking for?

[seeker]

Please Delete

[seeker]

Now, I'm confused about posting on this forum, because instead of using the reply button, I posted this response with the quick reply window, and it showed up in reverse order, so I'll try again.

I've been clicking all over Google, but the only pictures that I have found, are only of the box, not the card itself. Googling has only caused me more confusion, because the prices that I found ranged from $40 to $117... a bit of a gap, even for the internet.

[seeker]

Thread subscription.

[Kojiro]

PNY probably did not have that card in stock so sent you a 5200.

The PNY 5200 should have 128 MB of video memory. As for rendering capabilities, I believe they are very similar. 5500 uses 2 dual pixel rendering pipelines where as the 5200 has 4 single pixel rendering pipelines.

How does that matter? Well, neither ATI nor Nvidia use dual rendering pipelines in their current high end cards. Thus dual ones are outdated technology. Infact Geforce 2 MX, Geforce 4 MX, and Geforce MX 4000 have them. The only difference with the MX and the FX 5500 is that it suports
D3D 9.0 in hardware.

[seeker]

PNY probably did not have that card in stock so sent you a 5200.
You may be right, but since the FX5500 is more prevalent on the market, I would be surprised that they didn't have any. Since I only intend to use the card as a spare, I'm not too concerned, but I do like to get what I paid for. Since there is a price difference between them, it would seem that there would be more differences between them.

[/<evin]

not true, if your looking for one there rather easy to find. Even walmart has one around where i live, your best bet is bestbuy, go to www.bestbuy.com and you can get the 5500fx overclocked 256mb which is better than the original for 132$, maybe pricey but i have one and it runs extremely well for a crappy pci card.

[seeker]

I really have no idea what you are disagreeing with, because you seem to have said the same thing that I did. However, I have no interest in buying another card, I trying to understand how these two differ.

[Medion]

Seeker, I did a quick google search on the differences between their tech specs. Here's what I found, and I hope that this is of use. I didn't bother listing specs if they were the same (IE, memory bandwith, ramdac, etc.). Also, I'm a bit confused on the memory. How much RAM did your old card have, and what does Windows tell you is on your 5200?

5200:
-core clock 250mhz
-fill-rate 1.0 billion texels/sec

5500:
-core clock 270mhz
-fill-rate 1.1billion texels/sec (should be 1.08billion going by the clock rate)

Looks to me like the cards are VERY similiar, with the 5500 being just a hair faster. I'd find out if they ripped you off on memory, and then call up their tech support and tell them you want the exact replacement product, something better, or your money back. Having them ship you an inferior replacement, even if by only a little, is BS.

[seeker]

Having them ship you an inferior replacement, even if by only a little, is BS.
On this we can agree. I have never installed the 5200, but both cards are supposed to be 128MB according to the labels on the cards, but since the label on the bag that it came in said that the card was a 6800, I don't know if I believe their labels. I do know that the FX5200 comes with 64, 128 and 256MBs of memory, so I understand your confusion.

[seeker]

I just discussed this with PNY and I was a bit surprised that they gave me no argument and gave me the numbers necessary to return the card for the right one. Apparently, they knew they had sent the wrong one, I guess they just figured that I wouldn't say anything. If I have any more problems, then they may get to know me better.