Reviews for PNY GeForce FX 5500 Graphics Card

Good basic video card for business applications

Strengths: Dual monitor (two VGA ports), TV (S-Video) out, built-in hardware MPEG-2/DVD video decoder

Weakness: Slow 2D/3D performance - not for gaming

The card comes with a decent active heatsink/fan (close to the one shown on the product picture.) I bought this AGP card for the following purposes:

1) as a back-up video card to use when my gaming AGP video card dies, so I could still boot up the system and do some diagnostics with this card.

2) as a generic video card to use when I just build a new system. It's easy for Windows to identify the video card and install the driver automatically, hence it saves my time to find and download the latest unified GeForce driver from nVidia's site. I then have more time to fine tune the memory and CPU overclocking performance first, and deal with the video card's overclocking later (not with this card then.)

3) as a basic HTPC video card to use for its low-noise/low-heat design. This card is great to go with any low-power PC with quiet fans inside, hence making the whole system almost inaudible. The card's built-in MPEG-2/DVD decoder offloads the CPU when it comes to DVD video playing. There is a caveat to this, though. If you want to use Windows Media Center Edition, or if you want to use this hardware video decoding capability, you may have to buy and download the dvd decoder driver from nVidia as the installation CD doesn't include that. See this site: www.nvidia.com/object/...

Generally there's nothing special about this card. It's good for most business applications such as MS Office and video playback softwares. It's a daily internet browsing card, and its two VGA ports (sorry no DVI ports here) can support two large monitors (CRT up to 2048x1536, LCD up to 1600x1200) simultaneously, which makes it good in an office system.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

PNY GeForce FX 5500 Video Card

Strengths: dual monitor support, easy to installation and cost efficient

Weakness: The lifetime warranty is a trick from PNY

This video card has dual VGA monitors support. The card has very good quality and very easy to install and configure. With identical VGA support, you don’t see the difference between the two monitor (unlike GVA & DVI format). Paid less and happy to have it.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Good, cheap video card

Strengths: dual monitor support, easy installation and configuration

Weakness: n/a

I purchased this video card because I need a cheap card that supports dual monitors. Both my LCDs are VGA, thus I do not care it does not have DVI. The installation is super easy. The driver in the CD is outdated but works very well. The Dual view setup is very easy and can be done within one minute. Now I can work with two monitors and this will certainly increase my productivity.

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

PNY GeForce FX 5500 Video Card

Strengths: good graphic quality,cheap

Weakness: no DVI

Though AGP card is a little out of date,my old machine still needs one. This card may not be the best card for newest games but definitely beat the onboard video. I have noticed dramatic changes in the image quality after installing this card. This card has full Direct X 9.0 compatablity, runs most old games without too much lag. It has 2 VGA support so I can run dual monitor setting. The only drawback is no DVI. I would recommend the card if you are on a budget and you want a decent video card to replace the onboard video.

64% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

GeForce FX 5500 Video Card User Review

Strengths: And I have tested the card on Windows XP on Windows Vista Beta 2. And that's a great video card for displaying photos and videos.

Weakness: And there are some grieches when I am installing the driver for that video card. And we can just try a couple of times of the install to get around with them.

And that's a good and least expensive video card that I can get from the WEB and it can improve the performance of the Pentium 4 PC that is running Windows Vista Beta 2 drastically. And for the gamers we can play the games with the requirement of the 3D graphic accelerator. And I have tested the video card on two different PC's. And with this card we can play the built-in games on Windows Vista and use the Windnows DVD Maker on the Windows Vista machine. And that's one of least expensive video card (128MB) that we can get from the WEB currently. And it's fully compatible with Windows XP with the Service Pack 2. And it's compatible with the Pentium III PC and the Pentium 4 PC. And I would recommend this card for the small businesses and the home users. And because it's great performance we can display our photos and videos perfectly on Pentium III and Pentium IV PC's that are running Windows XP including SP 2 and Windows Vista Beta 2.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

I like it.

Strengths: Great picture with the pixel shading technology.

The price is great for such a good product. The graphics are enhanced with the FX 5500 more so than my old card. The details of the games are clearly visible without the trouble of seeing pixels.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

GeForce FX 5500 Video Card (128MB, AGP 8x)

Strengths: Cost effectiveness Ease of installation

Weakness: Marginal improvement

I had never opened my computer case prior to this installation. Even with a lot of hesitation and continual reference to the manual, the whole process of installing the card and the driver took no more than twenty minutes. What a great feeling to have the monitor respond after this "operation!" That being said, however, the change in graphics was less than spectacular. The colors were noticeably more vivid but the 3-D effect was marginal at best. But considering the low price for the board, the upgrade was certainly worth the money and expenditure in effort. But I'm now ready for bigger and better.
I certainly would recommend this upgrade for others looking for a low cost improvement in graphics.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

GeForce FX 5500 Video Card (128MB, AGP 8x)

Strengths: Low price - $22.50 after rebate

Weakness: No TV-Out

Good decent graphics card for the price. Met my gaming needs. Better than FX5200 card which I replaced. Image quality was much improved from old card. Allowed for more multi-tasking.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Not for gaming

Strengths: lasted me this long

Weakness: gaming, 3d

This is one of those cards not realy worth wasting money on. When I got it about 9 months ago it was a decent card now with vista coming out I'm gonna have to upgrade. If your looking at windows xp and no gaming get this card. Otherwise go with something like the XFX 6800xt agp card.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Two monitors capability (VGA) and reasonable price

Strengths: Easy to install with Window XP. Price

Weakness: N/A

Installed today in AGP slot. Connect the monitor to the card. Window XP goes in VGA mode. Restart and install driver from included CD. After installing marginal improvement in graphics compared to integrated intel graphics. The reason I bought this card is for two monitors capability which is achieved without pain of looking for help on phone. Extra 128MB will help to keep multiple windows open in my trade of trading on shoestring. Certainly worth the money ($32) from buy.com via pricegrabber.com.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Cheap, fast 2 monitors capability

Strengths: 2 outputs, tv out, cheap

Weakness: some retailers sell it without fan; not the best for gamers; no digital output

I needed a video card with 2 monitors capabilities, and in fact I'm happy that both outputs are analog, because both my monitors are analog input. Being so cheap it cannot be a bad investment if it does the job!

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Low End Budget Card

Strengths: low cost, very stable

Weakness: AGP is getting old now, no DVI

This is a great card for a budget build. It was very easy to install and NVIDIA drivers and support are much much better than ATI's. The card worked well with DVDs. You'll be able to play most older games perfectly fine.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?