Vista killed the video card
UPDATED: 3/3/07:
Since my little off the cuff post still seems to be the number one draw to my site, I just wanted to add a few (hopefully) final thoughts. Vista Aero cannot run on a Radeon 9250 because it is a Dircect X 8(!) card even though my pre-purchase research said it was Direct X 9, and Battlefront 2 whcih requires Direct X 9 runs fine. Figure that one out. I’m not a video card/direct x expert so if anyone can explain that please let me know. I found a pretty good article here which lists Aero capable cards that won’t burn a hole in your wallet if like me you just want to get something quick in case you want to go to Vista someday. This article is also geared toward people (like me) who are stuck with only PCI slots. Again, this post was written summer 2006. We’re getting on to Spring 2007 so if you want to run Vista, and have a 9250 you can save yourself a lot of time and heartache (unless you enjoy that sort of thing) by buying a Mac..er I mean…getting an updated video card. In the end you’ll be a lot happier.
UPDATED 2/17/07:
The verdict is that Vista will not run on a 9250…period Or should I say not run Aero which effectively is not running Vista in my opinion. The best advice is to buy a new PC if you want to run Vista…that is probbaly the easiest way to guarantee the best experience. Actually the easiest way to guarantee the best experience is to not run Windows at all, but that’s just my opinion. Since I consider this a dead issue, comments will no longer be accepted unless you have vital pertinent information that would be of interest to people concerned about this issue.
In case you had any doubts, Vista is definitely Windows. Now, I have no proof that this is Vista’s fault, but about a week after I started using it my Nvidia GeForce 128MB video card died. No glitches, no weird behavior, just one day–dead! I mourned it’s loss briefly and then went in search of a replacement and saw this as a good chance to upgrade. I decided to go for an ATI this time since Linux seemed to have a real problem with Nvidia. I was looking for one that was under $100 since my main machines were now Macs and I’m not a serious hardcore gamer (if it can run Batttlefront 2 that’s good enough for me). I found an ATI Radeon 9250 with 256 MB for $65. I ordered it. It came the next day. I installed it. Vista dutifully put on the Microsoft Radeon 9250 drivers, and voila no aero no glass no Windows tab–nothing that makes Vista look nice. I took a look on ATI’s site oand of course they’ve built Vista drivers for every Radeon except the 9250. What I don’t understand is why Microsoft’s own drivers for a 9250 couldn’t provide the necessary functionality to run Vista’s bloated eye candy. Isn’t OpenGL Open GL? I was worried for a moment, but then realized that I really use Macs for everything, so I tunred Vista off and walked away. I recommend most people do the same initially when Vista is finally released–just walk away. In all fairness, the Radeon 9250 issue will probably be addressed in the future by either Microsoft or ATI, but like I said I am dumbfounded that a modern video card wouldn’t work out of the box even on a mianstream OS even if it is just a beta. Oh well, it’s stuff like this that reminds me why I drank the Cupertino Kool-Aid in the first place.
September 17, 2006 at 8:05 am
just wanted to say that i am glad that i came across your site here as i have spent sometime trying to get the drivers for this card and vista…and to no avail. man…this is such a nice card. why would you not support a 256mb 8x video card?? isnt this “todays standard”? it isnt some 3dvoodoo or something. will make me think twice about getting the vista right away.
September 17, 2006 at 11:45 pm
I feel your pain. It caused me a little bit of head scratching as well. Just to update..I looked at ATI’s site after RC1 and still no 9250 VIsta driver. I don’t know if Vista RC1 will support it without the driver and I don’t feel like going through the hours it will take to install just to find out. Why the 9250 is getting the cold shoulder even from it’s own manufacturer is beyond me. I think it’s a decent card. I saw some people trash talking it on a board or two somehwere but I brushed it aside as geek snobbery–it’s a fine multi-purpose modern card and should be supported.
October 9, 2006 at 5:15 am
Well, you see, this card ,believe it or not, is obsolete. The r250 series have been out for a while and are being sold for older computers to get better performance. I have the same card and it’s buggin the hell out of me. It’s two years old and performs pretty well on my xp. But one things for sure, it’s not a good card for gaming, let alone aero. This card chipset is the low end in ati now. Everything is pcie. The agp is obsolete. I’m bumbed about it too. But hey, guess that means we should save up for a monster of a card for the future. My view when buying upgrades for a comp, think of tommorow’s demands rather than todays.
October 9, 2006 at 10:11 pm
I believe it. I only paid $64 for mine. Mine isn’t AGP or PCIe..it’s worse, PCI. My 3 year old Dell Dimension 2350 doesn’t have an AGP or PCIe port so my choices were limited. I have no doubt that it’s not a good high end gaming card, but the fact that Vista’s UI is too much for even a low end ATI scares me. This OS is bloat city. I’m not that worried about it since I’ve switched almost entirely to OS X and Linux.
October 10, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I had the same problem when i start trying out the vista betas. I emailed ATIs customer support and guess what, it is a discontinued card. There wont be any driver updates for it neither for Vista or XP. Take a look at the catalyst drivers for winxp and youll se that theres no support for the r9250 since version 6.15. soooooo sad =(
October 21, 2006 at 8:31 am
I have encountered same problems as you, people… besides that i cannot run aero interface on my vista (since 5384 release, beta2) i am fully satisfied with my asus radeon 9250. on the other way, i am dissatisfied with ati’s relation to customers… they produced card, but all the sudden they decided to discontinue driver support for it…
but, it’s worth mentioning that wddm drivers for ati’s cards in vista are written by ati.
to conclude, i expect that amd aquisition of ati will bring something better for all of us, its customers
October 22, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I just bought a Radeon 9250 256 DDR (PCI) fully expecting it to be capable of displaying Aero. After running the Vista upgrade advisor…well…apparently it’s not good enough. Talk about being disappointed. Well, screw Aero then.
October 23, 2006 at 1:28 am
Screw Aero indeed!
October 25, 2006 at 4:18 am
Tell me abt this guys .
i assembled a pc just a week back .. but luckily i’ve replaced my radeon 9250 with a radeon x 1300 .. damn i wd have been more than happy if 9250 would have worked as it is absolutely perfect for windows xp ….
ati should definitely take a look into that ..
October 31, 2006 at 3:58 am
hi! i have a radeon 9250 128mb and also have windows vista instaled now and it runs perfectly… the games..the programs..everything..maybe you should look for the omega drivers
November 2, 2006 at 12:42 am
The omega drivers don’t work on vista… or do they? I haven’t tried. I have the pci version aswell. It can run games with the same visuals as xp (even though some games with automatic card sensors get screwed up and you have to manually change ‘em. But no worries) I like vista, it runs better than xp I believe. Thing is, people like me want Aero. I want to play around just by seeing the pretty visuals when I alt-tab. I want to see the fast motions and what-not. I’m saving my money now for x1300 or better. I’ll have it by christmas. But, I always wonder if I should just wait for dx10 cardds to come out. Also, when vista comes out I don’t want to buy it off the bat. I want to wait ’till I can get it cheaper. Basically. Vista is going to suck up my wallet and I don’t know when to buy things anymore. I’m an impacient person. Hopefully amd will convince ati to make a legacy driver for vista for this particular card because it is one of the more rampant of the radeon series. Problem is, it’s not even dx9, it’s dx8 which doesn’t have the pixel shaders and other nifty stuff to get aero working. Crap! I just want stuff now Microsoft. If you have just released it when you said you guys would I wouldn’t be in this predicament. Oh well, time to wait evenmore until the oportune moment comes to buy.
November 20, 2006 at 8:46 am
hi…how can u say..there is no new drivers..go to guru3d.com..on section dawnloads > ati drivers modified (no official drivers)..and dl NGO ati or D.N.A…it a optimized drivers..works very fine..i run NFS carbon 800*600 ..some of details to high…oo and i run Gothic 3 to
640*480-low..
November 20, 2006 at 8:23 pm
You may be right. I’ve seen some grumblings that a third party created 9250 drivers, and I actually saw a download link the other day. However, I am so sick of Vista I doubt I’ll try it. No point in installing Vista now since Microsoft will just turn it off in January when it’s (finally) released, and I have no intention of buying it–after all Leopard comes out in the Spring so I’ll have the most advanced operating system–again!
December 26, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Hello,
Unfortunately the guru3d drivers also do not support “anything below Radeon 9500″. Still looking for a Radeon 9250 driver. *sigh*
December 26, 2006 at 11:59 pm
oh, the 1.6.6 version -does- support -all- radeon cards!
December 28, 2006 at 1:06 am
hey TeCRda. i have a radeon 9250 128mb too and you said everything works perfectly. are you counting in the aero theme? email me back at popwarheritic15@netscape.net
January 7, 2007 at 5:43 pm
The modded Catalyst 1.6.6 version says that its OS is XP. Would it work on Vista?
January 7, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I have tried to install sever different drivers for my Radeon 9250 256mb, but all of them are for XP and do not install on Vista. Are there any drivers out there that will install correctly on Vista?
January 11, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I am having the same prob .. and I found this:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=31
I am downloading the newest beta driver now, maybe one of these will do it. Anyone have luck with the Aero theme with this damn video card .. could you email me?
proxydev@gmail.com
January 24, 2007 at 1:26 am
Well yet another reason not to use vista (besides DRM etc, etc – check out GRC.com for more info).
I have the AGP 9250 as well. Tried to do a simple extended desktop using Vista’s native drivers – no go in getting output to my plasma tv. Installed the older ATI drivers (which Vista recommended strongly not to do – typical unsigned driver/compatibility warning – yada yada yada) and guess what it worked! Same for my Dell laptop – vista drivers no go, older apparently “uncompatible” drivers do the trick perfectly.
Well done Microsoft…..*cough*
January 31, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Hello Guys,
This is the answer I get from ATI today.
I cannot understand why ATI cannot inform that for all of us ?
many people believe that this Vista drivers will be released soon but this never goes to happen.
See bellow this is from ATI Radeon support :
Vista requires video cards to provide hardware acceleration for DirectX 9.0 (Radeon 9500 and higher).
Your product only provides this support for DirectX 8.1, hence it we are unable to provide Vista drivers for the same.
January 31, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Also using 9250 PCIe by Asus 256mb, dual monitor, but there’s no room for this pretty card in Vista! :S it’s works now with the old windows xp drivers, only there is no flip3d or thumnail window, just basic, and everytime i’m shutting down vista it crashes and it says: “collecting data for crash dump”, after a restart it notifies that vista doesnt like the old windows xp drivers…. Hoping for a solution/workaround … i don’t understand there’s no 9250 WDDM driver…
January 31, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Update,
I’m using beside the dualcard 9250 also a Nvidea card (total of 3 monitors).
(9250 Chipset and Nvidea Chipset)
Check this: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx
Thank you Microsoft
Damn!!!
February 2, 2007 at 4:10 am
The 9250 is hardly a new card. Quite dated in fact. The lack of driver support is hardly surprising. I have one in the workstation where I work. It’s fine for desktop use, but uselss for gaming anything beyond MOHAA or COD.
February 2, 2007 at 5:55 am
Why don’t people ever read the recommendations for stuff before they bitch about it? If you read anything about Vista you would know that it REQUIRES a DirectX 9 HARDWARE SUPPORT Graphics card. While you can install DirectX 9 on a machine with a Radeon 9250 (I know…. I owned the 256MB AGP Version for years) that it still only supports the software capabilities of DirectX 8. Microsoft, ATi, Nvidia… they all told you that only the Nvidia FX+ and the ATi 9500+ series would run the operating system. So what about that don’t you understand. Really, is it so hard for you to read the instructions? Microsoft even provides a free software that detects hardware compatibility issues with Vista, so you don’t waste your money like these people. As for the Mac comment, I graduated from the Mecosta-Osceola Career Center, A technical education center located in Michigan. All we used was iMac’s. But that was for Graphic Design, and Video Editing. A Mac doesn’t offer any spectacular features for home use. In-fact, after dropping the $2,000 on a decent Mac, you might have well bought yourself a computer that could Run Vista Perfectly. Hell, you can buy one of those right at Wal-Mart for under $600. And some of those come with a free Vista Upgrade. Mac is only worth it if you are in the Design or Editing Business. Mac has a terrible interface, and the common person who is used to using a PC will have a terrible time trying to learn it. They are not upgradable at all (unless you wanna pay the price for Mac Exclusive Parts, and even then you might as well buy a new one). All I’m Saying is that if you don’t have a card that can support Vista, it is more Logical to just buy a card that can. A Geforce 7600GS is only about $130 on sites like newegg.com and tigerdirect.com, and thats a HUGE STEP in upgrading. I would go for the ATi x300 Series. Its UNDER a $100 and supports Vista. In-fact, that’s what I run on my Secondary PC, and it runs Vista quite well. It also isn’t too bad for Games, or Video Playback. If you really want the Vista Look without Upgrading your card, and you own Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed, then there is a free update you can find online. It’s not illegal in any way, and it even gives you the Vista Sidebar. It’s called the Vista Transformation Pack. It gives you everything from the Skins, Boot Screen, Logon Screen, and Backgrounds, to the Button Styles, Icon Styles, Startmenu, Networking Menu and so on. It really is the Closest thing to Vista, without the money, or the upgrade. I hope this Helped Someone.
February 2, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Thanks for the countepoint!
Cheers,
Sean
February 2, 2007 at 3:13 pm
@Michael
I agree that the 9250 was not the newest card when the post was written, and even less so now. I would still classify it as a modern card. I would suspect that a gamer would not buy a $65 card like I did, and the only rason I bought it was to get the computer back to life. However, it runs Battlefront 2 quite well, and that’s really all I care about.
February 17, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Perhaps ATI doesn’t make Vista drivers for that card because IT’S AN EXTREMELY OLD, SLOW PIECE OF CRAP THAT NOBODY BUYS ANYMORE.
February 17, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Perhaps ATI doesn’t make Vista drivers for that card because IT’S AN EXTREMELY OLD, SLOW PIECE OF CRAP THAT NOBODY BUYS ANYMORE. It’s NOT a “modern video card” at all.
February 17, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Idiots, listen to me–because this will be the last time. By modern I’m not saying it came out this year. I consider most hardaware that was still sold new within the past two years to be modern–not “new” not “cutting edge” not “the best” not even “up to date” but modern. In other words. I believe a “2.0 GHz” P4 modern whereas an 800MHz P3 is not. No one is saying that the ATI Radeon is a state of the art video card suitable for playing “Gears of War” or whatever it is you kids play these days. Yes it did not come out this year or last year, but you were able to buy it 6-9 months ago so it wasn’t end of sale at that point. And besides, let’s keep in perspective, we’re talking about being able to run an OS–just sit there and pull up explorer windows with a little bit of transparency and magical fading effects. Other OS’s (I won’t say Mac because you morons go ballistic when I do that) are able to do that with a lot less firepower and on 9250s no less.
Also, if you’re not trying to run Vista on a 9250 (which I’m not either because I don’ run Vista). you really don’t need to read or comment on this. I’ve tried to be open and approve all non-spam comments, but unless you are adding something useful to the conversation, they will be rejected especially since this is no longer a “hot topic” and I don’t think further discussion is required.
The fact of the matter is that right or wrong Vista will not run on a 9250. In general, the best advice to anyone that wants to run Vista (other than Prayer) and has a PC more than 6 months old, should buy a new PC with Vista on it. That will probably make your life a whole lot easier. Even better advice, if you can afford it, is buy a Mac and install Vista on it.
February 19, 2007 at 2:27 am
I currently run an ATI X1600 pro AGP card along side a 9250 PCI card for a three panel display. Vista requires WDDM drivers for all the graphics adaptors in the system. I am using the latest ATI drivers and this lights up the X1600 just fine. The 9250 is disabled by windows Vista…this is no suprize here. My main issue is that if you plan on sticking with an AGP system you need PCI card to run the third panel!!
Unless i go for a completely new MB and two PCI-e cards…or a matrox triple head to go (that dumps the signal to VGA from DVI) Im screwed. Two panels only! Once you go triple head…youll never want to go back! This WDDM driver limitation imposed by Vista needs to be circumvented. Anyone have a soultion?
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx
February 19, 2007 at 5:20 am
Despite my moratorium on the topic, I wanted to let the comment above through since it is interesting. Since I lost interest in Vista a long time ago I was not aware of the XPDM, WDDM conflict as mentioned above. Also I loved the fact that the poster said he was screwed cause he could only have TWO monitors.
Seriously, I have heard from several people that three monitors is the way to roll.
I believe that for the first time ever, Microsoft is forcing everybody (or at least anybody who wants to use Vista) to buy today’s current hardware–not last week’s or last year’s but today’s. Is this a good or bad thing? Who knows? Maybe they’re tired of being forced to support legacy whatever as they have been ever since 1995. In honesty their supporting of legacy hardware and software has led to many of the problems they faced pre-Vista (e.g. many software applications unable to run properly in multi-user configuration where the user is not an administrator).
Based on almost everything I’ve heard, if you upgrade a machine that wasn’t purchased in teh past six months (and wasn’t at least a mid-range machine at that) it’s going to be an arduous, painful process. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing, your best bet is to buy all new hardware. Honestly though, I’d wait to even go near Vista until the hybrid drives are out becuase I hear it sings with those things.
March 8, 2007 at 6:30 am
i have ati redeon 9250 256 mb what i can do on window vista it fails the card ???
azmleo@hotmail.com
March 18, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I had to downgrade from an Nvidia 6600GT because that pc broke, this pc has a 9250. I installed vista and now i can’t play any games. Its so stupid, nearly as stupid as not making the 9250 DX9 ready, it easily out performs the FX5200 yet its not DX9. However i need drivers and it should be supported
March 21, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I think this thread highlights the fact that PC Hardware and OS vendors have and continue show that they have alot to improve when comunicating how features of their products affect compatibility.
As a highly technical user I have had zero issues with my 3.5 year old pc that I upgraded to Vista. (zero issues) Every single component works perfectly.
Why was my experience better.
My knowlege of hardware and software but that should not be the case. I knew 3.5 years ago that by buying a Radion 9600 Pro would be a great card for years and was DX9 compliant.
( I have never had a virus on the machine either despite not even having virus protection for about a year but thats another story)
Now as a PC user I am very frustrated at a MACsinabiliity to configure things and beging locked into a hardware platform as well as software.
But that lack of flexibility gives a much smaller testing matrix to release software.
(an order of magnitude smaller) you may argue that MS is huge but that’s just not how software is developed there has to be a line in the sand.
The simple fact is the 9250 does not have the silicon to perform the operations required by the graphics platform Aero was coded with. This is the choice they had to make to support the widest selection of hardware.
Areo is desinged to run in hardware (GPU) and not the CPU saving it for processing other things.
This also increases customer satification at the low end of technical knowlege fewer options meen simpler entry into the product and use.
But for a user like me it’s painful and expensive.
There are a lot of good things in Vista to overcome this but, as this thread shows there are some hurdles as well. I think the Experience score in a few years will be a very valuable aid for customers.
Plain and simple a MAC is not better or worse than a PC they are different tools that perform a lot of similar tasks.
If you are looking for a PC to be a MAC you will be disappointed just like if you want your MAC (operating system) to be a PC same.
March 22, 2007 at 2:58 am
I agree with you for the most part. I certainly agree that PCs ( and by PC I mean as a hardware platform not the Windows OS ) are not better than Macs or vice versa. I will go even further that by the strictest definition of PC, a Mac is a PC since one definition of a PC is that it runs on an x86 chip, and now Macs do.
I often compare users who have interest in and enjoy building or highly customize their hardware to people who customize their cars (install new engines, etc). For them, a Mac would seem a limiting platform (although the high end Mac Pro does offer some customization opportunities since its innards are very similar to a high end tower PC). The majority of users, like the majority of drivers just want a reliable car that will get them from point A to B without much hassle and without worrying how many cylinders they have. For them, PC s might be a mind numbing expreience since vast differences in hadware make for an inconsistent experience. Graphic artists should not need to wonder about or know what graphics hardware they have. They should be secure in the knowledge that they will fire up their computer and Photoshop will come up so they can get to their real work. Conversely I’m not saying that Mac are not for power users since Mac OS X and it’s UNIX foundation are extremely powerful even if the interface is deceptively simple.
From a software/OS standpoint I don’t think Mac OS X is as locked down as you might think
March 24, 2007 at 5:03 am
I have the radeon 9250.
and if you use the vista transformation pack (google it)
I can run aero and 3d flip effect,and its exactly the same, same effects as the real one, its just the damn windows won’t support it.
So this is what im gonna do and see if it works. I’ll get windowblinds and get an Aero theme and switch the theme, and ill get TopDesk which will allow me to get the flip3d effect.
thank you, good night
April 15, 2007 at 11:46 am
its not fair.. on my ati radeon 9250 agp card box written that this is direct x9 card.. in the drivers cd there is drivers for vista with direct x9 but only for vista betas.. I bought my card 2007-02-20 there is written that it was made (updated from the old version) 2006-11 by club 3d in netherlands.. i think its a new card. so Igues there is 2 types of this card.. older one and newer(updated).. those who have newer must have to run vista.. and for those who have older.. sad song..
ps.: I couldnt find any drivers for vista nowere in the internet , only in my cd if I can help somebody. write me: jammbis@gmail.com i will try to send you those drivers.
and one more thing i have vista beta instaled and it works fine to me with windows aero, newest games and etc..
April 22, 2007 at 6:53 am
9250 is nowhere near modern. Not even close. It’s a 3+ year old card. What do you expect??
This is the CONSUMERS fault, there is no excuses.
And no, Vista did not kill the video card. Believe it or not, hardware dies.
April 22, 2007 at 7:05 am
The wrongness of the last comment speaks for itself, that I need not refute it except to say that I say right up front that it may not have been Vista’s fault expect the card was fine until I installed Vista.
Once again. 9250 is not the newest most advanced video card on the planet, but by the author’s own admission the card is 3 years old. 3 years old is not modern! Not latest sure, not most advanced definitely, but not modern! Everybody throw out your machines from 2004 because they are as obsolete as the ENIAC. Come on! Vista came out 6 months ago. I guess in three more months it won’t be modern either. Truth be told, it was pretty antiquated when it came out.
Anyway, as I said a thousand times before I don’t care that much. I don’t need or want Vista…me and my “non modern” video card will run Feisty Fawn or Solaris just fine thank you very much.
But what has struck my interest is that the worst Operating System on Earth has so many apologists.
June 22, 2007 at 4:56 am
I have an ati radeon 9250 and I certainly don’t consider it a modern video card and it was my first video card. In my opinion the 9250 is really not worth the money I paid, which was 75 dollars about 2-3 years ago and its performance was weak but at least it played half life 2 and Max Payne 2(which are my most favorite games)at decent frame rates but lagged a lot with HL2. But comparing it to the 7900gt I got later on its a piece of sh*t. Sadly my 7900gt died(memory issues, not caused by overclocking) a few months after I bought it (paid 250 dollars) which pissed me off. That card was amazing and overclocked very well. Right now I’m running My pc on Vista Ultimate and I’m using the radeon 9250, no aero what-so-ever. Since this card has let me down, in a lot of games, I don’t think this card would be physically able to run aero and if it could it would be very laggy and slow, very uncomfortable to use aero and in most pcs it would hold back the rest of the hardware.
June 27, 2007 at 2:08 pm
sharing with the same pain.. got an ATI Radeon 9250 256 MB dd3 AGP Card… but Windows Aero doesn’t run… poor ATI.. tsk tsk tsk..
Feel free to nag me if find a luck to run Aero with this Video Card.. thanks
macmac_sullivan@gmail.com
July 8, 2007 at 3:48 am
same problem –wanted to checkout the new pc game halo 2 but i needed to upgrade the vidoe card in my 4 month old system tried the x1300 only to find you can’t get rid of your current drivers for my onboard video card and it will overtake and steps you try –so i tried a fx 5500 –same result –
so i take it that this will happen with all video cards until MS or someone makes a different/better or working driver.
man i’m bummed out about this –wasted my whole day trying to work around this issue.
anyone know how to help email me at blacktom@kih.net
thanks
July 14, 2007 at 6:49 pm
ATI 9250 works on my computer (OS=Vista Ultimate-lite), not sure what theme it is running , probably basic-but the sidebar works.
July 18, 2007 at 12:16 am
In answer to murray *above* vista will work with radeon 9250. HOWEVER, its using a basic version of the driver shipped from windows. Because of its very old chipset this card will be unable to do most of the things required of it for windows vista, you will not get aero features for people using a system better than home basic and playing computer games u may as well forget it. To be honest now, the market is moving away from agp. if you love that card so much stay with windows xp.
It is time though to accept the reality.
This card has been knocking around for years..
Its chipset is now prehistoric and is obsolete..
It will not properly work with windows vista EVER.. Ati have no plans to even consider working towards a solution.
Much better cards are on the market at in or near the same price.
If you really hate spending your money, get the RADEON 9550, it works just fine at minimal damage to your purse.
9250…… REST IN PEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Nuff said…
July 18, 2007 at 5:04 am
I’m in full agreement with Shaun (except on how he spells his name
). Seriously, it’s not worth the effort and Vista is getting close to a year old and the card is only getting older. Vista capable cards are now pretty cheap–and far worth saving yourself the effort of what is essentially a losing proposition.
August 13, 2007 at 11:29 am
http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/ATI-Catalyst-Video-Driver-Beta-Vista-RC-Download-18577.html
I rreally hope this link works for you guys. I am in the process of downloading it now. It is the ATI Catalyst RC1 Vista Beta Driverset, I did a quick google for “Radeon 9250 vista problem” and this was one of the first few things that came up. hopefully it works.
Strangely enough, though, when I first installed vista, the video card worked – MS had loaded some driver automatically and everything worked perfectly (except for a couple of DX9 screensavers, but hell I dont care). Now a complete reinstall, this version of vista doesnt do that for my 9250. Hopefully this 150mb driver will work
I will keep everyone poste.
August 15, 2007 at 10:34 pm
The 9250 ATI video card has a x800 graphic processor in it and technically could’ve done VISTA with the proper Catalyst and driver updates which they barely did it at all.
Recommend checking on x800 at ati and found out equivalent software to see it it functions correctly..
December 17, 2007 at 12:53 am
hi guys i hve 3 edition from windows vista ultimate 32 bit the 1st released in 2006 and it install driver to my ati 9250 AGP card it’s 128 MB memory and all new games like half life2 episode 2 and most wanted need for speed and legand tomb rider and others works great without and crash in graphic and it’s the same for the copy that realesed in nov 2007 but the lite edition didn’t install any driver for this card i don’t know why ..
((((((may be i can save the driver from one of the two edition)))))))
with program like driver genius or get it from the windows source drivers that on the DVD so anyone want to help he’s welcome i have now 2 edition from vista ultimate working in my pc on different drives one of them is already installed the driver and the lite didn’t install it.
this’s my mail
motorharley79@yahoo.com
June 13, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I don’t know about you guys but I bought this card new off the shelf. Regardless of how “dated” it already was the BOX plainly said “good entry-level Vista card,” but yet there isn’t a compatible driver for vista. Yes the card works, but you can’t enjoy Vista on it and you can’t even use the card to it’s full capacity. The microsoft driver that is used for vista also has a problem. It gets stuck in a loop and continues to cycle and cycle until it crashes your computer. (Very Annoying.) I understand that this isn’t quite ATI’s fault, but they should be more careful what they advertise and I think if they had to upgrade everyone’s cards that purchased the 9250 to use with Vista, they wouldn’t be so careless next time. I knew I could do better than this card, but given my budget and the fact that I just wanted something better than onboard graphics and the “vista promise,” it didn’t seem like a bad purchase. Furthermore, if it was already obsolete then it shouldn’t have been on the shelf at a very well-known retailer.