ATI Radeon 9200 LE

The ATI Radeon 9200 LE is a legacy entry-level graphics card built on the Rage 7 architecture and the RV280 chip, manufactured on a 150 nm process at UMC. With a benchmark percentile ranking of 50 against all GPUs and no recorded benchmark scores or nearest rivals in the database, the data positions this card as a strictly historical product whose performance cannot be quantified against contemporary or even immediately successive hardware. The card’s specifications, including a 64 MB DDR memory buffer and a 128-bit bus, define its capabilities for early-2000s DirectX 8.1 gaming, but the absence of any measurable score means all analysis is derived from its architectural limits rather than direct comparisons.

Benchmark Performance

The Radeon 9200 LE has no benchmark scores recorded in the database, resulting in an average benchmark score of zero and a percentile rank of 50. This percentile value is unusual because it represents the median position in the distribution of all GPUs, yet without any score data, it cannot be interpreted as a meaningful performance milestone. The lack of nearestRivals data means there are no deltaPct values, no rival names, and no comparative percentages to cite. In this vacuum, the only quantitative performance indicators are the fixed function rates: a pixel rate of 1.000 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1.000 GTexel/s. These identical numbers suggest that the card’s four texture mapping units and four render output units operate in lockstep, delivering one gigapixel and one gigatexel per second—figures that were modest even for the card’s 2003 release window. The card supports DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.4, which means it can execute shader model 1.1-style pixel and vertex shaders, but the absence of any benchmark data prevents any statement about how those features translate into frame rates. The data shows a product that was end-of-life at the time of its release, with the R300 series already designated as its successor, suggesting it occupied the low end of the product stack where performance was secondary to cost and compatibility.

Power and Cooling

The Radeon 9200 LE carries a thermal design power (TDP) of just 28 W, which makes it a remarkably low-power component by any historical standard. The suggested power supply unit is rated at 200 W, a figure that reflects the modest demands of an early-2000s AGP system rather than any high-current requirement from the card itself. The card requires a single Molex power connector, which was a standard peripheral power interface of the era, indicating that the AGP slot alone could not supply sufficient power for the card’s operation. Cooling is handled by a single-slot design, meaning the card occupies one expansion slot and relies on a passive or low-profile active cooler; the 28 W TDP is low enough that a robust heatsink without a fan would be plausible, though the connector and slot width do not explicitly confirm the cooling solution type. The data shows no length, height, or width dimensions, so physical clearance cannot be assessed, but the single-slot form factor and 28 W power draw imply a compact board that fits comfortably in standard ATX or even smaller chassis of the period. The 200 W PSU recommendation is a system-level guideline, not a card-specific draw, so users with larger power supplies would have no issue, but the Molex connector is a hard requirement that cannot be omitted.

Who Should Consider It

The Radeon 9200 LE is not suitable for any modern resolution or setting combination, given its 64 MB memory and 6.400 GB/s bandwidth. The data shows no benchmark scores, but the architectural limits—DirectX 8.1 API support, 1.000 GPixel/s fill rate, and 1.000 GTexel/s texture rate—define a hard ceiling for playable resolutions. For early-2000s titles designed around DirectX 8.1, a 64 MB buffer was sufficient for 800x600 or 1024x768 at low to medium detail, but the absence of any score data means this is an inference from the memory size and bus width, not a measured result. The card’s 128-bit memory bus provides 6.400 GB/s of bandwidth, which was adequate for the low-resolution textures of that generation, but it would choke on any higher-resolution texture sets or anti-aliasing. The 28 W TDP makes it an option for office or legacy systems where power delivery is constrained, but its end-of-life production status means it has no place in a modern build. Gamers seeking to play titles from 2003 or earlier at 800x600 with reduced effects might find the card functional, but for anything beyond that, the data shows a product that is strictly archival. The lack of any Vulkan support and OpenGL 1.4 cap further limits its utility to a narrow slice of software.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory size and type of the Radeon 9200 LE?

A: The card comes with 64 MB of DDR memory, which is a small buffer by modern standards but was typical for entry-level cards of its generation.

Q: Does the Radeon 9200 LE support DirectX 9?

A: No, the card supports DirectX 8.1, which is one API generation older, meaning it cannot execute shader model 2.0 or later effects.

Q: What is the maximum memory bandwidth of this card?

A: The memory bus is 128 bits wide, and the memory is rated at 200 MHz with 400 Mbps effective speed, yielding a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s.

Q: How many texture mapping units and render output units does it have?

A: The card features 4 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 4 render output units (ROPs), which produce a texture rate of 1.000 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 1.000 GPixel/s.

Q: What power supply is recommended for this card?

A: The suggested power supply is 200 W, and the card requires a single Molex power connector for operation.

Q: Is the Radeon 9200 LE still in production?

A: No, the production status is end-of-life, and its release date was in April 2003, making it a discontinued product.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon 9200 LE has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as these are modern compute accelerators that did not exist in the Rage 7 architecture. The card’s feature set is defined by its API support: DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.4. DirectX 8.1 introduced programmable pixel and vertex shaders (version 1.1), which allowed for basic per-pixel lighting and procedural effects, but the fixed-function pipeline remained the primary rendering path for most titles. The 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs are the only shading units listed; there are no unified shader counts, no FP32 or FP16 throughput figures, which means the card cannot handle any modern geometry or compute workloads. OpenGL 1.4 is similarly limited, lacking support for later extensions like GLSL or framebuffer objects. The absence of Vulkan support is expected, as that API was not introduced until over a decade later. The display outputs are 1x DVI, 1x VGA, and 1x S-Video, which allow for analog CRT monitors and early digital flat panels, but no HDMI or DisplayPort. The AGP 8x bus interface is the only connection method, so the card cannot be installed in any PCIe-based system. In summary, the feature set is firmly rooted in 2003, with no ray tracing, no tensor acceleration, and no modern API compatibility.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem consists of 64 MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit bus, running at 200 MHz with an effective data rate of 400 Mbps. This configuration yields a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s. The 64 MB capacity is the single most limiting factor for high resolutions, as even 1280x1024 with 32-bit color and moderate textures would exceed the buffer, forcing texture thrashing. The 128-bit bus width is relatively wide for the era, which helps mitigate the modest clock speed, but the effective 400 Mbps rate is low compared to later DDR2 and GDDR3 parts. For the card’s intended use at 800x600 or 1024x768, 64 MB is sufficient if textures are compressed or reduced, but any form of anisotropic filtering or high-detail texture packs would quickly exhaust the frame buffer. The 6.400 GB/s bandwidth is exactly aligned with the pixel and texture rates of 1.000 GPixel/s and 1.000 GTexel/s, assuming a 32-bit color depth and bilinear filtering, which indicates a balanced design where memory bandwidth does not bottleneck the pixel pipelines at low resolutions. However, at higher resolutions, the fixed pixel rate remains constant while the memory bandwidth requirement scales, so the card would become bandwidth-limited beyond 1024x768. The DDR memory type is single-data-rate, so the 400 Mbps effective rate is double the 200 MHz base clock, but this is still a narrow pipe by any later standard.

How It Compares

The Radeon 9200 LE has no nearest rivals listed in the database, which means there are no comparable GPUs with deltaPct values to analyze. The predecessor is the Radeon R100, which is a separate architecture, and the successor is the Radeon R300, which represents a major generational leap. Without rival data, the only comparative statements come from the product’s own lineage: the R100 was the original Radeon architecture, while the R300 introduced DirectX 9 support, making the 9200 LE an intermediate step that lacked the R300’s feature set. The card’s percentile rank of 50 is a database artifact, not a performance measurement, so it cannot be used to position the card against any named competitor. The absence of any benchmark scores for the 9200 LE, combined with the empty nearestRivals array, means the card cannot be placed on a performance spectrum. The data shows only the internal specifications, and any external comparison would require facts not present in the pack. The 28 W TDP is notably low, which might suggest a low-end positioning, but with no rival TDP values to compare, this remains an isolated figure. The card’s release date of April 2003 puts it after the R300’s debut, yet it is designated as a predecessor to the R300, indicating a confusing product stack where the 9200 LE was likely a budget rehash of older technology rather than a competitive part.