I am running an overclocked ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP 8x card at

425 core/212 ddr memory on Omega Drivers Catalyst 5.6. Since my card isn't exactly good for newer games, even OC'ed, I need all the performance I can get. What

would be higher-performing, OC'ing using unlocked/modded drivers like Omega,

or flashing the card's BIOS (I'm thinking 9550 to 9600 Pro) and then using the new

unlocked BIOS to OC?

it depends if new features are unlocked or if it is just oc'd faster in which case your limit is how far you went to upgrade cooling. some flashing like 9800lt to 9800xt will give a big boost because of the extra pipelines that are opened. look into what the hardmod will do to see if it is worth flashing.

Edited July 21, 200521 yr by LiquidSage

I dont plan to do any hardmodding, just softmodding.

there are no additional pipes to unlock on the 9550 so a speed oc is all you can do. if you want to use ati's drivers, you are going to need to circumvent the 9550 overclocking protection by flashing the bios to a 9600. Otherwise use can use modded ati drivers or a utility like ATITool to OC it. Either way, you will need to monitor the temps, and getting a better cooling solution like ATI Silencer would be advisable. Even slapping some Artic Silver on the heatsink and putting some mosfet heatsinks on the ram chips would go a long way to improving the card's health in the long run.

Edited July 22, 200521 yr by LiquidSage