Question : Problem: Need help deciding between Ati 9600 all-in-wonder 256mb vs FX 5500 256mb in old system.  I no longer need the tuner support.

Xperts,
Faced with a easy question here.  Bare with my long explanation.

I currently have an Ati All-in-Wonder 9600 card on an a old but excellent Asus A7V8X-X Kt400 chipset and Athlon XP (barton) 3000+ attached to two monitors.  I have never had any major glitches, with the exception of Ati's drivers sometimes giving me headaches.

Anyway, I am attempting to extend the life of this machine and get the best frame rates possible.  At one time I used the tuner and PVR features of the Ati All-in-Wonder but I do not use these anymore.  I had a PixelView GeForce 5600 that gave me all kinds of problems.  However, I recently picked up an EVGA e-GeForce FX 5500 256mb and wondered if I should pull the old Ati and install this FX 5500.

I wonder if having all the tuner and extras installed and attached to the Ati slows the computer down at all.  I don't do a lot of gaming but I am attempting to squeeze the best life and stability out of this faithful machine.  The only issue I have with Ati is that the Catalyst drivers never seem to force the AGP write and Read correctly, even after changing the right settings in the bios.

Ok.  So can you give me some good feedback?  Ati All-in-wonder 9600 vs. FX 5600.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long diatribe!

Answer : Problem: Need help deciding between Ati 9600 all-in-wonder 256mb vs FX 5500 256mb in old system.  I no longer need the tuner support.

The 9600 is the better card ... I'd just leave it installed.   You may want to install older versions of the Catalyst drivers => some of the newer versions don't do as well with the older cards.

As for the unused tuner --> it causes NO load on the system as long as you're not using it.   You don't even have to install the drivers for it.