Unboxing a GeForce FX 5500 in 2019

A recent trip to my local recycler yielded an intriguing discovery - a shrink-wrapped eVGA GeForce FX 5500 AGP graphics card straight out of 2004. I paid the $10 they were asking for it and, against my better judgement, recorded a cliche YouTube unboxing video to memorialize what is otherwise a rather unmemorable piece of technology. For reasons that'll become clear in the video I wasn't able to immediately benchmark the card, but I plan to do so shortly for some content explaining the legacy and stigma associated with the NV3X / FX series GPUs.

The FX 5500 was essentially a rehash of the 5200 but with a vague promise that you'd actually get a 128-bit memory bus and potentially slightly higher clocks. Like all cards in the FX series, its performance in DirectX 9 Shader Model 2.0 games is poor compared to contemporary offerings from ATI, but it performs admirably under DirectX 8 and is a decent choice for a Windows 98-era retro build given its ubiquity, low cost and excellent DOS performance and compatibility. Stay tuned for a lengthier reflection on the 2003 consumer 3D graphics scene soon.