But it all depends what youre gonna use it for.

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- Saki [faqs]

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- Saki [faqs]

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i disagree with a 560 hex t, most of them are crap with cut pipes and a 64-bit out. also avoid the "-SE" 9800/9600/9200 ati models. the geoforce ti is probably the easiest to find, and i frankly wouldn't spend more money-- until you get to the 256-bit cards like the 9800/9700 or the 590 hex t from nvidia with double the memory bandwith. the 256-bit cards starting at the 9700/590 hex t are legitamately faster at 2x the cost, but you won't get a real increase in speed, so you're basically as well of with the ti4200 as a $160-dollar 960 hex t since they both are limited at 128-bits. (make sure you carefully read the specs, 128mb cards are cut at 64-bits often)

while not as fragile as ram or a HD, video cards are doa/problematic enough that i'd avoid ebay unless the shipping/rma policy is laid out and they have a great rating.

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I find that the nVidia drivers have been the most consistent over time.
My main computer has an ATI 8500 All-in-wonder DV, Its good, it has DVI. and I can watch TV on my computer. The drivers have pissed me off sometimes.

I think since you aren't playing any hardcore games anything would be nice... Don't let these young punks tease you in buying anymore more than you need.

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ati's drivers have matured signifigantly--proof of which is the general superiority their last generation of cards enjoyed over nvidia's offerings at every level.

the ti4200 is within his price range and i think it's his best bet, but he shouldn't consider anything else from nvidia's current lineup.

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~ GaySatyr

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The FX5200 can be easily overclocked, with either a coolbits registry tweak, or a program like RivaTuner. The R9200 most likely requires a bios hack, which I still have not seen and probably will not see in the future, since there is not much of a demand for it. The FX5200 supports DX9 (but probably isn't really fast enough to run a true, DX9 game, which we have still yet to see), while the R9200 only supports DX8.1. The FX5200 (new core, but crippled) supports vertex and pixel shader versions 2.0+ like its elders, the 5600 and 5900, while the R9200 (old core, but upgraded, but not much) only supports vertex shader 1.1 and pixel shader 1.4. Since both cards cost about the same, once again, the FX5200 is the better video card, from a value perspective.

So does the R9200 ever win? Sure, I think it has better 4X AA quality, but even that is debatable as we all have different preferences. In any case, 4X AA is a joke with these cards, and renders any further AA discussion pointless. I guess if you're a fan of ATI and looking for a cheap video accelerator, the 9200 will certainly give you its money's worth, but for certain, the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 is the final winner. Remember though, these are bottom of the barrel graphics cards, so even though the FX5200 is better than the R9200, it's still not all that impressive. But for around $60, who's complaining? (Besides me?)

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Start of the FAQ
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Value Cards (upto $100)
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Recommended Cards

Best buy: GeForce4 Ti4200 (64 MB/128 MB-8x) version

Other good cards in this price category: Radeon 8500LE/Radeon 9100, Radeon 9000 PRO, Radeon 9200

GeForce4 Ti4200

Pros- Fastest out of all those cards, cheap
Cons- No DX9 support, AA/AF can hurt performance
Comments: There are three types of Ti4200
Ti4200 64mb 4x/8x- cheapest, second fastest(clocked higher), better quality ram
Ti4200 128mb- slowest out of the three, said to have cheap ram to reduce cost(clocked lower)
Ti4200-8x 128mb- 8X AGP, slightly faster than Ti4200 64 MB, uses good ram

Radeon 8500/8500LE/9100

Pros- Cheap, full DX8.1 support, good image quality
Cons- No DX9 support, not so fast, 8500/8500LE are discontinued product

Radeon 9000 Pro/9200/9000

Pros- Cheap, full DX8.1 support, good image quality
Cons- No DX9 support, not so fast

Cards to Avoid

GeForce FX5200 (non-Ultra)

Pros- DX9 support, cheap
Cons- Very slow, buy this card if you want to play DX9 games at slideshow speed, most of the 64 MB versions come with 64 bit memory which can make it as bad as GeForce4 MX420

GeForce FX5200 (Ultra)

Pros- DX9 support
Cons- Lot slower than Ti4200, not powerful enough for DX9 games

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Any other ideas?

- Saki [faqs]

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- Saki [faqs]

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Unless I'm missing something, a search on newegg for ti4200 only comes back with one non-OEM, non-refub card under $100 (and that one doesn't have DVI). The one that does is $137.50.

The chipset dropdown in the video card section doesn't offer the geforce4ti chipset, only the lower end MX line.

- Saki [faqs]

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~ GaySatyr

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p.s. personally I have a computer right now that has an agp geoforce3 and a geoforcefx 5200 pci card in it at the same time and even though the old geoforce might be a little faster I still use the newer card since it supports dx9 and has better visual quality.

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- Saki [faqs]

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