Currently i'm using a 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR RAM (PCI) card in my system. I'm not a huge gamer, but i've become more and more interested in various games and thought about upgrading my card. I know after the GeForce2, there was a 3 and 4... but what was after that?

CompUSA has this card on sale for $40 after rebates... any comments?

Conquerer FX 5200plus Video Card, PCI, 128MB DDR

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=305452&pfp=BROWSE

I prefer the image quality of ATI cards. The nVidia 5200 is not highly regarded.

Shelly

Then perhaps that is why the card is so cheap. I'm a very tight budget... maybe i should just wait until I have some more money saved up. My system is 4 years old (PIII 866 MHz), but it's already getting old and i'm not willing to spend much more $$$$.

Hang on a bit longer. Prices will fall in a few months on far better cards than the FX 5200. I'll post more on the subject late tonight.

In general, a GeForce FX 5200 would be an okay choice. Shelley talked about prefering ATI cards, but nVidia cards are not too far behind in terms of image quality.

Besides... a GeForce FX would be an easier upgrade since you will not have to fight with compatibility issues. Just pop in the new card, download and install the latest drivers from nVidia and away you go.

Latest Drivers:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.77

This is a little more expensive, but MSI makes quality cards....

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-103&depa=0

Mark099!

ASUS also makes a good inexpensive video card using ATI's system.
Do a google search on ATI 9200 and you will come up with several choices like the 9200SE or LE, offered by several different companies. These are. by todays standards, probably obsolete, but if you want to stick to a card that is under one hundred dollars, I believe that ASUS is probably the best of this group.

ed

  

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=844003222631

Check out this thread at arstechnica. It might give you some suggestions.

It all depend on the Games that interest you. Any of todays new, graphic intensive games will not run properly on your system.

Guns don't kill people. Husbands who come home early kill people.

The monitor has a role in the image quality, however the choices are tied to games? What games? My son has a FX5200 with 64DDR and runs the latest Counterstrike very well, it slows a little on BF1942 at hi res hi color.

But the 128 version should do fine. I do like my ATI card better than the Geforce, but I paid dearly for this card.

Based off the specs of your system the card would do fine. As for falling prices, that is going to always be the case. I would find the cheapest supplier for your needs. Fry's has cards for your price range.

Under Construction

Thanks all for the suggestions. As you could tell, i'm not very knowledgeable about video cards in terms of which models are rated highly.

I want to clarify that I'm not having any problems or that my card is insufficient per se. In fact, I'm very satified w/ the image quality of my card. The only reason why i posted this was that I've always wondered just how much better my games would run if I had a bigger card (i.e. 128 MB vs. 32 MB).

I've started to collect a few games and the only game that stutters occasionally is Tron 2.0 - other than that, all my games run pretty smoothly including Mafia, Warcraft III, etc. I recently acquired Halo Combat Evolved and it recommended a pretty hefty video card and the deal at CompUSA caught my curiosity.

But as you suggested Allyn, i'll hold out a bit longer - i'm on a very tight budget anyways. If I've managed w/ my card for this long, I can hold out for another 2-3 months.

go with ATI
Garbru

New PC Spec Page

These charts should give you some comparisons between various video card families.


"VGA Charts IV: AGP Video Cards"
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html

"VGA Charts III"
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

"VGA Charts II: Mainstream Systems"
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html

Thanks for those links man... they look very informative... i'll read it thoroughly when I have more time today.