I am looking for a video card that has a good value. I want it cheap, but it also has to perform gaming wise.

what games do you want to play?
most people here will tell you that a geforce4 ti4200 is about the best value on the market, but it is hard to find and struggles in directx 9 games
another is the 9600Pro which is a more powerful card with directx 9 support so it doesnt suffer so much in those games, and it is around $110 on newegg.com right now

of course your pentium3 system is going to hold you back somewhat no matter what you get
so a good fit for you would be a 9600Pro 128mb

but again what games do you play?
what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

also, check to make sure you have an agp slot in that dell of yours!!!

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

Mx440 is a good budget card, should be good enough for a P3 at least

P4 3.0ghz
eVGA 5900SE
OCZ 1gb CL2

AMD 64 3000+
ATi 9800 Pro
Samsung 1gb CL3

this is all a moot point until we know what games the OP is wanting to play...

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

First off, DO NOT get any MX series cards from nvidia, you will be sorry if you do. The 9600pro is a good card, nvidia's ti4200, 4400, 4600, are also good cheap cards that you can find, if you look around. But the best card i think you can get for cheap, It's a raity to find anymore or even when it was being marketed is the Ati Radeon 9500pro.

It's a rarity cause the 9600pro quickly replaced this card. The 9500pro had so many capabilites, and was so cheap at its time, that ATI realized it, and quickly pulled it off the shelfs, and came out with the 9600 serires as fast as they could.

The reason for this was, it was to fast for what ATI was selling it at. And now, it can be modded (things that i have read about) to 9600pro, 9600xt, 9700pro, and the 9800pro. So as you can see, this card can do wonders, if you can find it, this prob would be the best card for every dollar that you put into it. And even if you do not want too mod it, it runs really good just the way it is.

I am sadly to say that i gave my 9500pro away, and would not have, if i had found out that i tcould do all of this.

"First off, DO NOT get any MX series cards from nvidia, you will be sorry if you do."

agreed

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

"First off, DO NOT get any MX series cards from nvidia, you will be sorry if you do."

hmm, okay well i used to have a p3 733mhz wit a mx440. after i upgraded my video card to a fx5700 ultra i barely noticed any performance boosts at all. so it shouldnt really matter much if he got a 9600 pro or a mx440 unless hes planning to upgrade the cpu as well

remember now dis guy has a pentium 3 with only 256mb ram

Rig #1
Abit IS7
P4 2.8ghz
eVGA FX5900 SE
OCZ 1GB CL2

Rig #2
Asus K8N-E
AMD 64 3000+
ATi 9800 Pro
Samsung 1gb

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I said he would be limited by his P3,
still mx440s are to be avoided

I just wish he would post back giving more info.
cpu speed, games he wishes to play, and his budget

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

I dont know what you people are talking about, MX440's are great budget cards. My mate still has one in his comp and it has played every game that he's thrown at it, cept Doom3 which he hasnt tried.

And to buy such an expensive card just for a P3, 256mb computer is a waste of money.

--------------------
Asus P4P800S mb
P4 2.4Ghz (800Mhz)
1Gb DDR3200 Ram
Asus Geforce FX 5600 128mb

Games i play:

Need for speed
Madden
tiger woods
etc.

Thanks, sorry i didn't get back sooner.

I agree that the MX440 is a decent budget card, with the usual "beware 64-bit cards" warning...I believe there's an MX440SE that should be avoided.

As giggles said, check to see if you have an AGP slot or not...if you only have PCI to work with, that limits your choices considerably. And give us an idea of what kinda games you hope to play, & what your future plans are for your system...no sense in throwing too much money at it if you're not gonna keep it much longer. You may wanna consider increasing your RAM to 512mb though. BTW, what speed is your P3?

Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @8x210mhz
512mb PC3200
Ti4200/8X 128mb
WDC 60GB

well if you're just playing madden and tiger woods then you dont need to spend that much

my geforce 3 could run those games on high settings and it was $10 or $20 on ebay
i think it was $10 and it came with a 4gig harddrive for $5 and $10 shipping
you could get one for about $30 now or you could get a geforce4ti for about $50
of course you could always just wait for a rebate sale when you can get a brand new mx440 for $30-40

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

I'd definitely reccomend the Geforce4 Ti series. I've had mine for 2 years and it still runs all of the latest games on medium quality at respectable framerates. I've never had it turn it's nose up at a game yet.

There will come a time when it will NEED replacing for something newer, but not just yet. (I'm waiting patiently for 6800gt prices to drop)

My dad has a 9600xt 128mb and to be honest, comparing them in real-world gameplay, there isn't much in it at all, sure the 9600xt is a better card (slightly) but they also cost about four times more than a used Ti from ebay.

AMD Athlon XP2200+
Aero7 lite
512mb Crucial pc2700
Abit NF7-s V2.0
80GB Seagate SATA
120GB Seagate SATA
Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb
Benq FP767-12 17" 12ms
SB live 5.1 Digital

"My dad has a 9600xt 128mb and to be honest, comparing them in real-world gameplay, there isn't much in it at all, sure the 9600xt is a better card (slightly) but they also cost about four times more than a used Ti from ebay."

the 9600xt is a better card by far, my friend, and they only cost about $140 on newegg
a geforce 4 ti which struggles in dx9 games even with effects turned off goes for what $50?
and the 9600xt has dx9 support

that means more high dynamic range lighting effects, bump-mapped characters and enivironments, and soft-shadows

but that is all beside the point of this guy' video card, an mx 440 will do just fine for the games he plays

what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

A Ti4200 should be a good affordable match for a faster PIII but the questions remain:

What PIII? AGP or PCI?

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