I'm looking for a cheap 128mb video card. I've seen the nVidia FX5200 or ATI Radeon 9200. This card will not be used for games, just some 3D modeling/C++ programming. I'm just playing around with the programs, seeing what they're capable of. So any pros/cons on what might be the better card for the money would be helpful. I currently have onboard graphics with 256mb of memory set to video. I'm presently building a gaming computer with the nVidia 6800 Ultra, so I need a card that's "good enough" Thanks alot.

Have a look at the Radeon 9550 128mb/128-bit card...you should be able to find one for well under $100 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=0 http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=649

I bought an FX5200 128 for work. I do Autocad and some 3D drawings that I was doing were bogging down with my old card, (something with 32MB), and I knew I couldn't squeeze a lot of money out of the budget for a REALLY good card. Some other people suggested the FX5200 as a low budget solution so I bought it. It is not incredible but gets the job done. The 3D drawing work goes a fair bit faster with this card. I can't say it's incredible, but for the $75 U.S. or so that I paid for it, I can't complain.

The Radeon 9550 is about the same price as the FX5200, it's a 128-bit card (most 5200s are 64-bit), it fully supports DirectX 9, & it kicks the FX5200's a$$ in all benchtests.