I bought my son some computer games and realized we need a better graphics card. I have been looking at a few of them, but I really don't know the difference between them. I don't know if my son would be considered a serious gamer or not. He wants to play games like Dawn of War and Halo. Some of the cards I was considering was GE Force MX 4000, GE Force FX5200, GE Force FX 5500, Radeon 9250, Radeon X700. Also, is it better to get one through the AGP or PCI slot. My motherboard has both available. The AGP slot says it supports 4x/8x 1.5V

"Some of the cards I was considering was GE Force MX 4000, GE Force FX5200, GE Force FX 5500, Radeon 9250, Radeon X700" Of the ones you listed: GeForce MX 4000 - NO GeForce FX5200 - NO GeForce FX 5500 -NO Radeon 9250 -NO Radeon X700 - YES Definitely go with AGP. If you list more detail about the system specs & how much you're willing to spend, someone might come up with even more possibilities This space for rent

What are the reasons that the others are "no" A friend of mine that works on computers said I should go with the FX 5500. I really don't know much detail about the system specs. You would have to tell me exactly what things you need to know and possibly where I would have to go to find that information. I am definitely not a computer whiz. I really can't afford alot, that is why I was looking at that list. I was hoping to keep it between 50-80 if possible. The only reason why I had the X700 on there is because I found a place offering a rebate which brought the price down.

The FX5500 isn't a very good card & never was. The X700 would blow it away. If you're from the US, I suggest buying online from newegg.com (or zipzoomfly, or chiefvalue). It would help to know your CPU type & speed, plus how much RAM you have, but based on your price range, here's my suggestions, from good to best: Radeon 9550 128MB/128-bit for $47 after rebate. This card beats the FX5500: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814166004 Radeon 9600 256MB/128-bit for $62 after rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102320 Radeon 9600Pro 128MB/128-bit for $71: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102409 Radeon 9600XT 128MB/128-bit for $88: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012 Here's one benchtest comparison to look at...it may help with your decision. I chose AquaMark 3 because that's what I test with but there are several others. Most hardware sites don't bother to include the FX5500 in their testing, but it falls somewhere between the FX5200 & FX5600: http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/10/04/vga_charts_iv/page6.html This space for rent

Ok, I tried to look up the information you wanted and this is what I came up with. Hopefully something here is what you needed. AMD 1832 Mhz AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Physical Memory: 512MB Available: 147MB Virtual Memory: 2GB Available: 1.96 I did look over your suggestions and those are definitely prices that I can live with. I would just have to get them from newegg. My only concern with buying them online instead of in store is what if I can't get it to work. This is what happened last time we tried to install a different video card. We could not get the motherboard video card disabled, so it would never recognize the new one. Since then, I think I have found how to disable the motherboard one, but I am not sure if it is right or not. If I have to return it because the card won't work, it would be a pain!