Hey Guys, I need some advice on Video/Graphics Cards... Right now I have a GeForce4 MX 440 (64DDR) - and I would like to improve that. However, I don't have a lot of $$ to spend, so my questions are: 1) What's the best card out right now for between $100 - $150 (pref. Nvidia) ?? 2) Will the answer to #1 be better than my current GeForce 4 MX 440 ?? 3) Also - An 8X AGP card will still work in a 4X AGP slot right? (Only at the slower 4X speed?) Thanks for the Info !!! -Brian Specs: 1.7ghz AMD Athlon XP 768 SDRam 60 gig 5400 RPM HDD 120 gig 7200 RPM HDD GeForce 4 MX 440 (64DDR) MEMOREX CD Burner MEMOREX DVD-DL Burner XP Home Board has 4X AGP and 3 PCI Slots

I'd reccommend something in the GeForceFX line, somewhere in the 5xxx range (5200-5950). Just make sure it's got at least 128MB of memory. You said you wanna stick with nvidia, which is cool, but i feel like ATI has a bit more options for mid-range cards like you're looking for. If you decided to go with ATI, look for something in the 9xxx range (9200-9800), but still make sure it's 128mb.

1) I ran a MSI FX5900XT-VTD128 on my Asus A7V133 with an Athlon TBird 1,2@1,33GHz and 512MB SD Ram. It really worked very well with the automatic overlocking funktion MSI offered but I'm sure it would have done too without those few extra percents of performance. The MSI with Viceo-in and all the additional retail stuff maybe a bit too costly but there are other FX5900XT card who should work well. An alternative would be a Radeon 9800pro. Those two are different in certain tests but if you take the results of a couple benchmarks they have about the same speed. As the FX5900XT is the clocked down but otherwise full functional version of a FX5900 (a different build of the XT card and slower build in ram normally keep you from OCing the XT to FX5900 speed) so if you get a normal FX5900 for 150$ that's even better! Before stumbling on the FX5900XT I thought about a Radeon 9600XT or a FX5700 (Ultra I think - been a year since then). If you can get a 6600 card that would be even faster! 2) The FX5900XT will be a lot faster than your MX440! 3) Yes, AGP 8x will work on a AGP 4x board. The only difference is the slower access from the card to the ram on your mainboard and I doubt you will even feel the difference with one of the above cards! BTW: My old Athlon barely made the cpu requirements for Knights of the Old Republic but with the FX5900XT I could still play it smoothly with 4x Antialiasing and 8x Ansiotrope filtering! And Doom3 I shortly tested. At least it ran at lower grapgic settings but I had no time for a real test as it was only borrowed for a few hours - was just curious if it ran!

I second that, I own the MSI GeForce FX5900XT and am using it now. I've had no problems. :)

I have a spare Verto FX5900XT 128. I was going to stick it on ebay when I got the time. It's boxed and as good as new and NEVER OC'd. The only reason I upgraded is because I'm desining flight engeneering drawings for civ aviation simulation projects and the software I use needs a card with more punch than that just for gaming. GaryM Chaintech 9PJL Appogee 800FSB P4 2.8 HT Sparkle Platinum 6800GT 256MB 4*256 KINGSTONE PC3200 dual 40 gig IDE 120 Gig sata DC10+ Video card

ATI XT cards = high performance. 9600XT is better than 9600. nVidia XT cards = low performance. FX5900 is better than FX5900XT. Asus A7N8X-X 2500+ Sempron @ 2100mhz 10.5 x 200mhz @ 1.80v 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

Well, Brian prefers NVIDIA, and I really don't blame him. Not that I have anything against ATI, but my personal preference just happens to be NVIDIA. So if you want an NVIDIA card that will be decent for gaming and anything else really, the GeForce FX5900XT will probably do you just fine. I'd recommend the MSI card, simply because I feel they make very good video cards. :) It's going to be a bit more than you're probably willing to spend, about $200. But you should keep in mind, that when it comes to computer components you get what you pay for - even more so with video cards. I learned this the hard way. Look at the prices of video cards, they're all over the board! I purchased a $50-$70 GeForce FX5200 for my new computer, and the only component I had trouble with was - you guessed it - the video card. It wasn't until a few months later - but it basically became (or perhaps always was, just never happened up until that time) pressure sensitive. A tap on the case and all of a sudden there was no more video. Heh. So I had about $200 to play around with, and I was going to get a cheaper card - but what would be the reason? To just find myself buying another one in a short while? You get what you pay for. So I purchased the MSI NVIDIA GeForce FX5900XT, spent all of my money, and haven't regretted it. It's an excellent video card and it gave me no problems - what more could I have asked for? :) - Steven