Hopefully it's okay for me to start a new thread for this. :whistling: I apologize if I should have left this in my other thread. I'm hoping also that all of this information will be helpful and not bothersome or annoying to any of you. I just want to make sure you have all of the information so you can help me as best you can. I have found a number of video cards to choose from and have kind of honed down the list based on price and memory. In case it's necessary, it looks like this is the mobo it will be going in:

[URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-029&depa=1]ChainTech NForce2 Ultra 400 8X AGP[/URL]

I'll be adding [b](if it matters - I honestly don't know if it will have any effect on video performance)[/b] two PC3200 256MB Kingston sticks in dual channel mode. I'll also be using an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton).

I'm looking at the following video cards:

$105 (256MB/400MHz 8x Radeon 9600 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-320&depa=1]Sapphire Radeon 9600[/URL]
$94 (256MB/400MHz 8x GeForce FX5500 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-076&depa=1]ChainTech GeForce FX5500[/URL]
$84 (256MB/400MHz 8x GeForce FX5200 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-054&depa=1]ChainTech GeForce FX5200[/URL]
$73 (256MB/400MHz 8x Radeon 9200 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-332&depa=1]Sapphire Radeon 9200[/URL]

$96 (128MB/400MHz 8x Radeon 9600 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-305&depa=1]Sapphire Radeon 9600[/URL]
$94 (128MB/??? 8x GeForceFX5600 64-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-170-039&depa=1]Albatron GeForce FX5600[/URL]
$91 (128MB/400MHz 8x GeForceFX5600XT 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-150-062&depa=1]XFX GeForce FX5600XT[/URL]
$66 (128MB/400MHz 8x Radeon 9200 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-314&depa=1]Sapphire Radeon 9200[/URL]
$59 (128MB/333MHz 8x GeForce4 MX440-8X 128-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-140-021&depa=1]Apollo GeForce4 MX440-8X[/URL]
$48 (128MB/400MHz 8x GeForce MX4000 64-bit) [URL=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-125-125&depa=1]Gigabyte GeForce MX4000[/URL]

You should notice that in each of the two memory categories (128 and 256) there are no duplicates in model or chipset or whichever it is (more than one 9200, 9600, etc.). I found all of these at newegg.com, which at present is where I'll buy my new mobo, cpu, memory and video card. The reason for the price range (from $48 up to $104) is because I was looking at the cheapest card I could "deal with" and than went up from there to as much as I want to spend. I was comparing specs for these cards using the info at this web site that someone at one of the forums pointed me to (sorry I don't remember who so you can be acknowledged :( ):

[URL=http://users.erols.com/chare/video.htm]3d Chipset Specs[/URL]

It looks to me like the best one out of the bunch is the GeForceFX 5600, going by that web sites info. [b]I don't know if taking into account my mobo/cpu/memory setup would change that or not.[/b] Just going by what that site says it looks like the best buy out of them all.

Do any of you have any experience with any of these, chipsets and/or manufacturer's, to dissuade me from one or the other, or to persuade me to one or the other? [b]I don't know if it matters if I have 128MB or 256MB of memory since I don't use my PC for truly video intensive things. [/b] Going by that web site above it looks to me like the 5600 is the best one. Am I wrong? If you don't know, I don't play a lot of graphics intense games (mostly Jedi Knight 2), I do no video editing and don't plan to, and generally just use my PC for a little 3D gaming here and there (usually on games that are at least one or two years old), surfing the web and occasional clerical type use (Word, Excel, etc.). Thanks so much for your help.

9600 pro best for perf + price

Question for all - Regarding video cards, which is more important? Memory or core/pipes/process/memory/bw? I'm guessing that the combination of those last items versus memory is more important. I got those from that 3d chips performance web site.

Also, looking at that link on 3d chip performance there is a core column for chip. Some cores are 200 MHz, some 250 MHz, some 325 MHz. How does that play with the FSB and memory or does it play at all in those things? Is it totally independent of the FSB and memory setup, I guess is my question.

I forgot to ask about the 64-bit vs 128-bit video card. How essential is that?

For instance, that GeForce FX5600 has 325 core/4 pipes/1 tmu-pipes/75 million process/275 MHz-64 bit memory/8.8 Gb per second bw. Notice it's a 64-bit card.

How big a difference does that make versus a 128 bit card that has the same core, same pipes, higher process, slower memory but higher bit (128) and slower Gb per second bw?