I'm looking to upgrade the 8mb ATI Rage IIC video card on my PIII 450 and am currently looking into two cards: --XFX GeForce FX 5200 / 128MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / TV Out ($50 US or $55 Canadian) Specs @: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=674963&Tab=2&NoMapp=0 or --PNY GeForce4 MX 440 / 64MB / AGP 8X / VGA / TV Out / White Box Video Card ($20 US or $39 Canadian) Specs @: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1057516&Tab=2&NoMapp=0 I would like to know which one represents a better value, and which would be more appropriate for my system. (Is 128mb overkill, or just really good?) Also, are there any known problem issues with these cards? (instability, etc.)

5200 everytime. The MX series GF4 is garbage.

5200 everytime? lol the 5200 is just as bad as the mx series, now for a P450 the MX is fine, dont bother going for a 5200 with 128mb for that system its just not worth it Q-TEC 550 Watt PSU MSI VIA KT4AV-L 2800+ Barton 512 DDR333 GeForce4 Ti 4200 128Mb Aero 7 Lite 80Gb Samsung ATA133 HDD 120Gb WD ATA100 HDD LiteOn LDW-851S LiteOn LTR-52246S

I found that the requirement for both the 5200 and the MX 440 is an "AGP 2.0 or later AGP slot." That means an AGP 2x slot, correct? However, the MX 440 also requires a 1Ghz CPU, which I don't have. (I guess that's the end of that?) xfxforce.com does not mention the required CPU speed for the 5200. (It just says "Pentium III/4/Celeron or AMD Athlon/Duron" but recommends "Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP.") Also what do you think of the: --XFX GeForce MX 4000 / 64MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / TV Out ($49 Canadian) and --Connect3D Radeon 7000 / 64MB DDR / AGP 4X/ VGA / RCA / TV Out ($50 Canadian)

OK listen, if you want a card that will run at its full potential on your system then get the mx440 forget reviews saying 1ghz needed aslong as your have a minimum of an agp 2x slot it should work, personally i would google your motheboard and look for people and what cards they have managed to get to work with it. now both those cards are what is known as 'low end', what exactly do you want your system to run? im running an mx440se 64mb on a pentium 650 oc'd to 728mhz and its running fine, anything higher than that card on that system would be a waste of money and being that the mx440 is the cheapest card you have put forward i would recommend that as being the best one, if you want my advice save up for a new system that or atleast get another stick of 128 Q-TEC 550 Watt PSU MSI VIA KT4AV-L 2800+ Barton 512 DDR333 GeForce4 Ti 4200 128Mb Aero 7 Lite 80Gb Samsung ATA133 HDD 120Gb WD ATA100 HDD LiteOn LDW-851S LiteOn LTR-52246S

Your reasoning makes sense; I think I will go for the MX 440. As for the RAM upgrade, I've been intending to get another 256mb for some time now. Googling for the motherboard sounds good, except that I havn't really been able to identify mine. (I have a clone) Anyhow, thanks so much for all the help.