Budget video card choice?

[Tom Mislewski]

I'm looking for a cheap video card for a friend's machine. She has
approx. $60 to spend. She's not a gamer but wants something better than
the integrated graphics built imto the motherboard (BioStar U8668D).
I've seen cards based on the MX4000 (XFX MX4000 with 128 meg of ram),
FX5200 (Gigabyte GeForce FX5200 with 128 meg of ram) and the Radeon 9550
SE (MSI Radeon 9550 SE). Which would be the best card and/or chip to
get? One of the things she wants to do is run graphics apps like
Microsoft Digital Image Suite in high resolution. She'd also like to
watch the occasional DVD on the computer without the jerkiness the
integrated video produces.

 

[Conor]

I'm looking for a cheap video card for a friend's machine. She has
approx. $60 to spend. She's not a gamer but wants something better than
the integrated graphics built imto the motherboard (BioStar U8668D).
I've seen cards based on the MX4000 (XFX MX4000 with 128 meg of ram),
FX5200 (Gigabyte GeForce FX5200 with 128 meg of ram) and the Radeon 9550
SE (MSI Radeon 9550 SE). Which would be the best card and/or chip to
get? One of the things she wants to do is run graphics apps like
Microsoft Digital Image Suite in high resolution. She'd also like to
watch the occasional DVD on the computer without the jerkiness the
integrated video produces.

Non of them is really going to help. Have a look on E-Bay for a Matrox
Millennium G450 or G550 which have arguably the best 2D image quality
fastest 2D performance.

 

[kony]

Non of them is really going to help. Have a look on E-Bay for a Matrox
Millennium G450 or G550 which have arguably the best 2D image quality
fastest 2D performance.

They do have good 2D quality but performance-wise they're no
better than any modern low-end card from nVidia or ATI.

 

[sbb78247]

They do have good 2D quality but performance-wise they're no
better than any modern low-end card from nVidia or ATI.

I agree with this poast. With the new card you get a warranty, so if there
is a problem, then his lady friend would have some avenue to get it fixed!
Nothing worse than a pissed off woman.

 

[Tom Mislewski]

Thanks to Kony, Conor, and sbb78247 for all their help.