Urgent:Help me choose a video card

[varois83]

Hi

I say urgent because a local store is having a clearance sale and I
would like to buy within the next day or so. I am not a hard core gamer
and am clueless about video cards.
I currently own a Dell dimension 8300 P4 256MB. It has a 32MB NVIDIA
Geforce2 MX 4X AGP card in it (I know only because I have it written
down on my sales receipt.)

Here is what the store has on sale

Geforce fx 5500 256 MB 3d fuzion ($50)
Radeon 9250 256 MB Norwood ($40)
Radeon 9550 256 MB ($50)

Which one above would you recommend?

Seeing my Geforce2 above it looks like I need AGP and not PCI (Can
anyone confirm this? as there is no return on cards purchased.)

Thanks a lot

Patrick

 

[Tom Scales]

You need AGP, not PCI or PCIe. The 9250 isn't Vista supported, I don't
believe. The 9550 and 5500 are.

Those prices are OK, but not great. Newegg has a good 9550 for under $43,
including shipping.

I'd spend just a few more dollars and get an nVidia 6600 (under $85) or even
a 6200 (under $50).

Tom

 

[Barry Watzman]

Honestly, none of the above.

First, because your next system (which probably isn't that far off) will
use a PCI Express video card (which is what I meant when you said PCI,
but PCI and PCI Express are different). AGP is dead for both new video
cards and new motherboards. Which is, in fact, why the store is having
a "clearance sale" to begin with.

Second, because even as an AGP card, those are all kind of pathetic
(although I'd probably go with the FX 5500 of the three). AGP or PCI
Express not withstanding, I would not go with any ATI based card below a
9600 (a FULL 9600, or one of the high end models, but not one of the
stripped down SE models (e.g. not the 9600SE)).

The problem is that for about $100 you can get a really decent PCI
Express card like the MSI RX1300 (based on the ATI X1300 chip), and $50
is, in my view, too much to pay for an obsolete card that, even ignoring
the bus, isn't powerful enough to begin with.

 

[varois83]

Tom & Barry

Thanks so much for the speedy answers. I browsed the web last night and
your posts confirm what I learned. These are not the cards I need.
I will spend a little more ($80-$100) and get a better card which will
last me longer and play more graphic intense games.
If anyone has more recommendation in my price range feel free to post.

Thanks a lot

Patrick