best bets for low budget?

[mrzed]

My system
Cel 566@850
128Mb pc133 generic
Matrox G200 (I know, but at the time, 2D quality was all I needed)

And now I want to be able to at least toy around with semi-current 3d games, So I plan on upgrading, but I'm not a games freak, here are my options:

Cheap: TNT2 ultra at about $95 (Canadian)
Moderate: Voodoo3 3000 about $125
Expensive (for me): GeforceMX 32Mb about $160

I'm not looking for 100fps at 1280x1024 32bit in Q3 necessarily, but it obviously makes little sense to spend on something that is not even giong to give me a year. Just wondering:

Will I get much better results at all with a voodoo3?
Would the MX be that huge a jump from the others that it would be ridiculous not to get it?

Opinions please

 

[novice]

I have never played with a Matrox G200, but I have read that they are fine 2D performers but they really don't offer anything in the way of 3D acceleration. I can personally vouch for the speed of the Voodoo 3 card, which I think you should be able to find for under $100 canadian, used. I upgraded my Voodoo 3 3000 to a geforce 2 MX and have not been sorry. The MX is just about as fast as the Voodoo 3, but offers the 32 bit color option and 1024x768 resolution at comparable frame rates. It just offers a much prettier appearance and comparable speed. I suppose even the TNT 2 Ultra would be a step up from the Matrox, but I figure if you are going to upgrade, you might as well step up to the current performance budget card, the Geforce 2 MX. I really don't think the TNT 2 Ultra would keep you satisfied for that long, and I believe the Voodoo 3 would outperform it, at least in Glide games like Unreal Tournament. The MX offers you the best performance and most current T&L solutions, so I suggest going that route. Unless you find a super deal on a voodoo 3 3000, and then plan on upgrading again (probably within a year) to a Geforce 2 GTS or higher. On the other hand, the MX may be good enough to last a couple of years. Hopefully by then, the prices will have fallen enough to make the GF 2 Ultra affordable enough for the likes of "us"!
Good Luck, chuck

 

[Sunner]

The MX would certainly be alot faster than the others, as well as having a very good feature set and very good drivers for all OS's out there(åretty much at least).
The MX would be my choice, unless you're really strapped for cash.

Are you sure you've looked around good enough for that V3, cause at least in my experience, V3-3K's should be cheaper than TNT2-Ultra's?
Anyway, with the prices you gave, my second choice would be Ultra, it will be a bit faster than the V3, and give you 32 bit color.

Had the V3 been cheaper than the Ultra I could probabaly reconsidder.

 

[Mem]

I think the Geforce2 MX would be my choice,look around they are getting cheaper as well as good driver support.

 

[Taz4158]

If you can stretch a bit you can get a 64 meg Radeon ES here in Toronto for $189. Let me know if you're interested.