Best entry-level video card?

[beer]

I'm building my mother a new machine for her birthday (upgrading from her P133) and I need to get her a new video card.

She does NO 3d gaming at all. I want to spend at most $50 or so. 2D is important, What do you think?

 

[wyvrn]

Matrox G200 then if no heavy 3d. Otherwise, a nice TNT2 M64 card would be nice. Both can be had in the FS/T forum under 50 bucks.

 

[AMB]

Defintly Matrox for 2D, either a G400 or G200.

 

[Electric Amish]

Depending on price, G200 or G400.

I got my mother a G200 and it works wonderfully for her.

amish

 

[Tonec]

voodoo3 2000, 3dfx drivers are more problem free and have better compatibility.

 

[Wingznut]

If you haven't purchased the motherboard yet, just find a good one with onboard video and sound.

For Intel, check out an i815e board. Like the Asus CUSL-2 or MSI 815ePRO. The MSI is a bit cheaper.
For AMD, I'm not sure what's out there.

 

[oldfart]

Wingnut's idea is a good one. Save the money and get an integrated setup. The MSI has video and sound for under $100.

 

[beer]

I'm going the AMD route though.

 

[MGMorden]

I don't know about the onboard video for the Intel chipsets. I've seen two Intel based video "cards" (one i740 AGP and another 810 mb w/ onboard video) and both of them had 2d that was noticeably more blurry than any of my other cards (TnT2, 3dfx Banshee, and Trident 3dImage 985). An AMD integrated board might be better (since no Intel video chipset), though I have no experience with the newer ones. (I did see an old Super 7 Via MVP4 based board that was alright back then though).

 

[beer]

So of standalone cards, the G200 is the best offering for $<50?

 

[Daniel]

I'll back matrox on this one, fantastic 2d.

 

[Huma]

matrox is great, but is she going to have an awesome monitor too?

If not, I'd grab a v3 2k. Solid drivers, great performance in 2d, and can game too if she ever wants to. =)

 

[Biggs]

If you're in a tight budget, ever considered integrated graphics chipset(i.e. i810/i810e and i815/i815e)? Cheers!

 

[beer]

The monitor is a Viewsonic P55 series. It's only 15&quot; but it runs 1024x768 with no bluriness at all...

I think I'll get the matrox, just because a V3 2k is more than $50...I gotta keep this system under $500 which isn't too bad, considering that doesnt include CDROM (Just got her a new one last summer) and keyboard/mouse/NICs/monitor/printer/sofware.

 

[BearX00]

someone mentioned at tnt2m64,
what about a tnt? i havent looked i a while but i bet they are really cheap. mine is 2 years old and works fine for everything.. but 3d gaming obviously. and back then i only paid 110 for it. so i imagine they are really cheap.. just a thought

 

[beer]

How is the 2D on the M64s?

I hope it is better than the 2d on some of the newest geforces....

 

[Sunner]

G200 no doubt IMO.
Cheap, good 2D, no bad points at all as long as you dont wanna play games.

The i810 has pretty bad 2D, used to have one at work, until I got a V3-2K PCI and installed

 

[Gunbuster]

Yup a G series Matrox or 815 onboard for cheep good video

 

[Ornery]

If keeping the cost down was so important, how did you come to the decision to go with AMD? Anand threw a nice cheap system together for the budget conscious November 25th, 2000

Sometimes, I think AMD zealots will cut off their nose to spite their face, or mother's face in this case!

Edit: Oops, that was Mike Andrawes, not Anand. Anand probably gives a rat's ass about budget crap anymore!

 

[beer]

Ornery -

You have a valid point. My concerns is that the i810 video will be unacceptable. Of course she is only on a 15 inch monitor but thanks for the link. I don't care what I get as long as it works. My main machine is a 900 Slot A Tbird on a K7 Pro; my secondary (server) machine is a Celeron 466. I am impartial to the brands as long as it gets the job done, and stable.

The integrated sound is not a big deal given she has only passive speakers anyways. But thanks for the link, I will look into it. But I have never worked with aopen motherboards and I want something stable - thats why I was going to put a $130 K7T Pro 2A mobo into this system, but if I don't need to in order to beh stable, I won't.

 

[Biggs]

Can the G200 run on an overclocked 89Mhz AGP bus?
Are the issues with the G200 over?
Are it's latest drivers already &quot;optimized&quot;?
Thanks.

 

[beer]

BTW -

Can anyone tell me the difference between the 810 and the 815?

Thanks.

 

[Ornery]

Hey Elemental, you're going about this ALL WRONG! What I do is upgrade the hell out of my personal machine and use the replaced parts for the one I'm building for family members. Get's me an upgraded machine, gets them a good quality, fast unit and gets the most life out of the parts! Of course the best part is getting your personal rig tweaked up a couple notches!

BTW, where BX based boards were concerned, Asus and AOpen ruled the stability world. Don't know anything about these new fangled Intel whozawhatzitz...

 

[beer]

Yeah yeah I know but I got machines now that I am very happy with.

To me, 900 MHz Tbird w/ 256 MB RAM w/ geforce is enough, especially that I don't game much anymore. Right now I'm more concerned with picking up a printer and a scanner than I am with improving my system guts. I do however need to pick up an new hard drive soon...

 

[Ornery]

Holy shiznit, 900MHz! Uh, I doubt I'd give that up at this point either.

The SCANMAKER X6EL for $121.95 ($123.45 w/free shipping at Onvia) is going to be hard to beat for the price. SCSI based, full legal size documents, Adobe Photoshop LE...