Help me upgrade - is GeForce 4MX for $50 good deal?

[GratefullySaved]

Hey guys,

I have a GeForce2 MX 440 from Overclockerz running in a 1 Gig Athlon on KT7a, and and need help with an upgrade. I'm going to drop in an XP 2100+ to run on the 266 Mhz bus, RAM is at 512MB, may go 1.5 GB (Photoshop user and gamer), but I have very little money for a graphics card upgrade...

Is a $50 GeForce 4MX going to be noticeably faster for 1024 res UT2003 and Unreal II when it comes out? I'm not hardcore, but I do want a very smooth performance for the two or three times a week I play an FPS at night online.

All help is appreciated, and FYI, I tried an ATI Radeon 9000 from BB and my KT7a would never recognize it, this was two months ago...

Are there any deals on Ti4200's for $100 out there? I'd love DVI output too... ha ha (yes, I like cake and eating it too..)

Thanks to everyone for their time,

GS

 

[Hammyton]

from what i understand the MX cards are seriousely lacking in performance, especially in newer applications such as UT2 and in higher resolutions and such... If i were you i would dish out ~100 and buy a g4 ti4200 128mb if possible... shop around or wait for prices to go down, you wont regret it

 

[nemesismk2]

Although the GF4 MX440 is ok for general use it's not fast enough for good high resolution performance. Going by experience you will see very little (if any) performance increase at high resolutions with a GF4 MX440 just from upgrading the cpu.

I'd recommend either a GF4 Ti4200 or a Radeon 9500, both of these will be a good choice!

 

[BlueWeasel]

I agree...stay away from the MX line of cards.

You may be able to find a 64mb version of the Ti4200 on the For Sale/For Trade forums. I just did a quick search and found a few older threads where a Ti4200 64mb card were going for around $100. A used 128mb Ti4200 appears to be going around $130 used.

Another option is going with a GF3 Ti200 64mb used from the FS/FT forums. I have seen recent posts of those going for $55-60 shipped and that's a great price, IMHO.