low and mid-range vid. card recommendations?

[joecool]

Need a cheapie card for the kids machine, anything will be better than the onboard graphics they've been using, and a mid-range card for myself (also currently just using on-board graphics). Requirements:

Kids machine - price is everything, like to keep it in the $30-$50 range, mostly looking for something to offload the CPU as it sometimes heats up to the point that the BIOS monitor starts beeping. Need it to be a quiet card too; no screaming fans please.

My machine - looking for something towards the high end of mid-range; my rig was built last fall w/an AthlonII x4, fast RAM, and a SSD for the OS. CPU and storage windows perf. scores are high 7's but graphics blows; I've got a 21" high res monitor that I'd like to max out when gaming. Thinking in the $200-$250 range - what kind of win perf score can that much get me? Quiet also important here for normal operation, the rig as it is nearly silent and I'd hate to blow it w/a whiny GPU fan.

Thanks in advance,

Joe

 

[Lonyo]

GTX 560 Ti if you have the PSU for it, or 6950 (1GB) if you don't should be more than sufficient for a 21" monitor.

For the other machine, something like a 5670 (might be $60 AR) or 5570 ($50 AR) would be sufficient for light gaming, or GT430 ($45 AR).
If you don't mind something a little slower, a GT240 for $35 AR would be fine (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-475-_-Product)
Comparison of these 4 cards: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3973/nvidias-geforce-gt-430/7

You might also want to look into cleaning the heatsink/fan and if you feel confident, reseating the heatsink with new thermal paste if it's overheating (if you haven't done these things already).

 

[joecool]

Good point on the cleaning. Hadn't thought of that. Guess I could look into an after market HSF as well. But getting a vid card is more fun! ;-)