New monitor or video card?

[1Cheap2Crazy]

I have a cheap 2 year old Envision 17 CRT. I view the web at 800 x 600. I tried at 1024 x 768 but it gave me a headache. I don't think this monitor will support a very high refresh rate either
My MB, a cheap Soyo K7VME w/Athlon XP 2600, has onboard graphics which I'm using with 512MB and XP Pro.

I'm thinking of getting a video card for about ~$125 on sale, after mail-in-rebates. Hopefully something like an ATI 9600 or an Nvidia 5600 in the next couple of months. But would the card be overkill for the monitor? Would I be better off buying a better 17" CRT first?
I just got done playing Max Payne and enjoyed it. It seemed to play fine but since I have never played it using a decent video card I have no idea if I'm missing out on something. I would like to play that US army game sometime in the future and some other FPS(the older, cheaper ones. Maybe Far Cry)

How important is a monitor? I keep reading about people wanting the lastest video card but nothing about monitors. Is is possible to get the top of the line video card only to find out graphics look like crap on a $100 CRT with a 65 mHz refresh rate? Can/does a monitor affect the output of a video card?

Also does a 3D enabled video card affect the way pictures and text look on the web? Are the clearer? Better color? Easier to read?

Sorry for the long post and if these questions seem to basic.

Thanks

 

[Yanagi]

Hi. I'll try to answer your questions as good as I can. With the monitor its pretty much up to what you prefer. I'm running a couple of years old NEC 6FGP (lol forgot) Im running in resolution 1152*864 and sometimes up to 1280*1024. wilst this is a 21" monitor thats not that good. since 12x10 is the highest I can go without a headdache. but in games I prefer to play in at lerast 1024*768 since the games look better then at 640*480.

Um. The graphics will look better and cleaner in higher resolutions for sure. If your 17" monitor can display 1024*768 at 75+ Hz youd do fins in games wilst you might get a headdache when looking at text since the text is smaller and so on. If you'll gonna buy a new graphics card whixh is considerably fast i would suggest you get a monitor that can display at least 1024*768 resolution. more is a plus. but in the end it all comes up to what you prefer..

3d cards will not make your desktop look clearer or better. they just display 3d better/faster than some others. But in 2D quality all the cards are pretty much the same.

Hope I was quite clear on this and if theres something that confuses you about my answer just tell me and i'll try to be a bit more clear ^^