Performance for 'business machine'

[Timothy]

I'm sure this is almost an FAQ question. Sorry.

For machines that never game (yes, Virginia...) does any of the 3D improvements we've seen recently (8500, etc.) make any real improvements?

What features or functions am I looking for when picking a video card if all the machine does is boring MS Office stuff? They want fast video, but don't want to spend money on functionality they'll never use.

Thanks.

 

[Sunner]

Get a Matrox G550.

 

[Mavrick007]

If all you do is MS Office and browse the internet, then all you really need is a basic pci/agp video card. It should be something that will give you good 2d and have enough ram (8megs or more should be plenty). Matrox makes good 2d cards, but alot of the Ati older cards will be excellent as well(Rage 128, Rage Pro, even a Mach 64 would be good even). If all you do is 2d, I wouldn't invest much in a vid card that will not be utilized. Here at work we have S3 Virge cards and they suck, but they do the job.