video card selection for P4 system--

[PrineFan]

hi...

i am a novice but have built one system..

am taking an adult ed class on building computers and will build another system....am obligated to using an ECS P4VXAD VIA P4X266 Chipset ATX motherboard .... pentium 4 1.6 cpu....

anyway, any recommendation for video card? would like to stay in $50 range. dont do any gaming, but may have a dvd rom drive....

video cards kinda confuse me....thanks for any help.... the video card being recommended in class is the "32 meg nvidia tnt-2chip agp graphics card"-- but i have the option of using another video card....but clueless here.

 

[FalseChristian]

You want a videocard that matches your CPU. A TNT2 will bottleneck your system something fierce. I'd recommend a GeForce2 Ti200 or a ATI RADEON 7500. Both cards are just a bit more than you want to spend and have decent performance. Both cards have 64MB of DDR-SDRAM and loads of features that'll keep you going for a year or 2.

 

[Skibby9]

Good call, FalseChristian.

I would go with the 7500. ATI has better quality control than most nvidia manufacturers, so you can almost guarantee that the ATI card will have better 2D. And no matter what any gamer says, you gotta have a good, clear screen. Otherwise using your pc would be a drag.

All else being fairly equal, the 2D issue made me decide on the Radeon 8500 a couple weeks ago over the GeForce 3.

Mwave.com has the 7500 for $115. Pricewatch.com shows it for as low as $77. Circuit city wants like $150 or more for it. I say order from mwave, or whomever you like using Amex Blue, and get a price adjustment to the cheapest retailer.

If you don't have Blue, apply online. Takes like 2 minutes total from start until approval.




Or, you could get the Radeon 8500 for around $160 using a similar shopping technique... But I suppose that's a bit more spendy...

 

[Rand]

It would be easier to recommend a card if you gave us more info on what you would be using this system for.
As your not doing any gaming then I'd probably pass on an Nvidia board. An ATi Radeon would be an excellent option, with good 2D and excellent DVD playback if you choose to go for that DVD drive.

You may not need something quite as powerful as the Radeon 7500 though, so you may want to look into an ATi Radeon 7000/7200 if you wish to save a bit of money. The Radeon 7500 generally runs at about $85 and so is clearly over your quoted $50 limit. You could get a Radeon 7200 for about $60, or a Radeon 7000 for about $45.