What's a good cheap upgrade from a geforce 2 mx440?

[dustmann]

Title says it all. I'm looking for a cheap <$50 upgrade from a geforce 2 4x card. I would really prefer something that supports dx9, but there isn't much gaming happening on the comp anyways. Its an old thunderbird 1400/200mhz comp. Can be new or used, new or old cards, any suggestions?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

You might try the Geforce 6200. BTW, I think your card may be the geforce 4 mx440.

 

[dustmann]

I am unsure as to what it is really. The display properties say geforce 2/mx440, so I'm not sure. The bios reports it as a 64mb agp 4x card, and that's about all I can tell you. I will look into the 6200, does it have turbocache or whatever it is? Is that bad?

 

[kpb]

the turbo cache is only on the pci e cards never on the agp

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

if you get get a used ti4800 or a used radeon 9700/9800 that would be good. If you don't mind heat and noise, a used 5900 would be a decent choice too. As far as new cards, you can go with a 6200 or maybe 6600 if you stretch the budget a little. The 9600pros aren't a bad choice either.

 

[tuteja1986]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102587R

9800 se open box $49

Try Anandtech For Sale/Trade forum , you could get a much better deal : )

 

[dustmann]

is the 9800se the card that can supposedly be soft modded to a 9800pro? Or am I just making stuff up? Also, would a 6200 or 6600 series nvidia be better than say a 9500 or 9600 pro?

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: dustmann
is the 9800se the card that can supposedly be soft modded to a 9800pro? Or am I just making stuff up? Also, would a 6200 or 6600 series nvidia be better than say a 9500 or 9600 pro?

Just look up reviews on this website. The 9500pro is significantly faster than the 9600pro.

 

[Powermoloch]

6200 will suffice

 

[fliguy84]

Try to find some used 9500 pro.

 

[imported_Sincity]

They have some refurb FX 5950 Ultras on Ebay sold by Best Buy Outlet. I still run a Duron 1.6, 512 mb, FX 5950 Ultra that can play BF2 mostly in lower detail at 1280. I get a better kick of running BF2 on old hardware. For example, my MAME cabinet has an XP 1400+ @ 2ghz, a AGP 6800 (from CC for $65 after rebate earlier this year) with all pipe unlocked running BF2 with med/low detail @ 1280.

Good luck!

 

[ChiPCGuy]

The Radeon 9600 Pro would fit your situation well. You should be able to get one under $70. They have a 128bit path to memory, and typically come setup with 128MB of it. Gigabyte makes a nice one. You can go cheaper and get the plain 9600 for around $60--just pick one with the 128bit path to memory as I believe there is a 64 bit version. If you want to spend less than $55, look into a 9550--and again Gigabyte makes a good 128bit one. The 9550 won't buy you THAT much performance over the MX440....so spend the extra $20 and get the 9600Pro would be my recommendation.

 

[ProfJohn]

I upgraded my Geforce 4 MX something to an FX 5200 and saw some improvement.

I bought it retail for about $50, looking at ordering a 6200 from newegg.com for the same $50ish in price and returning the 5200.

You could go for an 6600 for about the same price if you can find one used, otherwise they are around $100.
At some point you have to decide how much money you want to invest in an older machine.

One advantage of going with another nvidia card is no need to install new drivers, since the ones you have should work fine.

 

[akshayt]

try to find a used 9800Pro for that budget. You might be able to get one. or try to get atleast 9700Pro or 9800vanilla or even geforce 6600.