New video card recommendations

[jdc2000]

I'm looking for recommendations for a new video card. This card will be used with a DVD-ROM drive. The only general spec other than that is 128MB of memory, although 64MB would be OK if other features made it worthwhile. Any opinions on what to get would be appreciated.

Also, if I were going to get an nVidia GeForce4 MX card, which manufacturer would you recommend. I have already eliminated Jaton as a possibility for this chipset.

Thanks.

[KMIELKE123]

There's a pretty good review of some mid to upper range cards here together with benchmarks achieved with certain applications.

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030714/

What are the specs of your system ? And whats your budget for the Graphics Card ?

[Train]

I have had good luck with MSI video cards. Like there Ti4200 8X with 64MB of ram. It is faster that the 128 card also.

MX means it is cut way back in performance, I means way back.

[jdc2000]

Thanks for the info.

The system is a new P4 2.4 with an Intel motherboard. Of course, the user wants maximum performance with minimum $. After looking at the Tom's hardware review, I'm thinking of recommending the best ATI card that the user is willing to pay for. More suggestions would be welcome though.

[KMIELKE123]

Just a follow up -

My current setup :

Athlon 2600

80BG Hard Drive

Gigabyte GA7N 400 Pro Mobo

GeForce 440 64MB

This system is more than adequate for its primary task - Net Surfing / CD Playing, Basic Photo Editing, Word Processing, etc.

This is a new computer (2 months old) and was $650 (Incl Win XP) which isnt bad.

However the Graphics Card is no great shakes. According to some benchmarks i've seen it sits around mid range - though of course thats the best I can expect its not going to improve.

My other system (prev. also an Athlon 2600 - now with a dead mobo is soon to be switched to Intel P4 as I want a 3.0 Ghz CPU / 800Mhz FSB - to take advantage of Hyper Threading)
The card I want fot this is the Radeon 9600 as its a much better card.

One point to consider is the now hard to get Radeon 9500 (the non pro version) it was widely known among gamers that some of these cards could be tweaked to levels comparable with the Radeon 9700 - until a few months ago the fastest card available ... only the 9500 was much cheaper. Sadly Radeon stopped making them and they are much sought after. If you see a 9500 going cheap it may be worth taking a look at as in terms of cost / performance its a great card especially for gamers.

[Train]

Well. see what he/she will go for. But I would say the one I posted would be a minimum at least. Although a faster card may we what they need/want. Might even want to print out what Tom's has. I have and have a couple happy customers.