# Video Card for Around $100. Your Thoughts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 29, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048 "2003-03-29T17:35:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/1 "2003-03-29T17:35:16Z")
PCI. I have an Intel D845GEBV2 Momma board with built in video but I want MORE! Processor P 4 2.4Ghz, 80 G HDrive.
I **could** be talked into spending around $150. 3-D games are the main use I would put it to but improved video speed is also important.
One kind soul recommended a 64 MB GEForce 4 MX. Good advice?
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
Jake
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### Author:  [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/2 "2003-03-29T17:48:12Z")
Don’t get the GeForce 4 MX. It’s basically a sped-up GeForce 2 with a new few features, but in many ways it’s inferior to the GeForce 3. The rest of the GeForce 4 line is great (I have a GeForce 4 Ti4400 and there’s not a game I can’t play in the highest detail on my 1.5Ghz relic), but probably beyond the limit you set on yourself. I’m sure you could find a good GeForce 3 cheap, and that’s more than you need…my friend uses my old 64MB GeForce 2 and he can play almost any game on at least medium detail.
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### Author:  [@Kewk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kewk)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/3 "2003-03-29T17:49:36Z")
no… no… and um _no_. 😃
Don’t get anything MX when you could have better for less.
[http://www.pricewatch.com](http://www.pricewatch.com)
in the right corner under Multimedia Click Video Cards. A list will pop up on the bottom with the best prices.
There is a Geforce 4 Ti4200 for a whopping $126… Geforce 4 MX’s are no ore than $50…
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### Author:  [@Kewk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kewk)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/4 "2003-03-29T18:01:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> have a GeForce 4 Ti4400 and there’s not a game I can’t play in the highest detail on my 1.5Ghz relic
Considering a 3g machine with a GF4 Ti4600 gets ~40fps at 1600x1200 in Unreal Tournament 2003 I beg to differ 😃 And thats without antiailising on. You couldn’t run any FPS game at more than 1024 with antiailising enabled 😛
_current_
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/5 "2003-03-29T18:35:15Z")
I got the GF4 Ti 4200 for $111 from [NewEgg.com](http://NewEgg.com), it rocks my socks.
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### Author:  [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/6 "2003-03-29T21:56:19Z")
GeForce FX cards should be showing up very soon. The FX 5200 will be my next card. Maybe the FX 5600 if I can slip it past my wife 🙂
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### Author:  [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/7 "2003-03-29T22:13:48Z")
Does the TI4x00 line even come in PCI? I thought they were solely AGP.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/8 "2003-03-29T22:53:35Z")
When I was in the market for a video card, I went into a computer shop and said “I’d like a new video card, but not an MX card - everyone says I shouldn’t get one of those.”
And so they nodded, and showed me their selection - and every damned last one of them was an MX card.
So I ordered a Ti4200 online instead.
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### Author:  [@Oy\_Vey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy_Vey)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/9 "2003-03-29T23:29:03Z")
I’ll put a suggestion in for the ATI Radeon 9x series… the lower numbered ones are a bit faster than the 8500 I’ve had for about a year now… they should be around your price range and give you a decent amount of power.
[www.extremetech.com](http://www.extremetech.com) had a [feature](http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,740510,00.asp)weighing the cost vs. performance of most budget cards a few weeks back.
Oh, and [choose wisely](http://pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20030328)
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### Author:  [@Oy\_Vey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy_Vey)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/10 "2003-03-29T23:34:08Z")
dOh! Didn’t read that you needed a PCI… um… My wife has a PCI Radeon 7200 and it’s decent enough…
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### Author:  [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/11 "2003-03-30T02:53:44Z")
PCI - that is going to be a bottleneck on your speed, I reccomend getting the PCI versioin of the Radeon 9000, should provide a good speed boost. What I would like to know is, why in the world would anyone make a Pentium4 motherboard without a AGP slot?
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/12 "2003-03-30T17:04:25Z")
Dread, my mistake, it’s an AGP slot. :smack:
I’m going to look into the Radeon 9x, thanks.
Thanks everyone for the responses, you’ve given me some good links.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/13 "2003-03-30T17:22:26Z")
So “everybody” say don’t get MX?
Why?
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/14 "2003-03-30T17:37:17Z")
Is that an AGP or an AGP2 slot? My Dell’s got that AGP2 slot or so the manual says.
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### Author:  [@Kewk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kewk)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/15 "2003-03-30T17:43:38Z")
Jake save yourself the frustration of dealing with ATI drivers. Nvidia is known for a quality product that _always_ works. ATI is known throughout the industry for having very bad drivers that will have problems with games.
> [@](#):
>
> So “everybody” say don’t get MX?
Because the MX versions of the card are the scaled down versions. They are significantly slower than the non-MX versions because the parts used to make the card. It’s a cheap card for a reason 😃
Other than that you can get something much better for the same price by shopping on the internet.
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### Author:  [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/16 "2003-03-30T18:12:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duckster \*
> \*\*So “everybody” say don’t get MX?
>
> Why? \*\*
They are crippled, severely. They are made to be “cheap” and go after the not-so-knowledgable market.
A GF3 of pretty much any version is a faster card than any MX… and generally cheaper to boot.
> [@](#):
>
> I got the GF4 Ti 4200 for $111 from [NewEgg.com](http://NewEgg.com), it rocks my socks.
That’s probably your best deal, right there… or something close.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/17 "2003-03-30T18:29:07Z")
I’ve also heard good things about the Radeons, to be fair, but never owned one myself. I’ve had a Geforce 256, GF2 GTS, and my GF4 and never had any problems.
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### Author:  [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/18 "2003-03-30T21:31:03Z")
[http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1793](http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1793)
and…
[http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html](http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html)
Both guides are a month old at least, but they should be fairly accurate. YMMV of course.
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/19 "2003-03-31T16:01:22Z")
Handy, The manual says it’s an AGP or ADD slot, nothing about AGP2. Kewk, Bernse, I will stay away from MX, thanks.
Harmonix, great links, Thanks!
Looks like its gonna be a GeForce 4 Ti series for me.
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### Author:  [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-card-for-around-100-your-thoughts/165048/20 "2003-03-31T21:14:04Z")
The Geforde 4 Ti 4200 is an excellent card for its price. I have a Ti4600(same card, but clocked higher and more expensive) and it has worked wonderfully.
Actually, if you do go with the Radeon cards, get the 8500 or 9100(same card, but renamed) over the 9000, because the 8500 is actually faster in most games, that why they came out with the renamed 9100 version.