Budget video card recommendation

[Saukopf]

Hello,

Just recently aquired a hand me down Pc.

CPU=AMD Athlon 500MHz

AGP BUS=version 1 ,speed 67MHz, max transfer rate2x,aperature size 128

Front side bus speed=2x100MHz (200max data rate)

system memory=128 megs

Power supply=350watts

Im not sure of the specific motherboard name/type

except the installation CD said something about

"VIA" drivers

I currently have a Jaton 8 meg PCI video card with

9880 chipset

I know I should get anothe 128 meg memory stick...

thats the easy part....But what kind of name/make/

chipset video card should I be looking for to replace the hopeless 8 meg Jaton?

I did search this forum and found a few hints but

frankly I dont know much about video cards so if

anyone has any suggestions that would probably work with my system I would be grateful....what

I should be looking for and what I should be avoiding. Im looking to spend between 40-60 bucks

for this card as that seems to be the price range

for budget cards.

I know this system isnt the worlds fastest but

with a better video card it should do ok with small to medium battles. I know Im not going to

be able to play the lastest greatest FPS or flight

sims but when you keep in mind my old PC was a 200amd with 64megs memory....what I have now

is much much better than that horror ).

So can anyone give me pros and cons of the various budget cards?

[Ellros]

Nvidia Geforce or Geforce 2 /TNT2 32mb would probably be your best bet given the processor.

Those are pretty cheap nowadays if you can find them.

[BeWary]

It's hard to know exactly what you'll be able to get for that price. Prices vary widely for older technology, so you may be able to get a pretty good card for 40-60 bucks. www.pricewatch.com has a video-card pricing list. I would use that to get an idea of what you can get for your money. You might even be able to get a GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB if you spend 10-20 bucks more.

If you buy online, just be careful who you buy from, although video cards are less likely to be bad when you get them. I try to only buy from online stores that are customer rated at www.bizrate.com.

I've had good experiences with www.newegg.com, www.bzboyz.com, www.ajump.com , www.spartantech.com , www.emscomputing.com. If you need memory, I highly recommend getting it from www.crucial.com. I have yet to get bad or incompatible memory from them, which has been a problem in the past for me when buying from other stores.

Good luck,

BeWary

[n0kn0k]

Try looking for a 64 mb version of the GF2/GF2mx400

[tracer]

I have a brand new Gigabyte TNT2 32 meg AGP card on the shelve here at the shop, I know for a fact it will run both CMBB and CMBO on your machine with a VIA chipset and 500 MHZ machine, check and see if your board has a AGP slot on it, if so, you can have this card for $25+ S/H

[Saukopf]

Thanks for the replies and for your offer Tracer.

Ive done some info searching and my motherboard

is a FIC SD11. Although it has an APG slot the

manufacturer strongly urges not to use any video

card above 16Mb memory. So to upgrade the video card appreciably

I would have to go the PCI slot route.Think I will

hold off on any other upgrades until I get another

motherboard with better capabilities than this one.

[tracer]

I thought to say something about the age of the mainboard, if you need a mainboard and processor let me know, since your a fello CMer, I can get you a real good deal on the pair. If i remember correctly, not looking at my files I can get AMD Athlon XP 1800+ for about $80, and a mainboard to supprt it for about the same price as the CPU, CPU runs at about 1.533MHZ and has a performance rating at around 2gigs