thx for the reply, Lasareth
unfortunately, the 9600 Pro is out of budget (~100 euro on ebay.de).
If I was more of a gamer, I'd do it, but it's just not priority (and I've other hardware purchases planned soon).
the GeForce 4 TI4200 is about half that price, so it's within range. (50 euro is my ideal max I want to spend).
I'm a bit confused on a couple things though -
1. 64 or 128? (or, does this have anything to do with the Aperture Size of my mobo's GI? 64 MB in my case)
2. am I wrong, or is this an old card? I think this is what my bf has in his computer, and it's almost 2 years old.
2a. If I'm right, then why would my bf be considering the GeForce FX5500 128MB as an 'upgrade'?
ahh, the confusing world of vidcards
good thing we've experts like you here - I may be a geek, but I'm lost with this ....