Looking to buy a replacement video card...
 

About a month ago, I discovered that that video card (GeForce2 Ultra 64 MB) is broken, and causing all kinds of weird display anomolies to show up on my new monitor.

Therefore, I need to buy/order a new video card, and was looking for suggestions. I don't use this PC for gaming anymore; instead, I primarily use it for surfing the Internet, viewing movies, listening to music, and doing desktop type things. The only games I play are simple ones that don't require much, if any, acceleration (DXBall, for example). I am not necessarily looking for a card on par with the GeForce 64 or an even newer, and more powerful, card. I don't use this PC for gaming anymore, and thus don't need to be spending upwards of $200 on a high powered card.

I'd appreciate it if someone could recommend a reasonably priced (not much higher than $100) video card that will be able to do what I need it to, while also being reliable for the lifetime of my computer (which is already aged by 5 or so years).

I posted a similiar thread in the "Video Card Buyers Guide" thread, but received no reply, and I'd like to get a new video card soon so I can fully take advantage of, and enjoy, the new monitor I recently purchased.

If you could provide a retailer (I assume online) along with a video card model, I'd greatly appreciate it, as I am not experienced in buying computer parts; online or off.

Thanks!

Since you stated your previous card was a GeForce 2 MX, I'm gonna have to assume you will be somewhat limited by your AGP slot (4x? 8x?), or even worse... PCI. So the first thing to do would be to see what type of grapihcs card it can handle. After that, it's basically a game of you hunting down AGP or PCI cards.

The GeForce 4 MX 440s are still around and kicking, and you can probably find one for about $40 or so. The regular GeForce 4 TIs are still able to found in certain stores. You just have to know where to find them.

I would recommend an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or something, but it sounds like your computer is pretty antiquated (no offense... other than the graphics card and DVD burner, mine ain't that hot) and may not be able to handle it. It would probably be easier to find and be better for rendering stuff or doing extensive photo editing and manipulation. But even as old as it is, they are still relatively expensive.

I'm not familiar with the AGP/PCI slot lingo.. But the exact name of the card is a 64 MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra.

I am not sure if it is AGP or PCI though.. And a high end card is not necessarily required.. I don't play games anymore and the only reason I need a new card is because my current one causes lines, dimmed color, and other odd anomolies that are hard to describe in text.


The computer is definitely antiquated, it's over five years old. Pentium 3, 866 MHz with only 256 RAM and a CD burner. That being said, I don't need a more powerful computer for the limited things I use it for, and thus just need a graphics card that is reasonably priced and able to support a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 in 32 bit, or so.

If you are looking for some ideas, you may want to start here http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2687&p=4

The link is to a buyers guide that shows pretty much what you would expect to see on the market now. Depending on what you want, there are plenty of cards to choose from.

Thanks for the reply and link.. How do you determine if your video card/PC has AGP or PCI slots? It would be a bummer to order the wrong type and find it wasn't compatible..

I don't think they even made a PCI version of the GeForce 2 Ultra. It's probably AGP. If you want to be sure, just look at the slot on the motherboard that your card is in. If the pin layout is different than the other 3-5 (PCI) slots, it's AGP (usually it'll also be a different color, but that's not necessarily relevant and sometimes PCI slots are different colors too). If you're not doing 3D rendering, you can probably just get the cheapest card you can find, unless you're looking for additional features like NTSC inputs or outputs. Typically the 2D rendering capability of a recent AGP card will exceed that of your monitor (1280x1024, you should be fine with anything).

Yeah, even some low end PCI cards will do what you need, probably. Heck, I'm using a PCI 4MB S3 card from years ago in my daughters computer, as all it does is play internet games (for kids), and that kind of thing. Anything will do that. Check out www.newegg.com as I think they've still actually got some inexpensive (read, under $30) cards in their store.

Thank you for the replies.

I do in fact have an AGP slot, so now I just have to find a card to buy. Ideally I can buy a cheap one that will suffice for browsing, etc.

GeForce 2 Ultra series cards are AGP 4x. Hard to believe they once retailed for around $500 bucks....

Newegg has the ASUS Radeon 7000 64MB 64-bit DDR AGP 2X/4X Video Card for $30. Based on your needs, this might suffice. Good luck.

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to find that.. I ordered it, and the total came out to a very reasonable $29.50.

Many thanks.

I picked up a replacement GeForce 4 MX (AGP slot) for my aging basic-use computer, and it works great! Only $40 at a local swap meet.

hoping somebody out there can render some advice: I just purchased an ATI 9800 Pro (Got a great deal from Futureshop - $199). After picking it up I saw that it required a 300watt power supply.

I checked my Dell documentation which states that my Dimension 4100 has a 250 watt power supply. My question is, can I go ahead and install this video card? Or am I asking for trouble? I Googled this issue and got mixed results.

How would I go about upgrading the power supply if required?

Thanks in advance!

(Oh, my system currently does not have a video card, it is integrated)

update:

I installed the card. It seems that reading up on this type of thing causes more angst than it is worth. It connected no problem, auto-detected, and was up and running as soon as i turned on the machine.

No power issues at all.

Leto, if you run any games and begin to see any weird artifacts, then it may be due to the power supply issue. Those cards will obviously use more power when asked to do more (like all of us...haha). Changing a power supply is pretty easy for the most part, but tedious. If you've never done it, find someone who has! Anyway, hey: that 9800Pro will run Half Life 2 pretty well...

we've been running Zoo Tycoon 2 on the pc, and using the integrated video, it was lagging, and taking a long time to load, now there is no such problem. Half Life? Do I dare get involved with a game that could suck all my free time away?????