Greetings phil,
I'm happy to help you with you new video card purchase. Having gone
through many different cards myself, I feel that I can give you a good
honest opinion on which card may best suit your needs.
Based on the things you want in a card, I can immediately narrow down
your list to the following:
NVIDIA GEFORCE-4 TITANIUM 4200 128MB DDR TV-OUT + DVI-OUT 4X AGP
ATI RADEON 9000 PRO 128MB DDR TV-OUT + DVI-OUT
[8X AGP] NVIDIA GEFORCE-4 MX440 64MB DDR W/ DVI + TV OUT 8X AGP
[8X AGP] NVIDIA GEFORCE-4 TITANIUM 4200 128MB DDR TV-OUT/DVI-OUT
The only reason I left out the All-in-Wonder Radeon 7500 is that you
don't mention wanting to use the card as a TV-Tuner or doing video
capture, which is really the main thing you're paying for with this
particular card. It's slower than the others I have selected in
graphics output and I wouldn't select it unless you specifically have
a need for video-in.
Now, narrowing down the list from the remaining possibilities is going
to depend on which of your "wants" are more important. Each of the
cards I have listed will give you dual-head capability (at least they
should according to the way you have them listed here and according to
their design specs). Each of these cards will allow you to upgrade to
a nice LCD display down the line as they each have DVI-output
(necessary for DVI-based LCD panels). Gaming is where the cards start
to separate themselves somewhat. Each of these cards will play games
"well" (depending on the types of games you will be playing). The
Geforce4 MX will perform on the lower end of the scale compared to the
others. The Radeon 9000 is next in line, then the Geforce 4 Ti4200 is
at the top of the pile. If you think that you will be playing games on
this machine and you like to play 3D-based games specifically (Like
Quake3 or Unreal Tournament), the GeForce Ti4200 is probably the best
bet as it will give you a good performance boost over the other two
cards, especially at higher resolutions. Each of the cards I selected
also have TV-Out, so you're covered there as well. All of these cards
will supply you with a relatively high refresh rate, which is also
important when choosing a graphics card.
Personally, I think if your budget allows, the choice should be
between two cards. I chose the 4X AGP card versus the 8X AGP card as I
don't think these cards will really benefit that much from a jump
between 4X and 8X AGP and you must also have the motherboard hardware
to support 8X in order to take advantage of it. I would save 8X for
the faster, more hardcore cards.
NVIDIA GEFORCE-4 TITANIUM 4200 128MB DDR TV-OUT + DVI-OUT 4X AGP
ATI RADEON 9000 PRO 128MB DDR TV-OUT + DVI-OUT
In my opinion, each of these cards will give you excellent picture,
fits the needs you asked for and will carry you into the future as you
purchase LCD-based monitors down the line. I think the primary
difference you're going to see between these two cards is the gaming
performance. If you truly don't play games that much and don't feel
like you'll be playing a lot of games in the future, I would save the
$50 and go with the Radeon 9000. If gaming is important to you, the
Ti4200 is the clear choice between these two.
I personally own a Geforce 4 Ti4400 and love it. But, I am also a
gamer and gaming performance is important to me. I also really like
NVidia's drivers and the way they make use of dual-monitor systems.
Their most recent driver revisions will let you do some pretty amazing
things with dual monitor setups. I don't have one of the new Radeon
cards, so I can't speak personally of their drivers, but I've heard
nothing but good things.
The bottom line is that you won't go wrong with either of these two
cards. I think you'll be happy with either one as they are both high
quality.
I hope this helps with your video card purchase. Please don't hesitate
to "Ask for Clarification" if you need further assistance with this
question.
Sincerely,
PWizard |
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