Best PCI Video Adapter

[hoytron]

I ordered a barebones mini-system today. I got a great deal on it, only $120. It won't be my primary system, but I would still like to maximize its performance. It supports tualatin CPUs, and has FSB settings up to 166MHz. I plan to get a 1.0A GHz celeron and see how far it will go. It also comes with onboard AGP video, which I'm sure is bad. The only graphics accelerator I could add would have to be PCI. I want to know whice PCI cards will offer the best gaming performance. Nvidia offers some Quadro PCI card, with four display outputs, which I'm sure is probably the best PCI adapter, but I don't quite need that. Especially not for $300+. What sort of video cards would you reccomend? I see that ATI has a RADEON 9000 PCI version. Is it any good?

 

[hoytron]

I forgot to mention that I have a PNY Geforce4 MX420 PCI card. Would the RADEON 9000 be any better?

 

[CrystalMethod]

I'm not positive on this but, I think the Radeon 9000 is a bit better than the MX420. You could always look up some benchmarks on the Futuremark website.

 

[Damian]

The 9000 will be MUCH better than the mx420.

You may look into an FX5200. The performance isn't stellar, but AFAIK it's not much worse than the 9000, while at the same time being DX9 compatible and [probably] a bit cheaper.

 

[1-Man-Army]

just to tell u the celeron ur getting rocks dude i could have got my cpu over 1.6 ghz but my mobo only has 150 fsb if only i had 166 i would beat a 1.7 p4 my system can beat a p4 1.6 ghz while mine is at 1.5 lol sandra said so! but my mem band width sucks because im on a pc 133 board