Hello All! I know, I know, opinions are like a certain part of the anatomy, we all have one! However, I'm upgrading my system. I just got a new motherboard with a P4 1.8 processor and 512mb ram. I will be upgrading my video card next month. So, what are your suggestions and why? What card are you using and why? If money is no object, what card would you have and why? Thanks! PS: I posted this originally in the hardware forum, but got no replies. Moved it to here.

hmmm I have the Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 64Mb came with the pc, works fine even at higher resolutions, got mine set at 1280x1024 32bit colour & it has no trouble at all.

Well, there's video cards for gaming and video cards for graphics. Which are you looking for? A cheap card for graphics would be some sort of GeForce 2 (good OpenGL support usually). Otherwise, I'd be dropping $350 (that's US dollars) for a Radeon 9700. They're the hottest thing out (right now) for gaming and such. And seeing as how I'm a gamer a hobby artist, that's what I'd get. Read some reviews and ask around. Some sites to check: www.sharkyextreme.com www.hardocp.com www.anandtech.com There's zillions others, but that's a start.

My Nvidia GeForce 2 Ultra works well for me, 64MB of RAM. No issues with anything except one certain program.

Thanks for the feedback folks. Yes, I did see the new ati 9700 at the show this weekend. I saw a lot of GForce 4 cards. Although I do game some, my main concern is my graphics. Crescent - one certain program? P5?

GeForce2 and 4's are nice cards. Although Poser does not take advantage of their 3D acceleration, I noticed a better overall image in renders over my ATI card. Now if Nvidia would only put a DVI out on their video cards, I would replace the Radeon 7500's. Otherwise useless on an Apple Studio LCD. Kuroyume

I don't know if Problem child 5's issue is with the video card. It's possible - the symptoms changed a bit after I did an update of the drivers, but other people using the NVidia card reported no problems. My opinion is that Probem child 5 is demon possessed, pure and simple. I believe that NVidia has DVI capability. At the Dell site, you can order a computer with the 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 Graphics Card with TV Out and DVI option. Cheers!

Crescent - you totally cracked me up! Thanks for the laugh!

Poser is zero % graphic enhanced so any upgrade past a pretty standard card will offer very little help. If you use any software that uses opengl and money is no issue then check out 3dlabs latest. If you want to spend around 300-350 then check out rad 9700 or geforce ti4400/4600 both offer very little dif between each other in the majority of open gl, both are very good fo games dvd playback.

Go with the GeForce4 if you've got the cash, the 4600 is the top of the line and I believe that it has at least one DVI port. If you've got even more cash ( ~$950) check out PNY's quadro 4 card. It's a GeForce4 on steroids and has dual DVI out. I just got one and it is a serious ass kicker. Running some day job stuff on it and I am beginning to believe NVidia when they saw they are close to the level of a Wildcat card with the Quadro 4's. FYI, I've had some oddball compatability issues with the Radeon cards with my kids games and the like. FYI for all concerned. One of the differences between a Quadro and a regular GeForce is how they handle multiple windows up at once. A lot of the game cards are very powerful but internally they're really optimized to have only one main window in view. If you're going to be doing a lot of real work with multiple windows up at once, then forking a little more for a Quadro or equivalent high end card may be worth it. Depends on what you're going to be doing with it.

Crescent: I haven't found one yet, but bet that it's 1: a very expensive card and 2: has problems with the DVI support. Basically, from what I've read, the DVI support on the Nvidia cards is lousy. Note that it's optional. :) Dude, why would I want a Dell? ;) I just assembled a Gigabyte Titan 533FSB w/2.53GHz P4, 1GB DDR memory, 120GB of storage, DVD-ROM/CR-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW drive. This system kicks my Dual 1GHz P3 around the room and down the street! Let's put it this way: I received the P4 yesterday at 2PM and finished assembly, OS installation (w/harddrive format), OS patching (W2K security updates and SP3 downloads/installs), driver installation, software installation (Office2K, AC, P5, PS6, IE6, RP1, QT5Pro, PowerDVD, etc, etc) by 3PM today. And I actually slept a full 8 hours, cooked dinner, watched the tellie, fiddle-farted with my guitar!! That's about 12-14 hours to go from bare bones parts to a fully working, operable, no-sweat system. Incredible! ziggy3D: Well, obviously there is indirect support, as it were. The better the card and its respective drivers, the better the response and output of the graphics in Poser 5. Not because P5 supports it in any way, but because, um, well, let's see, P5 at some point has to send its GUI information and displayed images to the video card device drivers so that we that are not blind can see them, eh? That definitely means that the video card (and drivers) make a difference. End... Kuroyume

Hrrmmmm.... depends a lot on what you'll be doing with it. For a dual-purpose graphics and gaming rig, any of the GeForce 2 Ultra's, GeForce 3, Geforce 4 etc cards will do nicely. Get the latest detonator drivers, and the latest patches for whatever card you buy. I may catch some flak from people sold on one brand or another, but from my experiences as a hardware tech, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference between one manufacturer of GeForce 4 vs another right now in performance. I tend to like CreativeLabs, but Leadtek, Hercules and others make nice cards. All of the ATI cards, including the FireGL series are nice cards. ATI seems to have a perrenial problem with their first generation drivers not working consistently on all platform specs, especially under Windows 2000 Pro, so you'll need to do a bit of research and make sure your motherboard and chipset and the ATI card will play nice together. In a slightly higher priced range, and more graphics only oriented... both the nVidia Quaddro and the 3DLabs Oxygen cards are excellent.

I was just saying that I think NVidia does have DVI capable cards because I saw it on the Dell site. I've had a few Dells and they've always been great price, great quality for me. I'm not into building my own computer, so I grab a good pre-built. Cheers!

Do I enjoy gaming? Sure. But my main concern for the card is how it will work with Poser, Bryce, TrueSpace, etc. I've heard a lot of good things about the GeForce cards and it's all been good. I've always had ATI cards and where I have not been unhappy with them, most of the reviews I've read, haven't been "wowed" by them. They usually call the ATI cards the "Jack of all trades, master of none". Now, I'm tempted to get the new ATI 9700 only because that will mean one video card. Otherwise, I'll probably get a GeForce and a capture card. Thanks everyone for chiming in!!!

Crescent: No problem! :) I just read bad things about it. Doesn't mean that they haven't fixed recently! I'm into rolling my own. It can be a big pain in the a$$, but that's the way I like doin' it. Kuroyume

I'm running the ATI all in wonder 8700DV. Was not too happy with the drivers on the cdset, but the latest release fixed a ton of opengl things. Runs just fine for me now. Not a single glitch and I get to watch TV with it too. Does great video capture.

Attached Link: http://www.pricewatch.com

As a final chime-in on this, I'm running a Radeon 8500 under Windows 2000 pro and experience zero problems, nor have I heard of driver issues with 2k. My 7500 also ran perfectly until I replaced it with an 8500 for more performance. Granted there's a near infinite amount of hardware and software configurations, I have zero complaints about my card. ATi's drivers aren't as good as nVidia's yet, but they're getting close, much better than they used to be, and I've never had the problems other people have, perhaps because I am anal about what is installed on my system and that I tweak little things and remove useless garbage. I've always thought that ATi has better image quality over anything nVidia has ever done, with Matrox being up there at the top for picture quality. You'll see that most reviews agree with that as well. And, if you need DVI, every ATi card has it now (anything recent, that is). If I were going to get a GeForce 4, I wouldn't spend my money on a 4600. I'd rather spend $100 more dollars on a Radeon 9700 that destroys it, or spend $100 less on a GeForce 4 4200 that's almost as good as a 4600. Really comes down to what you want to do with it. You may find you're better off with a "professional" card of some sort or even an older Matrox or ATi card that has excellent picture/video quality. Take a look around. And don't forget to check prices at pricewatch (link attached).

I'll second that. Matrox does some premium image quality. Keep in mind, whoopdat, I did try to stress making sure you have the latest ATi version drivers [Even though it really doesn't reread that way ;)] There's nothing wrong with ATi cards in my book. I just find they take a bit more tweaking to set up when I install one for clients. Their GL series are ATi's take on the old Diamond FireGL series cards, and those were some premium cards - easily the equal of my archaic Accel Galaxy card in my workstation. ATi's FireGL series cards should be every bit as good as the old Diamond's.

Well, I was surprised to find that Maximum PC gave the ATI 9700 Pro a solid 10 review. I've hardly ever seen them give that high a rating to something. They're usually very harsh. So, I'll probably ride out the price drop and pick it up towards the end of the year. Thanks for everyone who helped out.