What card to buy?

[Cally]

Hi all! This is my first post here. I need to buy a new video card for my wifes computer. She is a tax consultant and we just bought a new LCD monitor for her. But her old card doesn't have a dvi connection for it. She is not a gamer at all and only needs the card to support the new monitor. She does spreadsheets and uses a commerical tax program. Could someone suggest a Nvidia card that would have a DVI connection and wouldn't cost a lot, like under $100?

[Gator]

you could get a cheapo GF4 MX4000 for about $44, or a cheapo FX5200 for about $55

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-079&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-135-131&depa=0

Just as long as it's strictly business! Neither of these cards would be good for gaming

[Lfctony]

It would, but very infrequent gaming. A 5200 can run Doom3 at 640x480 w/low detail settings.

[Cally]

The 5200 looks good. Thanks for the help.

[kahloq]

Ummm you could easily have jsut bought a vga to dvi adapter

[Cally]

Not really she needed a new card for the higher resolutions. Hers was a very cheap one bought several years ago when she got her computer.


Ummm you could easily have jsut bought a vga to dvi adapter

[kahloq]

aahhhhhh ok :)

[ragejg]

/moved to the seemingly correct forum.... :p

Welcome to nvnews, cally... :)

[Kamel]

well, at such a low price, getting a 5200 or something like that will always benefit anyway. not only will 2d rendering be faster, but it's always smart to have a computer with some headroom.

[ricercar]

If I had a $100 budget, I'd recommend a GeForce4 Ti4200 with DVI.

Ummm you could easily have jsut bought a vga to dvi adapterI was going to say a VGA to DVI adapter costs more than than a graphics card, but it appears not. http://www.lindy.com/us/productfolder/04/41223/index.php

[ragejg]

I have to disagree with you on this, ricercar. For that money, a 5700NU could be had, which actually does keep pace with a 4200 when OC'ed (no AA/AF), blows the 4200 away in AA/A, and has decent (for the FX series) dx9 performance... A 5600U could also be had, but methinks the inefficiencies of teh core offset the *capable of 850-900* higher ram speed...

EDIT: Oops! Wow, the 5600U has jumped in price on pricewatch to $128! Screw that!! However, 5700 sticks @ $110, and the VERY overclockable 5700LE can be had for a mere $79...

[ricercar]

I agree with your performance assessment ragejg, but Cally's use-case is for a non-gamer where the need for AA and overclockability is below raw image quality.

<tech>
OEMs of NV25/28 used an external TMDS/LVDS transmitter for DVI, while OEMs of NV3x single-DVI cards (DVI+VGA) tend to save money by using NVIDIA's internal transmitter, especially for cheaper NV34 and NV31 (5200, 5600) cards. The internal NVIDIA transmitter tends to be lower quality (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1370516,00.asp) than an external Philips, SiI or Chrontel transmitter.
</tech>

EDIT: Cally what this boils down to is that a discounted high-quality card from 2002 (GeForce4 Ti 4200) might suit your purposes better than an inexpensive card from 2004 (GeForce FX 5200 or 5600). I can detect a difference between DVI on my 4200 and 5200, and the older 4200 is better.

[ragejg]

iiiinnnteresting.... that's a good point, ricercar...

My ONLY counterpoint to that is that when computers get old and ppl go gravedigging for cool cards, I'd rather find a DX9 card under the dust than a DX8 :p