What is the best video card on the market right now? I am looking to upgrade my old 32MB Viper 770.

Well Easy it depends on what you want to do. The card you have now being a 32mb is good for surfing and light gaming. I am a gamer and have a Geforce2 Ultra 64mb. This is an older card but still packs a punch. If you are into games and such get either the new ATI Radeon or Geforce4. Both cards will give you excellent graphics. ALthough you will need at least a 1 gig processor to acheive the max performance from these cards. Check the specs on each card and make sure your pc has the power to push which ever card you get. Also check www.pricewatch.com for screamin deals.

I agree with Steel_Fish 100%

I have the GeForce3 T4, and it spanks. Was $350 when I bought it a couple years ago, but now they are running about $100-$150. An older card yes, but few items on the market can take advantage of its power. Everything I have run on it I can kick the graphics to their peak and it still flys along. It helps having the DDR, which is essentially a dual architecture allowing all graphics to be handled by the board processor and not your main board processor.

As long as your processor is high enough, it is a great way to go.
I am running an Athlon 2.4 with 512mb of RAM so it is a blur for most applications.

Good luck Carl, you have opened a can of worms once you get into this stuff!!

Aint that the truth DeKuma. I opened a huge can and now I have worms (pc's) all over my house. My wife is sick of our office being littered with cases and parts..

Thanks guys! I am going to upgrade my CPU, motherboard, and RAM also. Thought I would get a new video card too. Seems the prices are real reasonable on video cards right now.

What do you think about the Radeon 9000 128MB DDR?

I am fond of the Geforce line myself but ATI makes very good cards as well.

I subscribe to a mag called MAXIMUM PC.They just built there dream machine and the lean[price capped at a 1,000$] machine.

The dream machine was built with the ATI Radeon 9700 128MB.It was sneak peak at there newest card.It pretty much kicked butt paired with lots of memory and a P4 running at 2.85Ghz.cost 400.00$

They used the Gainward GEFporce4 powerpack! ULTRA/650XP Golden sample in the lean machine.This is the card that is going in my box.Is extremly overclockable.Cost 175 bucks.it was paired with a 1.67Ghz Athlon XP.It spoke well for itself breaking past athlon benchmarks.

I am not a gamer and am just passing on what my favorite computer rag thinks.I am building a new machine and am going to basicly build the lean machine.

Although that ATI 9700 is fast I dont think its quite worth the $$$ spent. There arent many appz that take full advantage of it. You could get a geforce 3 or even a 4 for allot cheaper and they will do the job well enough and save you a couple of hundred $$$ at the same time. You can use that money to help upgrade your CPU/memory. I cant stress to you enough that if your CPU cant deliver neither will these cards. I tried and and found out the hard way. All of these posts so far are good but I am also not a big fan of ATI because of past experiences and driver issues.

Sounds like buying a card with a GeForce4 chipset is the way to go. Thanks guys!

Whatever you do dont get any card that is an MX version of the geforce, and if you can afford it get the 128 meg card. They are a bit faster.

Thanks for that tip!

Check out this website. If you want the extreme machine they post the latest and greatest gaming hardware every month.

www.sharkeyextreme.com

Hey there.. you don't want the best out there... You will overpay. Well do you want a gaming card? or an excellent 2d card? For gaming, (which is what I do) I would go for a Geforce 4 Gainward Ti 4400, OR the 4600, make sure it is the 128 meg card.. not the 64 version. But your best bet would be the 4400 Taht would be the most bang for your buck.. If you have any questions email me.. at daweston@earthlink.net I build computers/buisness for a hobby I'd be happy to answer any and all questions for ya.
dave

EL,
If you're not a hard core gamer there is no reason to buy the top of the line cards. Go for a GeForce TI4400 chipset and you'll have more than enough for computing plus the occasional game you decide to buy. You should be in the $175 price range, max.

Totally agree on all with the GeForce 4, 4400 Ti cards. The 4600 Ti is too much more money for the very modest increase in power. Providing of course you're looking for a 3d video/gaming card. I'm currently using an Abit Siluro GeForce 4, 4400 Ti card. It doesn't come prepackaged with a bunch of games and stuff. Just your basic high-end video card and drivers. It also scored as among the most focused cards. This is achieved by closely adhereing to the manufacturers (Nvidia) build specifications. You can find out more if you want to do some research at Tom's Hardware. Use this link: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/index.html

Well gents, I picked up a MSI G4 Ti 4200 w/64MB DDR for $130. I also picked a new mother board (ASUS A7V8X), new CPU (AMD 2000+) and 256 MB of 3200 DDR RAM.

Man, I am a junkie!

Don't feel alone there Carl! If it was not for my hunting and fishing disease, I would have more than three computers in various stages of rebuild lying around my house!!

You should be very happy with your choices. I have never regretted my GeForce for even a second, even on the newer high end games and 3D Video.

Only 3 puters going on at once.. I look around and I count 6 laying around... But it is thining out thanks to f ishing season.. but when the fish be gone, the comptuers come back..
dave

I see it's to late now but next time check out newegg.com. Really good prices.

I bought the ATI Radeon 8500 a few months ago when it first came out for $130. Now you can get the Radeon 9000 with 128MB for about $90. ATI is cleaning up on the market right now. Nothing can come close to the 9700. It's kickin butt by a longshot over everything else right now.
Brother tells me he just seen the Radeon 9500 w/128MB for $163. Not sure where at. One of his online places he orders from. He's always building something for someone.

I have that exact same card. Its a great card for the money. These cards "if your into gaming" over clock very well and are very stable. Dont feel bad at all about the 64 megs of ram vs the 128. Unless your a game junkie you'll never notice the difference.