good cheap video card.

[howard]

so I'm looking to buy a cheap video card to get an old pc up and running. The only thing wrong with it is a video card. I do audio stuff and the more computers I can slave to software the better.

Anyway, I am on an extremely limited budget. I'm talking LESS than $50. Obviously I'm not going to be getting anything to great, but I want to know what you guys think is the best bang for the buck.

So far I've been looking at the MSI MX4000 w/128mb. I can get that for around $36 after shipping. Are there any cards that are much better than that at a similar price?

thanks

<edit>
here's a link with some in my price range:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&minprice=32&maxprice=60&bop=and&Order=rating

Does anyone know of a good site for ratings? I always try toms hardware guide but I can never find tests/reviews on hardware thats older.

 

[howard]

anyone? any recommendations?

 

[Bear]

anyone? any recommendations?

Just one recommendation... try a PC hardware forum.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

I'm going to say 1 thing. You get what you pay for.

 

[RGunner]

Check on..

the Newegg refurb store / site.

Other than that there is a 9600XT on these forums which would make a good card. I just bought a 9800 Pro for around $60 and there are many more on Ebay... hard to beat that card (not even close in performance to the one you are looking at).

If you want a cheap 4x AGP card, I have a PC Geforce 32MB card i could send for $10 plus USPS shipping.

Good luck!

 

[feakbeak]

Just one recommendation... try a PC hardware forum.

That's not very nice. While you have a point that a PC hardware forum would have more responses for this type of question it's not unreasonable to post this question here. There are fewer and fewer differences between Mac and PC hardware these days. Besides there quite a few dual-users like myself on the board and quite a few builders... so he does have an audience for this question on this board.

howard, I picked up a cheap video card a couple months ago when helping a friend fix an older PC. I got a Rosewill Geforce FX5200 w/128 MB from newegg.com. The card got the job done and was more than adequate for the person's needs. It's running $37 right now. Truthfully, though I don't think there is much performance difference within the range of cards you'll find under $50. If this is just to get an old PC working I wouldn't worry about it so much, just about anything you get will be fine for running Windows and the usual consumer apps. If you are gaming or doing any serious multimedia work you're not going to buy a cheap card. Hell, my Mac Mini has this dinky 9200 w/32 MB. 32 MB!!! I still manage.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I was just up a the local Microcenter tonight and happened to check out their video card section. For around $50 they had several GeForce4 variants. They also had a few GeForce3 and Radeon 7xxx series for cheaper.

Microcenter and other big computer stores usually have a big bargain/closeout section and they regularly have el-cheapo video cards for $10-20 which would be perfect for your basic needs.

 

[howard]

thanks freakbeak and blackadder,

It really is just to get the computer back up and running. I do audio stuff and I can slave computers to just a few plugins therefore taking a load off of my main computer. The video card won't really be taxed at all. Though it would be nice to through a few pc only games on it Especially considering I won't put any games on my audio mac.

I think it will be nice to have a pc laying around and I can just throw a few bucks into it whenever I have some spare cash to continually upgrade it.

 

[solvs]

Newegg is great. Read the reviews there. Some of us need PCs. Yeah, they suck, but whatever.

 

[feakbeak]

Newegg is great. Read the reviews there. Some of us need PCs. Yeah, they suck, but whatever.

Suck? You do realize after the Intel switch all of a Macs components will be the same as generic PC counterparts.

Perhaps you just meant Windows, where I still may disagree with you a little but the comment would make more sense.