Ok, heres my story....

I'd like to get the best card I can get for somewhere around the price range of $100 - $150 (a little more if necessary). I just need something to do me probably at the most 6 months, then I should be getting a Alienware system.

My currenty system (Vaio) that I've had for about 3 months came with a Geforce4 MX440 card. While this card holds it own with most of my games, it runs Battlefield 1942 terriable.

Not sure if it matters or not, but I'll list a couple specs and maybe someone can suggest to me a card best suited for my system.

P4 2.66ghz 533bus
4x AGP Slot on Motherboard
512mb DDR (2100 i think)
15" Sony LCD Monitor

What I really want a new card for is Halo, but ive read about Halo giving the best systems problems, and running fine on Medium Grade (for lack of a better term) Systems.

Overall I'd like to stick with nVida, but since everyone has their own opinon on which brand to get, just suggest whichever you think would be best.

Thanks

Get a Geforce 4 Ti4200, that played BF1942 perfectly for me! Others will have their opinions but thats mine, and you can get one for about $90 using the pricewatch section of our website! Leaving you enough to buy yourself some more memory for you computer(like an extra 256mb)....

Halo is power hungry and will bring most systems to their knees. I have ATI 9600 Pro and AMD 3200+ (OC 1700+) system and Halo is fine most of the time, but really grinds whenever there is action going on (you can even count the frames in some sections of the game - its that slow). I run with max details at 1024*786, so that probably doesn't help, though I don't enable FSAA or AF because then Halo would be unplayable. It looks good even without those visual enhancements, and I'm enjoying playing Halo.

Hey NIC what type of cooling do you use to OC that far??

Heres an article about how alot of cards handle BF42 http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/radeon_9800-31.htmlhope it helps make up your mind.I have the 9700pro and never have any problems

Like I said before though, just get a Ti4200, it runs fine, that benchmark(from the post before mine) doesnt even include the Ti4200. You said you're only going to use if for about 4 months, just get a ti4200 for $90 off our pricewatch...you wont regret it!

ATi Radeon 9600XT... you get Half Life 2 FREE... and it's crazy fast... and looks crazy cool..

the radeon 9600 pro (or maybe 9500 pro if you are lucky) is a good card if you want to spend about $150. it is a good dx9 card. if you are going to play just dx8 games for the time being then maybe you could save some money and get a ti 4200, as someone else recommended before, since it's going to be six months before you get your mega gaming rig. i can attest (from late night gaming sessions) that the ti series from nvidia are great.

why maybe 9500Pro? the 9600Pro is better isn't it?

I've got a 9800Pro so i don't care either way ;D

the 9600 pro wil do... as hl2 is delayed and your getting a new system soon it would be best to get a 9600pro they're not to dear and delliver great performence

my votes on the NV36 (FX 5700 Ultra) - more or less 5800 performance (especially with the 52.14 drivers) for less than $200
goto be the way to go!

Steg

no, its not all that fast, i just read a review at anandtech (forgot the url but its on their homepage), and its only about 2-5% faster than the 9600 pro and 20% slower than the 9800XT, not even the 9700pro performance ATi promised

9500pro was based on the same core as the 9700/9800 pro, a .15micron process with 8 rendering pipelines. infact many were able to "soft mod" it to a 9700pro. the memory bus was cut to 128bit and ran at a lower clock than the 9600pro, the 8 pipelines made it more efficient.

the 9600 pro was based on an all new .13 micron core with 4 pipelines. the smaller core meant better heat transfer and it was able to be pushed to higher clocks, especially memory, which many people have pushed to 700mhz.

the 9600 pro is a great buy, as i have one. my frend has a ti4200 and he is happy with it. we both get 100fps in cs at 1280*1024

i dont know about the nv36. remeber when the nv34 (fx5600 and 5800?) came out? the previous generation outpaced it and it was embarrasing. however, the core is new and the fx5700 may end up like the fx5900. i hope the nv36 is a success, or nVIDIA is in for some big trouble

g-force 4 ti4200

im with the g-force 4 ti4200 its cheap and effective for bf 1942. thats what use and it works great i love it i only wish i would have waited a bit longer to get it for $90