Which Graphics Card?

Hi Friends !

One of my machine is very old having 1GB DDR RAM, AMD Athlon 64bit Processor 2800+ 1.80GHz and ASUS K8X-MS motherboard.
It has onboard SiS Graphics card which doesn't support more than 1024x800 resolution. I have purchased AOC 2216 Monitor and graphics/resolution is very poor. I am dual booting Windows XP SP3 and a lot of Linux distros in this machine.

Which Graphics Card should I buy? Motherboard has AGP 8x, PCI and PCI-e slots. I don't know much about Graphics Cards. I don't have any interest in Games but game support, if possible, will be an added advantage.
Please suggest.

I have checked a few cards at Amazon but as I mentioned earlier, I have no clue if I should buy any of these.
Card 1, Card 2 and Card 3.

Thanx a lot !

** Its my first thread here and I didn't know that thumb down is a default title icon. I should have changed it if I knew.

Ati radeon hd5xxx series graphics cards should work fine for you.

First tell me your budget so I can suggest you the best in your range. You can change the thread icon by editing your main post.

If you use Linux its better you stick with Nvidia cards due to their good driver support in Linux. I think you must be knowing that pretty well.

Actually, I have $100+ in my Amazon.com account. I am in India right now and because of shipping cost+tax, any $45 product will cost me $100+ here.
I was checking Amazon International products and picked 3 cards randomly. I didn't search for more cards because I don't know what should I look for.

papul1993 said:
Ati radeon hd5xxx series graphics cards should work fine for you.

Here is a long list of cards available in $25 - $50 range. As Cool G5 mentioned already, ATI Cards do not work fine in Linux and I am a Linux user only. I have installed Windows OS for a very few specific tasks only.

Cool G5 said:
First tell me your budget so I can suggest you the best in your range. You can change the thread icon by editing your main post.

Any card in $45 range from Amazon International.

Cool G5 said:
If you use Linux its better you stick with Nvidia cards due to their good driver support in Linux. I think you must be knowing that pretty well.

Yes, Nvidia driver support is much better than ATI Cards and I prefer Nvidia only. I have used Nvidia Geforce 4MX Series Card in the same machine. Worked fine for a 3-4 years.

Here is a list of Nvidia Cards in < $50 range.

Thanx a lot both of you.

** Edited thread title Icon. Thanx Cool G5 !

Try if you can get 9600GT. Brands to look out are Palit & Zotac. Don't fall for XFX.

@Cool G5.. any particular reason why not to choose XFX.. i think that it has the best quality among the graphics card vendors..

^ most of the XFX cards are best known for it's frying pan issues. Go for EVGA or Zotac.

I don't think so.. I had purchased 3 cards in my lifetime...

XFX 5200 FX

XFX 8600 GT 512 MB DDR2
XFX 4870 1 GB GDDR5

I haven't encountered any issues with these cards.. more over.. my friend has XFX 8800 GT 512 MB with Zalman Cooler.. no issue with that too..more than 2 years old that one..

^^ XFX is good but their distributors, Rashi Peripherals. they not anywhere near average. forget good.

hellknight said:
I don't think so.. I had purchased 3 cards in my lifetime...

XFX 5200 FX
XFX 8600 GT 512 MB DDR2
XFX 4870 1 GB GDDR5

I haven't encountered any issues with these cards.. more over.. my friend has XFX 8800 GT 512 MB with Zalman Cooler.. no issue with that too..more than 2 years old that one..

lucky dude(s). But many XFX owners reported that their cards are turning into pans.

Regarding Rashi.. they just need to be pressed a little bit more.. my friend had a 7600 GT and it went kaput due to faulty PSU.. but it was still in warranty, he sent it for replacement to Rashi. But 7600 GT was phased out by NVIDIA so the guys at Rashi Peripherals sent him a brand new XFX 9600 GT !!!

I had used XFX 5200 FX and XFX 7600GT.
I had no issue in the past.
At least XFX good for me.
But I have no idea about Rashi cos mu cards never went for RMA.
But recently got Palit 9600GT.
It gone kaput after first 30min.....

It got RMA from Tirupati Kolkata.
But card still running too much hot @65C-80C.
I will never buy Palit anymore.