I want to replace my aged TNT2 Ultra with something newer and quieter. I play some Quake III but not very often (and I feel it plays fine now). I have an Intel D865PERL motherboard, which has AGP, PCI but no PCI express.

I don't want to spend more than $150 (and the lower the better).

The CPU is a P4 3.2Ghz and I have 1GB RAM.

Any recommendations? Thanks guys.

-Zeke

I think BestBuy will have an ATI X700 for 99 bucks on Black Friday.

It's not confirmed, but it's listed as:
ATi Radeon X700 Pro 256MB GDDR3 AGP Graphics Card (AR) $99.99

That's after rebate, so I'm not sure what the purchase price is.

Edit: It is currently listed on their site for $199.99

How good are these cards?

CHAINTECH Geforce FX5500 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - $62

SAPPHIRE LB Radeon 9250 256MB DDR PCI Video Card - $62

POWERCOLOR Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - $64

I´m looking for a card as well. I´m going by the reviews here that these are decent cards for the price, but some expert opinions would be appreciated.

Old tech. What are you going to use it for?

Is it a quiet card? The card manfuacturers don't seem to advertise db levels for comparison.

-Zeke

Unsure. I don't have that card. Sorry.

That is a good price.

-Zeke

I put an ASUS EN6200TC in my quiet PC about six months ago. It was a generation (now two) behind the bleeding (and screaming) edge but it performs quite satisfactorily for me and has no fan which makes it a winner. Unfortunately it is PCIe.

Don't get a GeForce FX5xxx, they are brutally slow.

Assuming you want at least one DVI output the ASUS N6200 (GF6200 with 128MB for $60) looks like a reasonable (again, two generations behind, but not actually a bad chip, and the card is fanless) solution. If you prefer an ATI chipset, you can get a fanless 9600 from Sapphire for $67 on Newegg.

Note that with a fanless board you do have to worry somewhat about the airflow in the video card area. A severely cramped or poorly designed case might pose problems even though these cards do run relatively cool. But if you think you can pull it off I highly recommend it, as video card fans tend to be by far the loudest component of any otherwise well-made system.

edit: apparently I can't post links , look for any of the parts i've listed on froogle or newegg.

At the top end of your price range but also quite good performance is the Gigabyte GV-NX66T128VP

nVidia 6600 GT
No fan at all (silent pipe but means your case cooling should be good)
HDTV out

I've just bought one but havent picked it up yet. We have a machine at work with the AGP version and it works fine.

In the end I went with a fanless MSI FX5200 TD128 Quiet Video Card. It may be a P.O.S., I have no idea, but I figured that in any case it's probably better than my current card, which I have no problem with. At $70 it's no big deal if I don't like it. I also got a Zalman CNPS9500 fan/heatsink.

After poking around I noticed that my current heat sink's mount bracket is loose on one side, so the heatsink only contacts about 1/2 the cpu (even with grease).

The Zalman and the new video card should quiet this thing right down. I already had a quiet power supply from PC Power and Cooling.

Here's hoping!

-Zeke

All quiet on the NH front. Zalman install was tricky, requiring four hands, but the new video card works well and the Zalman (with the fan off) keeps my CPU < 125 deg. F. The old fan was never under 130 degrees, usually 170 when the CPU was taxed. I don't think I've broken 135 yet.

-Zeke