Advice for the technology-challenged

Aight so I've been waiting to play this game for quite some time now, with money from recent snow shovling and hopefully a good report card, I can buy a good enough graphics card to play City of Heroes.

However, I am no where near a computer-savvy kinda guy. Just bunch of X's, digits, wires, something about a mom... But, I do know what require ments my computer needs to play the game. I looked em up on best buy and since I'm going with the $80 one(s), its between a BFG Asylum GeForce MX 4000 Graphics Card and a VisionTek Xtasy RADEON 9200 SE Graphics Card . They both cost the same, but which one would be more recomended for City of Heroes, for Windows XP?

I'm not sure about the BFG Asylum/VisionTek Xtasy but I have a Radeon 9200 and a Geforce4 MX and the Radeon gives 5fps more on ESF. I've had no troubles with either card but i'd go with the Radeon.

agreed, ATI is the better card

I see...I see...Well, my thanks for the recommendations

No problem, let me know how it works out for you, and enjoy City of Heroes, I hear there is a 'City of Villains' expansion pack coming out too.

Ok....I had best buy install the card..Take it home, monitor doesn't work. It's powered on, but as soon as it gets plugged into the comouter, it goes into it's stand by mode. didn't see that comming -_-. So, any suggestions?

Neither one of those is good at all. I've been reading around and it seems a majority of the 6200 cards can softmod to a 6600(Non GT) and then can be overclocked to no end. Get this: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-110&depa=0

Or atleast try to. The MX4000 card is just utter ****, 'cuse the language. The 9200SE is also just ****, sorry again. A softmodded and overclocked 6200 can rival a 9800XT. To softmod it grab rivatuner ( www.guru3d.com ) and do this: http://www.gzeasy.com/nparticle.asp?aTitle=UNIKA+GeForce+6200+AGP&offset=2

It's in chinese, but you can tell what they're doing by the pictures. Then overclock it to your hearts content, they're beasts. That'll outdo any MX4000/9200SE by atleast 2-3X.

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Looks like I am too late, sorry for your loss of 80 dollars :/. About the blank moniter, try putting your old GFX card in see if the new one is the problem. I have a feeling Best Buy didn't check to make sure it worked, or maybe they didn't uninstall the old drivers. Who knows? Best Buy sucks balls, they really do. They probably didn't even ground themselves. Take it back and raise some hell.

If you do go 6200, do not get the Turbo Cache. It's for PCI-E only, though. And I'm assuming that you're still AGP.

Well i ain't too much an inernet gamer, so those cards seem to overqualify my lifestyle...I think. As long as my card can play cityof heroes fine, im ok with it. But now I/we gotta take it back to best buy cuz ithink they ****ed up with the installation. Waste my saturday...Oh well, it's worth to get it i guess.

Well considering that almost every 9200SE I've seen on newegg is about half what you paid, I'd say you were ripped off. Also, it has only 64bit memory. Its bandwidth is horrid. Please, for me and for yourself take it back and get atleast a GeForce 4 Ti4200 or a Radeon 9600XT or something. You'd definitely notice a difference.

But... I guess if you feel that 10-20 FPS is all right, that's fine. I did too on my old computer until I upgraded, and now I'm spoiled. I can't stand anything under 50 now, so I overclock to get the max out of everything. Mah.

A Geforce 4 MX4000 will get around 300 points in 3dmark03 due to lack of any DX8/9 capabilities, so it really sucks there. A Radeon 9200SE will get around 900 because of it's lack of DX9 capabilities. A GeForce 6200 will get probably 5000 stock, and up to around 7-7.5k with overclocking and unlocking.

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My mistake, a GeForce 4 MX4000 will get around 50-150 points in 3dmark03.

Highest MX4000 3dmark03 : 152
Highest 9200SE 3dmark03 : There are no 9200SE selections on the project viewer. I'd guess around 1200-1500.
Highest 6200 3dmark03 : 8052

Ok, this being the 1st graphics card I ever had,i failed to hear the guy when he said "put the monitor plug in the second blue slot"...So now it's working and city of heroes runs great, thank you for the grahpic tips ravendust and smith.