Better video card possible?

Hi,
I just bought a new monitor. A 19" wide screen Acer and I'm having a few problems. I know my computer isn't new or up to date at all and I just wanted to know what upgrades are possible for my system. I have a Dell Dimension 8250 and am running XP. I have downloaded Everest and CPUz. I'm not really worried about displaying in the possible 1440x900 res. because I plan on getting a better machine in the future but for now I want to see if I can upgrade my video card to help out. Here is some info I got from CPUz and Everest.
Graphic Interface.
Version: AGP version 2.0
Transfer Rate: 4x Max supported: 4x
Video Adapter: nVidia Geforce 4 MX 420
Bus type: DDR

I would greatly appreciate if you could maybe recommend a video card if possible. Thanks again. I will post anything else you need if you ask and tell me where to find it...

 

you could try

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241073

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161226

 

Unfortunately, the AGP platform is on it's way out, and the selection of available cards is pretty slim. You have fairly low end cards, and really high end cards, and not alot in the middle, though Spec's first link above is a decent mid-grade card; it sure is a massive improvement over your current card. Since you are planning on getting a more current PC in the near future, you may not want to spend too much on an AGP card that you probably will only use for a short time, as just about any new PC you get won't have an AGP slot. So the link above to the HD2600 is probably a good idea. There are cheaper cards available (FX5200, FX6200 from nVidia) that are still an improvement over your current card, and they run about $40 - $60 new, less on eBay for used ones. You didn't mention your RAM specs; adding more RAM is a quick, easy, inexpensive way to increase performance, so take that into consideration too. But again you run into the fact that just about any new PC won't use the type of RAM your current PC uses (almost all newer PCs use DDR2) so you may not want to spend too much here either.....

 

Yeah,
I did consider upgrading my memory but I found I already go the best I can for it using crucial's memory selector. I only have 2x 256 DRAM cards and according to the site its the best I can get. Thanks for looking out. I am considering just spending the money I have now to buy a motherboard and processor and slowly build up more parts from there... I think that would be more cost efficient. Thats what the monitor was for. I only want to spend roughly $450 on those two... I'm hoping thats enough to pick up a very nice motherboard and CPU. Any suggestions?

 

try

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136044

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211064

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229

price: $455.86 (shipping incl)

quite a nice upgrade from what you had before, if you ask me


(300th post!!! I am now officially a "specialist")

 

i would drop the processor a touch and boost the ram to 2 gigs personally
as an example get this cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103771
and this ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134488

just my humble opinion