A Good Graphics card for around $300

Well I'm not to sure of the difference between Aust. and U.S. prices so I give them to you in US currency. You can get a Voodoo 3500 which as an excellent 2/3d card for around $250. This card has excellent 3D acceleration and 2D is great as well. Comes in AGP and includes 16megs of SRAM. Another good on is the nVidia RIVA TNT 2 or ULTRA. Both come with 32 megs of SDRAM and come in AGP 4X. These run from $130 - 200 depending on which one and where you get it. Your best bet is to look online or get a mail order catalog. Hopes this helps.

Wow man thats around $200 US. You can get a Creative Labs GeForce SDR for that much at www.buy.com, you can't beat that card at that price. It has 32Mb ram and has the latest NVidia GeForce chipset. If you haven't read about it on every other web site, this card supports T&L (Transform and Lighting). This function was previosly performed by the CPU making the performance of games and graphics heavily cpu dependent. Now since the GeForce offloads this from the cpu games no longer are that heavily dependent on your cpu speed. The 3DFX family of cards do not support this technology, now with many games coming out that utilise this T&L it would be good to get a GeForce, especially if you don't have a very good cpu.

You can check out a number of benchmarks comparing most of the cards at either www.3dgpu.com or www.tweak3d.net, just follow their links. For old games the Voodoo 3500 would be good but since you have the money spend it so that the card will last you for a long time.

By the way the GeForce is the first GPU (Graphics Processor Unit). Hope this little summary helps, there are many more details that make the GeForce special but they are easy to find by a little bit of searching, you can go to www.nvidia.com and check it out too.

you can get the DDRAM version for $300.  best video card in the world but I wont elaborate as sandman has done a very good job of advertising it.  I will say that this is the worlds first GPU and as sandman mentioned, runs independantly from the system with it's own processor.

1cell, it's $300 Australian and not US LOL.....

what's the conversion anyway?  i saw that but.......

GeForce is not bad, but there are some compatibility-problems with some games like UT. A 3Dfx Card like Voodoo 3 3000 (it's cheaper than the 3500 and with a cooler on it you can speed up the 3000 without any problems) there will be NO Problems.

The drivers are still not mature. But Catfish you are right about the Voodoo 3 being a powerhouse. It is very powerful but since it doesn't have T&L it'll get outdated fast. That's why 3DFX is coming out with V5 and V6, they are going for fill rate while NVIDIA is going for polygons. Makes a big difference especially when most of the upcoming games support T&L (Quake 3 supports it partially, that's why it runs better on a GeForce).

Try www.Matrox.com

Millennium  G400 MAX  32 MB @ $245 US
At the heart of this latest innovation is the Millennium G400’s unique DualHead Display, an ingenious new feature that enables a single graphics card to power two separate display screens simultaneously, using a wide range of operational modes and intuitive software tools designed to increase productivity and enhance home entertainment.
Download the Matrox .pdf to review all the features.

The new Millennium G400 Series allows digital imaging and 2D/3D graphic design professionals to increase the overall usability of their computers.

try checking www.pricewatch.com

Well if you are specifically looking for DualHead Display then G400 is for you, however for the long term I would still stick with the GeForce, the FPS (Frame Rates per Second) is far better in the GeForce than the G400.

The computer is an AMD K6-2 450MHz with 3D Now! This may help?!?

Check this out to help you decide!

http://www.matrox.com/mga/feat_story/jan2000/graphicscards_explain.htm
Everything you need to know about Graphics Cards

http://www.matrox.com/mga/press_room/awards/awards_g400usa.htm   AWARDS
http://www.matrox.com/mga/press_room/awards/awards_g400aus.htm    AWARDS Australia

http://www.matrox.com/mga/press_room/reviews/millg400.htm   Reviews

http://www.matrox.com/mga/home.htm

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/home.htm

http://shop.matrox.com/usa/

http://shop.matrox.com/usa/products/cat_summary.asp?Dep=2    PRICES

Hello my name is wayne i'm from sydney
and for me your best bet is the 32mb Diamond viper V770  TNT ultra I assume its an agp your are after .With 32mb you can have 1600 x1200 if your monitor can handle it The sydney trading post had this card for sale for $310. I think if its for gaming power this will do the Job.

Dool, it appears that you are new to this forum. The protocol is that you don't post answers but post comments. This allows the person who asked the question to get more exposure so that other experts can help out. If the person asking the question thinks that your comment is approriate then he/she can accept your comment as an answer. So kindly follow the protocol.

About the Diamond Viper V770, the Matrox is certainly a better card as far as image quality is concerned, I don't think that buying the Diamond Viper should even be an option, not only that comparing prices $310 Australian is way too much for the card.

ran1, the Matrox is an awesome card however as I have said many times before it isn't going to last long. I wouldn't rely on what the company says about their own cards, I would rather rely on other benchmarks and other sources of information that other hardware experts have posted. That is why I suggested going to some hardware sites and checking up what they have to say as far as comparing the graphics cards.

TawVb, I suggest going to some of the sites that I have suggested and taking a look for yourself how the GeForce compares with other cards, www.tomshardware.com is another very good site, they have many benchmarks there.

here's another site good for reviews.
www.sharkyextreme.com

Thanks all!!