Here is a steal. Think I'll get it. Nvidia is just too damn expensive on the low end.

Great deal - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102829

5000 series option - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102877

Whatcha think? The only advantage I can see going with 5000 series is they fixed a few of the driver features which I doubt will be used and power consumption will be less.

i'd say like a lower end GT would be fine..
i am a nvidia only person...
sorry

All three ATI cards will do just fine. Just a matter of price. Really if they are going to do anything but surf the web, watch video clips, internet TV, etc. then I would just go with the cheapest.

I hear ya man. As of now all they are going to do is need a card to just output video. I'm just trying to think ahead. They are going from a P4 w/HT, 512mb RAM, and onboard intel crap VGA to a fast ass rig. I was thinking along the lines of long term since having a rig this fast will certainly expand their possibilities with computers vs their current setup. I found a cheap GT210 so I'm gonna go with that. I personally like ATI myself, but with the current bitching about shitty driver releases lately, I am gonna go with ncrap this time.

I would look to the 9600 GT

this card could give you a decent boint potencial for a quick session before you install it.

It would also do playback & give them good desk top preformance

O yea did I say great for a quick boint sesion .......... lmao

http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/...=gpubenchmarks

I got one of these for loading OSs and putzing. It's $60 though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102882

3DMark06 is like a slide show so a gamer its not, but it is a 5000 series, HDCP ready, DX11, 1 GB of DDR3, and no noise at all (with no fan).

I'll bench it first on the SR-2 just for a laugh.

Make a video... If the cpu frames are better than gpu frames that would be epic.

I ran a few benchmarks with it on my email rig......way late and a real joke to post on an overclocking forum LOL.
I played SOFII with it (very old game) and I couldn't tell the difference between it and a 5870 Eyefinity 6 card.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=6364738

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=14706196

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm05=2337008

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...0/th_12613.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...50/th_4235.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...50/th_8998.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...0/th_29084.jpg