NEED a Decent CHEAP videocard to last only 8-12 months tops, please provide advice

[RussianSensation]

OK i need some advice for my friend.

My friend has 733 PIII with 384 mb or ram so its an old one
Before he had Geforce Ti 4200 64mb from PNY and now it just died (voltage regulator blew) and he doent have a receipt so he needs to buy a new one. I tested his comp his score in 3dmark 01 was 6500 (when it worked)

lol now back in the days for kicks i put my radeon 8500 64mb and he got 6000 so only 500 difference
(at the time 2 years ago I had Athlon 1600+ and i used to get 8800 and with his geforce 4200 10500!!!)
Just to show to all of you that fast videocard does absolutely nothing when the processor is slow, but thats no news to a gamer

Well anyways the games he wants to play for now are nba live 2003, ghost recon, rouge spear, unreal 1 and maybe medal of honour (but that chopped on his with geforce 4200!!! even at 1024x768) his monitor is only 17 inch so he plays at 1024x768 only.

Now he IS GOING to buy a COMPLETELY NEW SYSTEM in 8 months or 1 year (so means latest videocards, etc.) but he needs a videocard right now for next 8-10 months to do school work, and play some occasional old games mentioned above

I was thinking Radeon 8500le or Radeon 9100 for $50 bucks???
Maybe even geforcemx420? anything cheap because i dont think it will have any affect with his slow system on gaming performance with these games whatsoever (maybe i am wrong?)
i told him i woudlnt spend 20 extra bucks to get geforce 4200 to get extra 500 poitns in 3dmark (he WILL NOT USE any of the existing components - even this videocard he will purchase in his new system, so argument that this geforce 4200 will become all of a sudden fast with the new computer processor isnt valid)

So what is the recommendation for best price/perfomance ratio you guys have ?

 

[Ionizer86]

Yes, Radeon 8500LE or R9100. Not MX420 since it's basically a Geforce 2 MX. He may still want a TI4200 since by the looks of it now, that card is holding value (and performance) like no other.

 

[lameaway]

One question I'd be asking is why exactly the regulator blew - might want to check out that power supply before you drop anything new in there. Secondly, is it possible that you could just solder in a new vreg? Its likely that the board is fried but it'd be worth the whole buck or two it would cost you to try it.

 

[RussianSensation]

Ok basically the voltage regulator has some resedue on the tip of it its looks liek rust

and beside it right on the card itself there are some little plastic bits and one of them around it where its "molded" to the card has samem colour resedue all aroudn it as well so its not just that 1 capacitor thas blown i guess

the card does this:

1fps in games or less not even a slide show it cant do slide show takes 5 min to change from 1 pic to teh next
it flashes contantly black screen on and off every 5 min, the compuer reboots always (so we turned off automatic reboot) so it goes to BSOD instead, its only good for typing but the screen goes all blurry and flashes again every 5 min like i said

its a Dell 8300 system with 200 watt Foxconn power supply

you are suggesting the power supply isnt strong enough for either radeon 8500 or 4200 videocard? well eitehr way if the new card last 8 months and dies it doenst matter cause a new power supply would cost 50 bucks at least!!!
thats too expensive when he is gonna toss this system out the window in 8 months

also his power supply is old it has some weird connector i've never seen that goes into the middle of the motherboard (not 12ATX connector some long thin one his mobo is very old i guess maybe u guys know of power supplies this old)

 

[lameaway]

Nah, what I'm suggesting is that the power supply created a surge or spike in voltage that may have caused the components to fail. Maybe it was just a bad capacitor, I dont know, but I would be wary of trusting components to that power supply. Dell, unfortunately, have their own proprietary PS connectors, who knows why.... meaning getting a replacement will be a bit more difficult than picking one up off the shelf, but probably not too hard. Thats your call there, of course.

Since the card actually does show some signs of life (and the failiures are in through-hole components) I'm optimistic that it can be repaired, probably for only a few dollars in components... maybe you can ask your friend to let you have it when you get the new board and either sell it as a fixer-upper or try repairing it yourself... It'd just be sort of a shame to see that much (mostly) good hardware go to waste over a couple capacitors, you know?

 

[RussianSensation]

I asked my friend and he said if he can get a card for $50 bucks to last him 8 months and even if it fries again he wont care he just needs it until his new computer

my question is he still has this 200 watt power supply

is it sufficient for radeon 8500/9100 or geforce4 ti 4200?

if not how long should he expect those cards to work for before they fry again?

If 200 isnt sufficient then what card that performs fairly well should he get? a Geforce mx 440?