[angeltherat]

ok, i have a dell dimension 8200. my current card is a NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500. my monitor is a samsung 932BW.

until this morning i have had no problem, but when i turned on my computer, suddenly my graphics went all to ... well, crap. what used to be clear and precise is now all fuzzy. i have tried everything i can think of to get it back to what it was, system restore, delete and redetect the monitor and graphics card on the device manager, reinstall the drivers, reinstall the monitor software... nothing helped.

so now i am making the big step to getting a new graphics card. my computer is many many years old, but it seems to be holding up just fine, but i have wanted a new graphics card for some time. i just needed the right excuse, and now i have it.

but which one should i get?
i don't do much gaming, but i do do alot of image work on photoshop.

[Compiler]

It sounds more like a monitor problem than a video card. Please borrow another monitor and see if that works. This is true especially with CRTs. My old 19" $650 pro-grade Samsung was getting slowly fuzzy in its age. Its fine in 1280x1024 - but it supports 2050x1400 res... Not that I used it that high. A spanking new LCE is so much sharper with DVI and I gained a huge amount of desk-space.

If its still your video card:

With a computer that old, and I used to own a GF3 series card, you'll need something that won't tax your PSU and will work with AGP. Your choices are limited but at least you're not trying to play games.

I'd recommend any GeForce card within your budget or ATI card. But one without A FAN. Fans on low-end cards have a high failure-rate.
This one has dual output (VGA / DVI) $35 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150239
The GF5200 is about the same as a GF3 card... useless for todays games, but fine for desktop.

If you want more 3D power and perhaps a bit better desktop - the 7600gs at $85: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125039

[angeltherat]

my monitor is only a few months old. it is an LCD, one of the widescreen ones. i have had monitor problems before. this is not the fuzzy like taking your glasses off, everything fuzzy, it is like the pixel sharpening feature just went offline. in fact it kind of looks like it did when i first hooked up the monitor, but then it asked me if i wanted widescreen support, and i said yes, and everything went sharp. which is why i took the monitor off and put it back on.

[Compiler]

Well... GF3 cards didn't have DVI support. With a newer card - the DVI will make your display look quite a bit better. But it could still be your monitor.

You'll have to order that card... Depending on where you live and you order before noon, you can have it in 1-3 days.

BTW, I added info to my first post to you.

[angeltherat]

thanks for the info. i appreciate it greatly.