Card advice

[Cirrex]

I have 2 comps and just bought a 3rd. One of these will be going to the in-laws for very basic uses. The other 2 will remian at home for gaming etc.

Comp 1 has 256MB Radeon 9800XT AGP (2.6G Pentium 4 w/ Windows xp 1G RAM)
Comp 2 has 256MB nVidia GeForce 7600 GS (2G Pent4 w/ Windows XP 1G RAM)
New Comp comes with 256MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache (2 Dual Core Processor 6420 w/ Vista 4G RAM)

Which 2 cards do I keep for gaming, and which card goes to the in-laws for internet surfing and printing photos of the grandkid?

This is a great site, and I have been reviewing these cards, but the Radeon is from 2003 and I am having trouble finding current info to compare it against the newer Nvidia cards.

Thanks for your input.

[Eric]

well depends on what type they are are they all AGP or some PCI-E?

ID give him the 7300LE its the lesser card of the 3

Video card specs stay the same unless over-under clocked so it doesnt matter how old the card is the specs will match the ones on this site if its the same make.

[KARacing]

I would agree on giving up the 7300LE - the primary reason is the TurboCache...
You may also want to check on the memory amount - is the 256MB you mentioned what is showing in the properties or is that what is advertised as physical memory on the card?

The TurboCache technology is great for office use but SUCKS for gaming. It "shares" memory with the system to increase the amount of reported and used memory. In most cases these cards have 64MB to 128MB of physical memory and increase the allocation by sharing memory with the system, which is slower that dedicated video memory.

[Radiator]

If I were you , I'd replace the 7300 LE with a good graphics card ... a 8600GT or a 8800 GTS 320MB ( two cards with great performance-to-price ratio , the 8800 GTS 320MB outperforms the 8600 GT by quite a large margin ) .
Then , I'd put the 7600 GS in the P4 2.6 ghz and the 9800 XT in the 2 ghz P4 and take the 2 ghz P4 with the 9800 XT to work or whatever you planned to do with it ( use it as the non-gaming one ) . Just a suggestion .
Otherwise use the new PC with the crappy 7300 LE , for surfing or w/e .