Nvidia 64 MB GeForce4 MX440 AGP Video Card

With computer hardware it really depends on you own actual needs as to whether something suits your purpose. The MX440 is no use for the top of the range modern games (I'm writing this in January 2009) but I'm putting together a small collection of older computers capable of playing some older games for some gaming nights with friends and for this purpose the MX440 is brilliant. Most of the versions I've picked up are passively cooled, so no problems with fans wearing out or sticking. It's got 64MB of onboard ram, most games from about 5 years back required less so that's fine, and the graphics chip itself has hardware transform and lighting which was a big positive when games went to DirectX 7 (more of the 3D calculations can be done on the card directly without having to go back out to the CPU so it's faster). Couple this card with a 1Ghz (1000Mhz) processor and the machine will play Unreal Tournament 2004 with no problems at all.

One last point. Rather than using the latest drivers from Nvidia, go back to about version 53.xx. According to a lot of sites, this version also gave a little hardware support to Vertex Shaders (DirectX 8) giving a boost to some more recent games. This was apparently disabled in later drivers. Windows XP has built in drivers for the MX440 (it will automatically install some drivers) which is fine, but you won't be able to play games that were written using OpenGL. If you intend to play these games then you're best to upgrade to the drivers from the Nvidia site.

They are cheap usually around £5. They enable you to use compiz 3d desktop in linux and have TV out (SVHS). They work well with open arena in linux. The drivers are not open source but nvidia provided. I use ubuntu 8.04. Go to administration. Then hardware drivers. And enable nvidia restricted driver.

Does exactly what it says on the tin, as they say. I wanted this card to use on Linux ( Mandriva) to replace an older NVidia card. There was an immediate improvement all round. I'm not a gamer online or offline so I can't comment on its capabilities on that score. Linux 'read' the new card straightaway - no downloads no installs no nothing - it just 'worked' as soon as I booted up. Now with GL Google earth works a treat.
The fan is a handy basic part of the spec too whereas some of the larger NVidia cards dont seem to carry one and overheating can be a problem if used at full load for any amount of time. The MX440 fan is totally silent too - nice little card for slightly lower spec machines. I'm happy with it. Bargain from ebay too.