"Pedro Duarte" wrote in message
...

Hi !

I'm planning to buy a geforce FX5200 but I'm having difficulties on
choosing one ...

There are fx52000 from asus, msi, xelo and others.

Is it so important to choose a brand ? My biggest concert is about the
quality of the picture from the card - monitor output. That is : good
picture definition, color fidelity.

If so, what is the brand I should choose that matches the above
quality criteria ?

I'm not too much concerned about performance.

Thanks

With video cards, the chipset is usually more important than the brand, and
you won't see picture quality differences between brands with the same
chipset. Different brands and models can add extra features, such as more
memory, overclocking drivers, games, etc, and of course there will be
variations in build quality. Better known brands will also be a bit more
expensive. The best way to pick a brand is to check their web site and see
what sort of support is offered.

Having used both FX5200 nividia and 9600 ATi Radeon cards on the same
monitor, I can say that the ATi card definitely has the edge in terms of
picture quality. Matrox cards probably have the best picture quality of all,
but its splitting hairs at that point. Also, be careful if you intend to use
the FX5200 card with an LCD monitor, because there are some known
incompatibilities with the DVI output of this chip (but analogue is no
problem).

Keithm