I have an Emachines T2482 2400+ AthlonXP with 1gig ram 300w psu(brand new) (i'd tell you more, but their support site is down ATM.
I don't play games but I want the best card for working with Photoshop CS2. I had a FX5200 128mb if I remember right, and it just died from a frozen fan(HEAT! caps burst). I am now using (hides head) onboard for the moment, and it takes years just to open an image in photoshop. The old card wasn't real bad for image editing, but better is better, and if I have to get a new card, might as well bump it up a bit if it will show an improvement.
I was looking at these cards from tigerdirect as I was already going to order a $10 agp card from them for my sisters machine, she only surfs the web, and I'm not positive that a new video card is all she needs so I don't want to spend too much money there.

OK here are the cards:
DiabloTek Radeon 9600XT 256mb AGP
DiabloTek Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB AGP
Visiontek Radeon X1300 256MB AGP
GeCube Radeon X1300 512MB AGP 8x

I think that I have them listed in order of performance, but I don't know how much of a difference. I know that the flyer is the last one with twice the memory, and the last two seem to be of a more advanced series. I saw the comparer on this site... but didn't see these cards. Is there a site that lets you choose cards and shows you which one is faster and has a ton of cards to choose from? Tiger Direct only compares by showing you the specs.
I kinda want to go and just grab the last one, but every extra dollar gets harder and harder to squeeze out from the mrs.
Would my machine bottleneck any of these cards(I saw one card, not one of these, that said that it was recomended that you have at least a 420w psu)? Would the fastest card here not show me any improvement in image editing, or not enough to bother?
I bought a Radeon 9200 128MB($63), but haven't opened it and I could return it in the morning. I just don't think that it will be any improvement from my old card. Should I just stick with that would I benifit from one of the above cards?
Thanks In Advance.
RDNZL

Wow, thanks for the quick reply!
I asked this question on yahoo Answers a the same time as here, and got a much different response. But you certainly don't know who asnwers the questions there.
I am going to stick with your advice as I read that you are a tester here. Thanks for saving me the extra money.

I know that the biggest difference would be inmeasuring games, but I thought that I would see a decent improvement in PS. I was also thinking that the extra memory would help as opening a 10MP uncompressed image in PS results in a big file while opened, not too mention if you want to use a lot of history states, and then open up several images at once to composite into one.

And I really thought that I had the cards lined up right!!! That is what I hate about computers. I used to do desktop/network support, so I am not a beginner, I am just lacking in knowledge of video cards. And they make the nameing convention of video cards so difficult to understand that even I screwed it up! What is Joe User supposed to do? Trot on down to the Big Box Store and take the commisioned saleamans advice? I go to CompUSA and get answers that I know to be wrong, and research them upon getting home to make sure that the salesman is wrong. So I know that they are no help. It used to be able to tell which Video card (at least from the same chip manu) was better if there was a huge difference. Worse is that now they are doing it with CPU's too huh?

Its also funny that everyone on YA is telling me that the more expensive card will really halpe me... but then the person with the actual experience with real numebers (you) tells me something so different.
Reminds me of how so many motorcyclists will tell you that brand X exhaust pipe will net you 15 to 40 extra horse power. One magazine said that their experience with on bike (GSXR1000, forget year) aftermarket pipes would goanywhere from gaining 2 horsepower to losing 11 HP. And I still heard from friends that owned this bike that they felt huge gains from their aftermarket pipe. I even had a friend that ran a dyno at a shop(Katy TX on HW10, forgot name) tell me how they were warning everyone before purchasing a pipe.
Can't argue with actual experience huh?
Thanks

just to clear up why you noticed a difference going from the 5200 to onboard was simply because the onboard was using up your memory so PS didnt have the full 1gig to work with, if you want 10MP pictures to load up faster you could stick another 1gig of ram in there if you have the expansion lot.

Video cards are talked about and marketed similar to sports cars & superbikes. Unavoidable. :?

The "Big Box" stores are indeed not the place you will find informed salespeople when it comes to video cards. Most of the good ones have left or don't stay there long enough.

btw, CompUSA just closed down their San Jose store in the Winchester Shopping Center. I've heard that the merger with The Goodguys still hasn't improved their bottom line.

For the record, that 9800Pro is the 128-bit memory version . In that case, it and the X1300 probably trade blows in benchmarks.

To the OP: Cleeve is right; Photoshop is much more dependant on CPU and RAM than on video card. The 9200 you bought will work just fine

Actually I am the one that said that not cleeve. He just said I was right.