I am running a p3 550 356mb ram
And I am looking for the best bang for the buck videocard for MAYA, and 3dsmax.  I have looked all over for this answer but am unsure.  I see the chioces as..
A unlocked Geforce2 card (mx, ti, gts, pro?)
a unlocked Geforce3 card (can these be unlocked?)
The geforce 4mx card (Dont think these can be unlocked)
3dlabs gvx1
Everything else seems too expensive.
I have looked up so many sites and now have no idea! all the information i find is a couple of years old.  
thanks for any input

What do you mean by unlocking a graphics card?
If you mean overclocking, all graphics cards can be overclocked for all I know...
 
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sight...best bang for your buck would be to upgrade your cpu man...especially for making final renders which is all proc.
 
If you refuse to do that, your only choice is to buy a GeForce 2 Ultra or GTS and unlock it and install the quadro2 drivers.  No other GeForce cards can be converted.  Gf4 MX performes the Exact same as a GF2 GTS or ultra anyhow.  
 
If you wanna do it the right way then upgrade to a p4 1.8ghz with 512 rdram on an Asus P4t Motherboard and get an Elsa 700GXL Quadro 4.  You could get all that for about 1200USD.
 
nVidiot: Message board Troll employed by nVidia to terrorize aTidiots.

Don't go with a GF4MX. Go with the ti version of 2 or 3.
 
If you can find it on the internet, it HAS to be true!  

MSI G2TI PRO-T, GEFORCE 2, TITANIUM, 64MB DDR, TV OUT $178
MSI GF3 TI200 128MB DDR TVOUT $251.9
MSI GF4 MX440 64MB DDR TVOUT $160.6
 Would any of these be a good choice?, CDN $$$
the geforce 2 and i think the geforce 3 can be unlocked to Quadro, but i am not sure how much of a difference is gained between a gf2/quadro and a gf3/quadro.
I think they all may be faster than a 3dlabs GVX1 that cost $655 canadian