when it comes to Ati vs nVidia it really just comes down to a matter of personal preference. they both have fanboys who swear the other is garbage. yrs ago nVidia had the edge, but today is really doesn't matter, both are good quality high perf cards. I personally have always used nVidia and never had a problem, I know others just the opposite with Ati.
it really doesn't matter which card of the 2 you get as your CPU is at least 3yr old technology (possibly 5yrs old) , which means you go to high end on the video and its just a waste of money, with your CPU and 1G of RAM you will never use the full power of either of those 2 cards your looking at.
your current video card is 5 Major generations old (Radeon X1K series (this is you), Radeon 9 series, Radeon HD 2000, Radeon HD 3000, Radeon HD 4000 Series (what your looking at) you'd do just fine looking at the Ati 2000 or 3000 series and possibly saving a little money and be closer to being able to harness the full power of the card.
make sure of the version of your video slot (AGP/PCIe) with a 3-5yr old CPU I have to ask how old is the system? it is possible that you have an AGP slot not a PCIe slot, my guess (without more info) is that your system was built at about the time PCIe was becoming the standard but AGP was still available and widely used, I cannot say which slot your on without knowing the board your running (or the computer manufac and model) because Intel has used the same CPU socket for 5yrs and the video card series you have is available in both AGP and PCIe.
as well the 2 cards you are looking at are PCIe 2.0, which I am positive your system is not even if you have a PCIe slot, your board is probably not new enough (based on your CPU) to be running a PCIe 2.0 bus, another reason you will never use the full potential of either card you are looking at, your video bus will only be running at half what those cards are capable of running at, they will still run just not as fast as they are designed to run.
for the rest of you responding...come on guys, don't just jump on the wagon of offering your opinion on the card someone should get, take a look at the facts of the system they are running, tell them the truth about weather or not the system can use or is even compatible with what the OP is looking for. give them the information they NEED to make an educated decision instead of leading them into something that may not even be compatible such as if he is actually AGP rather than PCIe, his CPU raises the question of how old the system and infact possibly dates it to a time when AGP was still available and used on mainboards. anyone who knows what they are talking about should key to that. I know that some of you do know what your talking about but failed to pay attention to that or chose to ignore it.
