Hello Mike,. I am currently using an nVidia 7900 GTS XXX card, and have no
problems running Vista, or Aero. I have seen it online recently, it is still
available, but you can get an 8600 GT XXX for 119.99 after rebate on Tiger
Direct right now.
( 139.99 before rebate ) {{ Link at bottom }} It has support for
DirectX 10 the next Gen nVidia GPU but I'm not gonna lie to you, this card
only has HALF the Bandwidth ( @ 22.4 GB per Sec ) of my 7900 GTS XXX @ 44 GB
per Sec. BUT it does have DX 10 Support and the next gen Graphics GPU from
nvidia. It has 32 Stream processors ( new improved " Pixel Pielines " if you
will, and 256 Mb of GDDR3.
Core Clock = 620 Mhz
Mem Clock = 1600 Mhz
Shader Clock = 1190 Mhz
32 Stream Processors
So it's not a bad card. My HP Laptop has the nVidia 8400GS Chipset and it
runs Vista Quit Nicely.
( 8800's have 96 - 128 Stream Processors and 320-640-768 Mb of GDDR3 Mem,.
but are 400.00 or Higher ) So,. it all depends on what YOU need the PC to
do, and how well you want it to do it. ( NOTE ) Keep in mind, you also
will need to find drivers to make your card work for Vista if you go with an
older card. Shoot me an email if you have any ?'s. I hope this is helpfull
to you. l8r
{ Link }
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3258838&CatId=1560