> > I am having this darn problem with Halo and Far Cry. More than half of the
> > screen is filled with crap, and the game is playing in the upper quarter of
> the
> > screen, in three multiple windows. Happens in fullscreen as well as windowed
> > mode. Anyone ever had this problem? Anyone got a solution?
> >
> > My Specs:
> >
> > P4 2.26 ghz
> > 512mb DDR ram
> > 40GB HDD
> > onboard 64 mb VGA
> > DirectX 9.0b
> >
> > Games like Manhunt, NFSU, Mafia and Warcraft 3 work fine, but I am having the
> > above mentioned problem with Halo and FarCry.
> >
>
> Dump the onboard video and get a real card...
>

I don't think that's quite the solution. However, other than the price, what is more important when comparing vdo cards:

Clock speed?
Fill rate?
Number of Polygons per second?

If card 1 has twice the clock speed and slightly more fill rate, but half the polygon/second of card 2, which one is worth buying?