i am using geforce4 mx 440 64mb , i can't set water effect to high which is the best gfx card available in the market at low price. my system is

P4 2.0GHZ
256 MB RAM
60 GB HDD

Hate to say it but I think "best graphics card" and "low price" are mutually exclusive terms  .

According to the various sites that rate graphics cards... the ATI Raedon 9800xt is the overall winner in the "graphics wars",......... but it carries a heafty $450 USD +/- price tag.

Try the "Hardware" forum... there are some threads there on graphics cards.  In a few of them there are some performance comparison graph fropm Tom's Hardware Guide.  It gives the relative performance characteristics via a benchmark test.  You can look at that nad then research prices....and make an informed decision from that.

But as to fs2004........ the tests of graphuics cards and the performance you actually get seem to have only a LOOSE correlation.  A lot depends on the synergy between the various parts of your system.

best,

....................john

As a recommendation from me (based on what you have said already), i would look at a ATi Radeon 9600 (not the 9600se model).  You can set the water setting to high and it will stay high.  A Geforce 5200 will not allow you to set it to high, neither will a Radeon 9200.

If you are wondering the difference between high and low.  High has more water depth (and curves) and low has pretty much flat water.

Low:


High: