i keep hearing about unlocking pipes. what is that all about?
Okay some cores are made to have say 16 pixel pipelines on them, however sometimes to be able to make a cheaper card manufactures will make a model that is the same core, but like 4 pipelines are locked so that they can take some of the price off. Now some manufactures will just lock the pipelines (such as Sapphire, Connect 3D) however most will physically laser cut the pipelines.
can i do that on a geforce4 max 4000
No.
will a pci card be better than my geforce 4 max 4000
No. Stick to AGP
to run some of my games I need a pixel shader card. what card has that capability.
Any newer card will. The nVidia 6200 / ATi 9600 or above will work.
Cheers
Cameron