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Performance Video Cards | View information about Performance Video Cards within our Technology Website Directory section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
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Performance Video Cards
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Video cards are the circuitry that allows your computer to communicate with your monitor so that it can display what the computer is doing. Once upon a time, video cards were "2D," or "3D," but today's are mostly "2D/3D" combos. The 3D is useful for gaming, but in some applications, it can be useful in 3D modeling, etc.
Video cards have their own high speed processing chips that make graphics look more realistic. The many video cards out there are based on a much smaller number of chipsets. Different companies buy these chipsets and then manufacture their own versions of the cards based on the chipsets. For the most part, video cards based on the same chipset with the same amount of RAM are very closely equivalent in performance. However, some brands will use faster memory or other small optimizations to tweak the speed.
The addition of other extras like "dual heads" (support for two monitors) or better cooling fans may also differentiate the various brands of cards.
At any rate, the first decision that you have to make is what chipset you want your video card to use. If you're not twisted off into games, then the choice of chipset is no big deal; just about any of them will do for the 2D desktop applications. There's no point in paying over $100 for a video card if you don't plan to play a lot of games.
Here are some of the things that Computer Buzz suggests you keep in mind and look for when shopping for an upgrade video card:
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AGP or PCI or PCI-E?
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You'll have to decide between three general types of video cards: AGP or PCI or PCI-E. As you would expect, PCI cards fit into a PCI slot inside your desktop computer. You probably have three or four PCI slots in your box, most of which are empty. A PCI video card can go in any available slot.
Not so the AGP card. It will not physically fit into a PCI slot. It will only fit into a dedicated AGP slot, and you will find exactly one―and no more―of those inside your computer. The plastic frame around the AGP slot is often a brownish color. "AGP" stands for Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port). It's a high speed link between the mother board and the display. It does just about the same thing as a PCI card, only faster.
There are six possible configurations for the AGP slot in a computer, and you should open your machine and determine which one it has (if any). For most practical purposes, you will only have to deal with either of two of those configurations―the 1.5-volt slot or the 3.3-volt slot. (See adjacent graphic.) The other slots are rarely encountered. You will note that the edge connector on the video card is keyed so as to be compatible with one design or the other, or (in some cases) both.
The newest video card standard on the block is called "PCI Express" (sometimes abbreviated "PCI-E" or some such). It, too, has a single proprietary card bus slot on the mother board. If you have a relatively new desktop, it may have a PCI-E slot instead of an AGP, so you need to open it up and look.
Moreover, certain shallow depth computer cases (e.g., the Dell Dimension series) will not accommodate a full-height card, so you will have to find a low profile version of the card you're interested in.
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3D Features
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There are any number of different 3D features to consider, such as bump mapping, hardware T&L (texture & lighting), Z buffers, FSAA (anti-aliasing to reduce jagged edges), anisotropic filtering (renders detail on textures), etc.
The last two are the biggest issues. They can dramatically improve the visual quality of games but always at the expense of speed (which is generally measured in the number of frames per second). Too low a FPS rate will cause the game to appear jerky instead of smooth (and thus more difficult to play). Higher resolutions (e.g., 1600 x 1200 rather than 1280 x 1024) also significantly improve the video quality, but at the expense of speed. It's nice to be able to play games at 1280 x 1024 or higher with 4x FSAA and 4x anisotropic filtering. ("4x" refers to the number of passes the card makes to render the anti-aliasing and filtering. The more passes, the better the quality.)
(Adjacent photo shows ATI Radeon X1050 video card with a PCI-E card edge connector.)
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RAM Memory
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The amount of memory on the video card is of no small importance. It can affect the speed of operation as well as the number of colors displayed and the maximum resolution size that can be used in games. 128 MB is a good number for a video card that will be used for gaming. 32 MB is almost always sufficient for 2D desktop applications. AGP video cards can also use system memory, but, depending upon how much you have installed, that can slow things down, so it's better to have plenty of RAM right on your video card.
The type of memory is also important. DDR SDRAM is about twice as fast as regular SDRAM, and DDR II is even faster than that (DDR stands for double data rate).
(Adjacent photo shows NVIDIA GeForce 6200 video card with a PCI-E card edge connector.)
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Chipset
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The chipset is what controls the video card's operation and does all the display calculations. The latest chipsets are designed to handle both 2D and 3D applications. Computer Buzz believes that the best chipsets currently come from NVIDIA and ATI. Other reputable companies include S3, Matrox, Number 9, etc.
The chipset is the most important part of the video card, and the faster, more advanced chipsets will always be the better choice, especially for graphic-intensive apps like games and 3D modeling. The first decision you should make is which chipset you want to use. This will primarily be dictated by price and the level of performance you're needing. Video cards can be one of the most expensive components inside your desktop computer, so choose wisely.
(Adjacent photo shows ATI 9250 video card with a PCI card edge connector.)
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Resolution
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Pay attention to the supported screen resolutions, refresh rate, and color depth of your video card. These are important if you want to run at high resolutions with a large number of colors. For most home desktop computers, all current video cards will be more than sufficient in all these aspects.
The refresh rate determines how fast the video card can refresh (redraw on the screen) your display. The higher (faster) the better. Pay attention to what the maximum refresh rates are at the higher resolutions. A 60 Hz refresh rate is often too low and will cause noticeable flicker on your monitor. Eighty-five Hz is an ideal refresh rate (much easier on the eyes), but 75 Hz may be sufficient for you. Make sure your monitor supports these resolutions and refresh rates as well.
(Adjacent photo shows NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 video card with a PCI-E card edge connector.)
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Miscellaneous Considerations
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Some other things to consider are TV-Out, TV-In, video capture capabilities, the speed of the RAM DAC, particular 3D effects that are supported (such as hardware transform and lighting effect), the quality of the cooling fan included (and noise produced by it), and what software bundle the video card includes since you can often get some good free games with the card.
(Adjacent photo shows an NVIDIA Geforce FX 5500 video card with a PCI edge connector.)
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Hot Cards for G5 and Intel Macs
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Macs are famous for their graphics capabilities, so it's no surprise that some of the very best video cards are intended for them. If you have a newer Mac with an Intel CPU, it probably has an Nvidia GeForce 8800 video card (or something similar), and that should be perfectly adequate for most purposes.
But if you need more video horsepower for any reason, Computer Buzz recommends that you go straight to the top of the mountain and get yourself a Mac Pro X1900 video card. Until something better and faster comes along, this is the one to have.
Unfortunately, the Mac Pro card doesn't work in an older Mac G5 box. In that case, we'll have to recommend a Radeon X1900 Mac Edition card. It has 256MB of VRAM and two dual-link DVI connectors, so you can attach two 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays. It seats in a PCI Express slot, and it'll set you back about $349.
(Adjacent photo shows Radeon X1900 Mac Edition video card.)
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