Tech-Hounds.com

Graphics card

Next to the processor, the graphics card is the hottest part of a PC - in both sense of the word. As PC games become more mainstream, graphics card have receive more and more attention. You could easily find graphics card that cost more than your processor or even more than your whole PC! Of course, we're talking about add-on cards here, not integrated solutions.

Integrated Graphics: Basic and Cheap

An integrated graphics card means that the graphics card is built into the motherboard. This integrated solution is much cheaper than an add-on solution, but not necessarily a better one. To integrate the graphics card into the motherboard, some compromise must be made. For one, these integrated graphics solutions are usually slower than their add-on counterparts. They also use part of your main memory (RAM), so that means less memory for your operating system and applications. Integrated solutions are more suitable for PCs that's not geared for gaming - only for office work or multimedia.

Some motherboards with integrated graphics still allow you to use an add-on card since they come with an expansion slot. So, if you're unsure whether or not you'll be using your PC just for work or games, go with this solution. If you're sure you only want a PC that can only be used to work, you can forgo the add-on connector or any other expansion slots for that matter. Just make sure the motherboard comes with all the peripherals you'll ever need (sound card, Ethernet adapter / network controller, graphics card).

Add-on Graphics: High to Low

Add-on card is where most of the action (and attention) is. You need a powerful graphics card to play all those eye candy games. These add-on cards usually come in two flavors: an AGP or PCI Express card. AGP is the old standard while PCI Express is the newer one. Be careful though, a PCI Express card is not always faster than their AGP counterpart. If they have the same chip, the PCI Express will not be faster. If you're concerned with future upgrades, PCI Express is the way to go. AGP is still here because it's cheaper and has more installed user base.

For the most part, your option will either be an ATI or NVIDIA powered graphics card. ATI and NVIDIA are the two largest graphics chip maker in the world. Add-on card manufacturers built cards using their chips, and these add-ons are what you, the end-user, buy. Just like any other manufacturer, ATI and NVIDIA have several products to offer, ranging from the high end (most performance, highest price) to the entry level (least performance, lowest price). The sweet spot is in the middle, what's usually called the mainstream series. These products offer the best bang for the buck. Each series may include several products, so in total, you might be looking at 6 (or more) possible products from each manufacturer.

	Vertex Pipes	Pixel Pipes	Bus Width	Core Speed	Memory Speed
ATI
RADEON X850 Series: RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition, X850 XT, X850 PRO	6	Up to 16	256-bit , 256 MB GDDR3
RADEON X800 Series: RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition, X800 XT, X800 XL, X800	6	Up to 16	256-bit , 256 MB GDDR3
RADEON X700 Series: RADEON X700 XT, X700 PRO, X700LE	6	4 or 8	64-bit or 128-bit, 64MB, 128MB, or 256MB DDR1, DDR2 or DDR3
RADEON X300 Series: RADEON X300, X300 SE, X300 SE HyperMemory	2	4	64-bit or 128-bit, 64MB, 128MB, or 256MB DDR1
NVIDIA	Vertices per Second	Pixels / textures per clock
GeForce 6800 Series: GeForce 6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, and 6800	600 Million	16 / 16 (6.4 billion texels/sec)	256-bit, 256 MB Bandwidth 33.6 GB/sec.		1050 MHz
GeForce 6600 Series: GeForce 6600 GT and 6600	375 million	8 / 8 (4.0 billion texels/sec)	128-bit, 256 MB, Bandwidth 14.4 to 16.0 GB/sec		900 / 1000 MHz
GeForce 6200 Series: GeForce 6200, GeForce 6200 with TurboCache supporting 128 MB / 256 MB	225 to 263 million	4 / 4 (1.2 to 1.4 billion texels/sec)	128-bit or 64-bit, 128 MB (for 6200), 32 / 64 MB (for 6200 TurboCache) Bandwidth 12.4 to 13.6 GB/sec

Confusing, isn't it? This is just the current generation of products available on the market. For simplicity reasons, let's talk about the series and not the individual products. Like we said before, the main difference between these series is performance. ATI's X300 and NVIDIA's 6200 series are entry level cards, X700 and 6600 series are mainstream products and X800/850 and 6800 series are high-end products. Naturally, they also vary in price the same way.

For those of you that are going to use your PC for serious gaming fun, choose either the mainstream or high-end products. Entry level products offer abysmal performance with newer games - these are better suited for casual gamers or office work and general multimedia use. A note on high end products, these cards are very expensive and only available in limited numbers. They will work best when coupled with the fastest processors available, making your PC even more expensive. Only choose these high-end products if you really don't want to play games in resolution below 1280 x 960 or 1280 x 1024 (on at least a 19' CRT monitor or a 17' LCD), with all the graphical features and effects set to their highest.

That said, buying a high-end graphics card (often at twice the price of a mainstream card) also allows you to enjoy high frame rates on current and newer games for at least two years. Mainstream graphics card can supply frame rates fast enough for a single year of gaming, but you might have to choose a lower resolution or tone down some features / effects for the next batch of games in the second year. They effectively become low end cards in two years time. Of course, this will also happen to your high end graphics card (eventually) although longer.

ATI or NVIDIA

This matter is very subjective. On the current products (ATI's Xx00 series and NVIDIA's 6x00 series), the display and image quality is not that different, most people won't even see the difference. As for feature, both camps have cards that offer just the basic package to those with TV tuner and capture / record capabilities. Of course, more features means higher price. Performance wise, each product in their respective market segments (mainstream, high-end) have their highs and lows, but all are enough for comfortable gaming. What you should be more concerned with is price and availability: choose the card(s) that's available (in stock) and offer the best combination of price and performance for you.

[Previous Page]
[Go to top]
[Next Page]