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Choosing the Right Video Card

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one video card out there that was the best choice for everyone? We could just name it, and this tech tip would be done. However, there is no magical solution that is best for everyone. There are a number of different factors that enter into the decision, including the speed and type of your processor, your budget, and most importantly, what you like to do on your computer. And here we are talking about games, because if you use your computer mostly to send e-mail and type an occasional letter, the quality of your video card matters not at all.

Let’s assume you play the more recent 3D games and you want to enhance the experience as much as your budget will allow. Before you even visit the video-card isle in your local computer store, let’s take a good look at the rest of the system, starting with the CPU. We recommend a Pentium IV or Athlon XP running at 2GHz or more. Don’t try to scrimp with a Celeron or Duron regardless of speed, because these lower-end processors were not designed for the intensive computing requirements of 3D video processing. The high-end games will probably run on a lower-end processor, but will not give the best results. Since a good video card these days could cost twice as much as your processor, saving money on a processor that won’t use the full capabilities of the card just doesn’t make sense.

Another area where you don’t want to cut corners is memory. If your system has less that 512 MB of high-speed RAM, adding or upgrading memory will give you more ‘bang for the buck’ than just about anything else. Are you using RIMM or DDR, and can your system support a 333 MHz FSB or higher? Refer to our earlier tech tips (posted on the website) about choosing correct memory, and get the best RAM you can afford. Save some money for the video card of course, but you also want the system to squeeze the maximum performance from whatever video card you do get. OK, now that your system is ready to make use of a good one, let’s focus on the video card itself. It’s time to name names.

NVidia is one popular maker of video chipsets. If you’re leaning that way, make sure you get the Ultra edition. And if the system has ATI, then we suggest the Pro model. However, if you’ve upgraded in the last couple of years and already have an NVidia GeForce4 like the 4600, or an ATI 9500-9700 series, you should probably keep it. Going to something newer won’t give enough improvement to justify the cost. Yet, a few months from now that could change.

Maybe you just want the best card available today and money is no object (money is always an object, but we can dream can’t we?). About £200 will get you the ATI Radeon Pro 128 MB DDR. Even better is the 256MB DDR version, if you don’t mind spending a honking £350.

If these prices are giving you sticker shock but you still need to upgrade from that old 2D 8MB PCI video adapter, don’t despair. There are still some decent cards to choose from. One is the NVidia GeForce FX 5200 for a little more than £70. An ATI equivalent to this is the Radeon 9500 Pro, which had great reviews last year in 3D Gaming World. For just a little more you can step up to the Radeon 9600 Pro, which is basically the low end for hard-core gamers today.

One last note, you may have heard of the new 8X AGP standard as being the latest and greatest thing. First, its benefits require support by both your AGP port and the 3D card, which sometimes means a motherboard upgrade. Second, we tried it and honestly couldn’t see any noticeable difference between 4X AGP and 8X AGP. So there you have it. Happy spending.

Disclaimer - The Micro 2000 Tech Tip is a free service providing information only. While we use reasonable care to see that this information is correct, we do not guarantee it for accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose. Micro 2000, Inc. shall not be liable for damages of any kind in connection with the use or misuse of this information.