| BestData presents... |
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| How To Buy The Right Video Card (a.k.a. Graphics Card) For You |
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| Buying a new video card, or graphics accelerator card, for
your PC can be daunting. There are many models available
and options to consider. However, if you can answer
a few basic questions about how you plan to use the
card, you can make the process much simpler and choose
the best video card for your needs and your budget. |
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| Three Video Card Categories |
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| At any time, there are approximately 60 different models
of video cards available for purchase in North America.
Most of the video cards feature graphics chip technology
from one of the two large graphic technology companies, ATI
Technologies and NVidia Corporation. All
of these video cards fall into one of three main
categories: |
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| Hardcore/Enthusiast
Video Cards: These are the highest-end,
fastest, best-performing cards for 3D gaming
and other demanding applications. Any card over
$300 is generally an enthusiast card. |
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| Mainstream
Video Cards: These are the mid-range
card. They offer good to excellent performance
for demanding applications like 3D gaming. Video
cards that cost between $150-$299 fall in this
category. |
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| Value
Video Cards: These cards are used primarily
for business and desktop graphics functions,
2D gaming, and very limited 3D gaming as well
as specific applications like providing TV output
or S-Video output or dual monitor support. Any
video card under $149 is considered a value video
card. |
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| Three Questions To Pick The Right Card For You |
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| Before you start to look at different options for video
cards and even before you start to read video card
reviews, there are three basic questions you need
to answer that will help guide your decision: |
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| 1. |
What is the main thing you plan to use your video
card to do? |
| 2. |
What
kind of computer system do you have or are you
planning to purchase? |
| 3. |
How
much money are you willing to spend? |
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| Video Card for Gaming vs. Video Card for Desktop Graphics |
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| Value Video Card: If your main goal is to improve your
graphics for desktop publishing or surfing the web,
or you just need dual monitor support or TV output,
you can get by with a much less expensive card. |
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| Mainstream Video Card: If you are planning to play 2D games,
i.e., games that mostly use cartoon type images or
very simple graphics, such as children's games, you
can also use a less expensive value-based video card. |
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| Hardcore
or Enthusiast Card: If, on the other hand, you want
to play 3D games, and especially the most demanding
new 3D games, like Half-Life 2, Doom III, or Call
of Duty, you will need a more high-performance video
card. |
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| Your Computer System |
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| The next thing you need to consider is the type of computer
system you have now and/or the system you are considering
purchasing. The two main factors are your CPU type
and speed and the type of card slot you have. |
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| CPU Type |
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| If your needs are limited to basic business or desktop
graphics use with limited or no 2D gaming, you can
use a CPU with a speed of as little as 500 MHz, although
we recommend at least 800 MHz for better performance.
Above 1,600 MHz you will not notice a significant
improvement for these applications. |
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| If you are looking to play 2D games often with some
limited 3D gaming, you will want to have a CPU speed
of at least 1,600 MHz. The faster your CPU, the better
your performance will be, especially for more advanced
3D gaming. |
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| If you want to play the latest hardcore 3D games like
Half-Life 2 and Doom III, you will want to have the
fastest CPU you can reasonably afford, with a minimum
of 2.4 GHz. The faster speeds allow you to play these
games at higher resolution and with of the special
effects turned on to enhance the realism of the experience. |
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| Slot Type: PCI Video Cards, AGP Video Cards, PCI Express Video Cards |
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| Video cards come in three different slot types: PCI, AGP,
and PCI Express. These slots are physically
different shapes and offer different levels of performance. |
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| PCI
Video Cards. The PCI slot, also known
as the PCI bus, was developed first and is the
most limited in terms of performance. However,
if you are looking for a value-level video card,
there are many excellent PCI cards available
that offer great performance for the money. |
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| AGP
Video Cards. The AGP slot was developed
next, and offers as much as 8X improvement over
PCI in terms of performance. There are several
different versions of the AGP slot. AGP 1.0 is
an older standard that is no longer used. Most
AGP video cards are designed to work only with
the newer AGP 2.0 and 3.0 versions. |
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| PCI
Express Video Cards. PCI Express, also
known as PCI Express x16, is the newest slot
type and offers performance as much as 4X faster
than the fastest AGP8X slot. By the end of 2005,
most new PCs will come standard with at least
one PCI Express x16 slot type. |
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| PCI Express Video Cards vs. PCI Video Cards |
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Although the names are similar, PCI Express is separate and
different from PCI. They are physically different
shapes and use different standards to transfer data. A
PCI Express video card will not fit into a PCI slot
and vice-versa. Almost all PC's have PCI
slots, while PCI Express slots are found only on
newer more advanced PCs. |
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| Your Budget |
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| The other main determining factor in which video card to buy is your budget.
If you are looking for a basic card for desktop graphics or to provide a specialized function like providing dual monitor support or showing the
output of your PC on your TV, you can find a serviceable card for less than $60. If you want more advanced gaming ability you should be prepared
to spend at least $149. If you want to the highest-end 3D gaming ability, you can spend as much as $499 or even more for the very latest and greatest
technology. This is a lot of money for a graphics accelerator card-however, the payoff will be an unmatched level of realism and involvement in the
gaming experience. |
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| ATI Technologies Video Cards Vs. NVidia Corporation Video Cards |
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| The main element that determines the performance of a
video card is the graphics processing unit (GPU)
that drives it. GPU's are designed and manufactured
by two main companies: ATI Technologies makes the
ATI Radeon video chips and NVidia Corporation makes
the Nvidia GeForce FX chips |
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| ATI Radeon Is The Leader |
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| Both
companies make excellent products. However, in the
past two years, ATI Technologies have become the
leader in terms of the performance of the ATI Radeon
chips and the graphics cards that are based on them. |
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| Previously, some users had concerns about the reliability of
the CATALYST driver software that is used to install
and run the ATI video cards. In the past two years,
ATI has solidly addressed these issues and ATI is
now the overall leader in terms of performance, value,
and stability throughout their entire ATI Radeon
video card line. For this reason, bestdata recommends
ATI Radeon video cards over those of NVidia. |
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| S-Video, TV-Out, & Dual Monitor Support |
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| Video cards provide additional functions beside increasing
the ability to render 3D graphics for gaming. The
main functions include: |
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| S-Video
and/or TV-Out: Most video cards, even value
cards, provide the ability to send the video signal
from your PC to your TV. This feature is labeled
as "TV-Out" on the video card package. In most
cases, the TV-out jack is an "S-video" type
jack designed to send a high-quality s-video signal
to newer TV's. If you are using an older TV that
has RCA input instead of s-video, you can use an "S-Video
to RCA adaptor" to convert the signal to RCA to
input to your TV. |
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| Dual Monitor Support: Dual monitor support
refers to using splitting your video signal to
go across two monitors instead of one. This is
very useful for designers, engineers, and others
who need to view large files on their desktop and
still have other windows open. Usually the dual
monitor support consists of one standard VGA output
(standard computer monitor) and one DVI jack, which
provides a higher-resolution output used for newer
high-end monitors. This feature will be labeled
as "dual monitor support" on most video card packages. |
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| DVI: DVI is
a higher-definition output used with some newer monitors
as well as some high-end TVs. If your monitor or
TV supports DVI, using this jack will give you a
better picture than the standard VGA or RCA (TV-out)
output. If you are using an older monitor, you can
convert the DVI signal to VGA using a DVI-to-VGA
adaptor. Choosing the Best Video Card For You |
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| Now it's time to put it all together. Once you have decided
how you are going to use the video card, what type
of system you will use it with, and how much you
are willing to spend, you can decide whether to buy
a high-end, mainstream, or a value card as well as
the slot type--PCI, AGP, or PCI Express. This will
narrow the down the range of options considerably. |
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| Then decide if you require any special features--TV-out,
s-video, dual monitor support--and which GPU technology
to buy-we recommend you purchase an ATI Radeon-based
product. |
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| Choose bestdata Video Cards For Great Quality, Service, And Value! |
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| Your last decision is which manufacturer's product to
purchase. Of course, we recommend purchasing a BestData Video Card. Bestdata video cards have
the highest quality with the lowest return rates
in the industry, free customer service by telephone
and e-mail, and fantastic game bundles from leading
software publishers like Eidos Interactive. |
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Here is a list of the current ATI Radeon-based video
cards available from BestData at
DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA |
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