Buying the video card..

Video Card...

Video Card,u need it to display it on a monitor,u need it to play games,without it,ur computer is useless..LOL

OK..before you buy a video card, u must do a lot of research on this..especially
on benchmarks and reviews..this is important as it affects ur gaming and usage performance.


Ok..before we come down to to that..let's dicuss what to look for in a video card

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1)Requirements
2)Card Bus
3)Monitor Support
4)ATI or NVIDIA

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Firstly,before you buy any video card, u must check on you power supply..

Check how many wattage does your power supply currently have and if you are planning to upgrade a video card or buy a new one, read the reviews on the internet on how many watts it needs to run..this is important as nowadays, the latest graphics card tends to run at a much higher WATTs...so keep reading and reading before you go purchase one

I have divided the video cards into 3 categories:

1)The low end 2)The middle end 3)The High End
These are determined by the amount of engine clock and memory clock it has..
Usually recorded in MHz..the higher means the faster and better performance..and better graphics. This can be located at the video card specs..

Based from my experience, a low end and middle end will run smoothly with 5ooWatts and below but dont take my word..check the requirements for the video card to confirm..

Note* If in this case, u are unsure of your power supply needs, refer to the PSUsection

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Before you buy a video card, u should check on ur motherboard Card bus.
The one im refering to is the PCI express cardbus..the one nearer to the CPU..

An example is below..

The one im referring is PCI Express 2.0

If you planning to buy a card which supports onli PCI Express 2.0, it will
still run on the 1.1 but slower..but im not sure whether a PCI Express 1.1 card can run with 2.0..

An example of a card is below:

http://www.videopro.com.sg/products/product_info.php?cPath=57_120&products_id=6491

Notice that it is a 3870X2 Card..Wow!! But the card bus is only PCI Express 1.1...Take note of this when u are going to purchase one just to be safe..

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This is also important for choosing a video card. Record down your own monitor
connectivitys , eg VGA HDMI and DVI...More info on the pics below..











And also u must do research on which video cards that has the connectivities required
for your monitor..if not u cannot run your monitor if you do not have the outputs required

Also,your monitor size also determine which video card u are buying..

For example, if you are running a 24 inch monitor, you will need either the middle or high end as it needs more power to run a high resolution and also so that you will not run with compatibility issues..

However,if you are running a 17 or 19 inch, a low or middle end so be enough
unless if you are planning to build a gaming system..

Note* Some low end video cards support wide monitors such as 24 inch, u need
to check whether it can support resolution up to 2560 *1600..
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This is a rather interesting topic..Firstly, u must see whether ur motherboard can run Crossfire or SLI. The meaning of SLI and Crossfire is you are able to run multiple cards at the same time provided you have more than one PCI Express 2.0 slot. This will increase in video performance.

SLI is more on the nvidia side and crossfire is more on the ATI side, more on SLI and crossfire below...

Here's an example of a motherboard with multiple PCI Express 2.0 slot..



ATI:
IF ur motherboard is running an intel chipset that have one or more PCI Express 2.0 ,u should buy ATI since Intel chipsets only supports crossfire. Only some cards support Crossfire..so take note of this..


Nvidia:
If ur motherboard is running an nvidia chipset that have one or more PCI Express 2.0 ,u should buy a Nvidia card since Nvidia chipset only supports SLI. SLI is the same feature as crossfire just that it is more focus on Nvidia..Like Crossfire, only some cards support SLI..so take note of this..



Note*If you motherboard have only one PCI express slot like the one below, u
can run either ATI or nvidia since no crossfire or SLI is needed,only a single platform is needed when you run Crossfire or SLI..=)



Also,check the video below if you still have enquiries..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdRm3KkGV8

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I have included in the links section of some of famous computer online shops in the US...this will help you minimize your research before actually heading down to the stores and grabbing one...=)


Hope this answer your question. If you have any enquiries, feel free to bring it up in the tagboard or you can comment it here..=)

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