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How to choose a graphics card

The finer points of picking the right graphics card.

Nick Farrell, vnunet.com 14 Jul 2001
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Graphics cards speed up and improve the visual image on your computer screen.

  • The thing to look for in a good card is an AGP, or Advanced Graphics Port. Using an AGP means that the card will run much faster.

  • Sometimes a vendor will talk about RAMDAC and, if so, speeds of 225MHz or more are good. Many cards are just PCI cards which are OK at a pinch.
  • A graphics card should have at least 2Mb of memory.

  • Many cards can provide enormous displays, but when you are choosing you should look for the refresh rate. 75Hz (meaning the display is refreshed 75 times every second) is usually thought of as the acceptable minimum.

Well-known brands of graphics cards are ATI, Matrox (especially the Millenium G200) and Diamond.

  • Almost all modern PCs come with graphic cards that have a 3D capability, but high-powered 3D cards, such as the Voodoo series, are of limited value unless you want to play games or do high-powered graphical work.

If your system has, or you want it to have, a DVDRom drive, make sure to ask whether your graphics card is DVD-compatible so that you can view DVD movies on your PC.

See also:

Graphics cards based on nVidia's MX chipset dominate the budget end of the market and, with their strong 3D performance for less than £150, their appeal is obvious.  17 Jul 2001
ATI Technologies has unveiled the Mobility Radeon, a lightweight version of its Radeon desktop graphics card for the mobile marketplace.  21 Feb 2001
Small Creative GeForce2 MXA fast budget graphics card utilising the GeForce2 MX chipset.  01 Feb 2001
Small 3dfx Voodoo 3500 TV FMA graphics card that includes a TV and FM tuner.  01 Feb 2001
Small VideoLogic Vivid!An ideal graphics card for 32bit gamers.  01 Dec 2000
Small 3dfx Voodoo5 5500Will 3dfx's VoodooMac graphics card cast a spell over Mac users?  10 Sep 2000
Graphics card vendor Nvidia continued its assault on the video market last week by launching the GeForce2 MX.  12 Jul 2000
  13 May 1997

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