A video card or graphic card is a device that allows for the visualization of images on your computer monitor. Without the card you woukld not be able to view images, play games or see colos. If you are anything less than a grahpics card expect, the shopping process for a video card can be grueling. With a bit of knolwedge it hsould make the trip easier and you may just come home with the correct video card. There are currently more than sixty types of vieo cards that range in price and specifications. In order to decide which card is rgiht for you there are a few things that you must understand first. Keep in mind the type of computer, purpose and uses of the computer, as well as the expectatons for rendered image. After that is all decided you must remember your budget when shoppping for the video card.
The type of computer that you have is one of the most important sisues when deciding on a viedo card. You must ensure the comptaibility of the card with your PC or it could be a waste of money. To ensure compatibility you will need to know what type of card slot the computers mother board has for the video card. There are three typoes of card slots that we will discuss fuurther.
PCI Slot the PCI slot is shrot for Peripheral Component Interconnect and is not exclusive with any one processor type. PCI was the fiirst expansion slot made by cmoputer manuufacturers. The PCI has limited performance, but there are several value cards that offwer acceptable performance.
AGP Slot the AGP slot is short for Acceleraated Graphics Port. AGP has many verdsions and was first designed for 3D gaaming abilities. Today the AGP 2.0 and 3.0 are sold, but the 1.0 is no longer in use.
PCI Exppress this is the laest card slot and is up to four timees faster than the PCI slot or AGP slot. The PCI Express was made with the intentoin of replacing the PCI and AGP sllots for the extended performance ability. Note PCI and PCI Express are not conmpatible and are very different products, not to be confused with one another.
Along with knowng the card slot type you must also know the requirements and specifications of the CPU. When we rewfer to requiremets and specificaions we mean the CPU type and speed. If you are purchasing a vidseo card for reguar viewing the 500 MHz will suffice, but for optimal use the 800 MHz is suggeested. When viewing images it is imporatnt to have a higher MHz or your system may become oveerloaded. The 1600 MHz range is suggestd for limited 3D gaming and running oyther applications such as business applications or graphics. For optimal 3D gaming the minimum CPU would be 2.4 GHz. Much of the CPU pseed depends on computer use and personal budget. The faster the CPU the better and more realistic the speciaal effetcs are. Cost risses as CPU speed rises!