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Selecting the right video card If you would like to watch DVD movies on your computer, there may be more involved than just adding a DVD drive. Are your kids wanting to play the latest games on their system? Or would you like to record home movies in digital format? You may need to upgrade your video card. Video cards are currently available with ram sizes of 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 megs. For standard systems, 8 megs is adequate to run most applications. If you are planning to do full motion graphics (i.e. DVD, TV tuner, or record video) you will need more ram than the average user. 16 megs is great for beginning gamers and DVD systems, while 32 megs is recommended for more serious gamers and video editing. Business machines do not need a lot of ram in most cases, unless you plan on creating presentations (such as with powerpoint) or other video applications. What type of interface do you need? Older systems may require ISA or PCI. Video cards that use the PCI interface function at 33 Mhz, and have a data transfer rate of 132 Mbps. Most new systems, however, will use AGP (accelerated graphics port). This new graphics bus slot was designed specifically with video improvement in mind. AGP runs at 66 Mhz, and can transfer data at rates up to 528 Mbps (which can run up to 5 times the speed of a PCI card). The AGP port cannot be used for any other purpose at this time, but who knows what they'll invent next week! What is a good chipset for game players? Better yet, what IS a chipset? This is a group of chips on the video card that interpret the instructions for displaying the video on the screen. Different brands of chips have different code inside. The better the code and algorithms inside the chip, the faster the data can be displayed on the screen. One of the first big gaming cards to hit the market was the Voodoo chipset. Several versions of the Voodoo card were released before the introduction of the Nvidia chipset which claimed a large portion of the market. The Riva TNT-2 was one of their best-selling cards. Quickly taking over today is Nvidia's newest release, the Geforce2. It boasts 32 megs of on-board ram, and 64 bit transfer rates. Many of these new cards are so fast they actually build up enough heat to require a heatsink or fan. Some cards have TV input and output, or offer modules or separate cards to upgrade your current video capabilities. Ask your vendor about current offerings as they change frequently. Also if you change your video card, you may need a larger monitor to take advantage of its full capability. Upgrading your video card can be one of the best ways to improve your system and keep your teenagers home in the evenings too! |
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