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CHEAP
VIDEO CARDS
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Choosing
a graphic (video) card is not a hard thing to
do. Well not as nearly as hard as choosing the
motherboard. When choosing a video card there
are a few things to consider. What will you
use your computer for, an if you motherboard
supports the type of the graphic card that you
want. If you are building a computer from
scratch than you can buy the graphic card that
will be compatible with your mother board.
Usually all motherboards that came out in the
last few years will be compatible with your
graphic card, however if you are buying a new
motherboard make sure that it is AGP 8X
compatible, in order to get the most out of
your 8X AGP graphic card. The
next question is if you will be using your
computer only for the office work, or you will
also play games. Latest games require fast
graphic cards with 8X AGP and at least 64 meg
of memory, preferably 128.
Here are
a quick guide lines for a good graphic card:
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AGP 8X
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128 meg of 128
bit memory (make sure you don't buy a graphic
card with 64 bit memory).
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Make sure your
graphic cards has a fan for cooling (like ATI
Radeon 9600 - picture below), not only a heat sink like
on this
picture:
-
this is a no no =>
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New generation graphic card with
only a heat sink means that it has a slow
memory that does not need additional cooling.
DO NOT buy this graphic card! They are cheaper,
but way too slow.
Below I
have listed some of my favorite graphic cards
with the best price/performance ratios.
GAMING PC
Gaming
PC's require the latest and the fastest. The
GeForce 6800 ultra and ATI Radeon X800, although available, is the
too expensive option. Wait for the prices to
drop before buying it. For now, the good
choice would be GeForce FX 5800 or ATI
Radeon 9800 PRO.
I have
Radeon 9800 PRO 128 MB,
and it really performs impressive.
Half Life
2,
Doom 3,
Far Cry, etc. all work flawlessly
with everything set on maximum in 1024x768.
Just make sure you have at least Athlon 2500+
and at least 512 or RAM.
There is also a 256 MB
version of
Radeon 9800 PRO. It costs more
money but its not worth it, because it does
not improve performance in today's games.
Future games will require 256 MB of video
memory, however, by then you will need faster
card anyway.
HOME
THEATER/BUSINESS/MULTIMEDIA PC
Definitely my choice as of
right now would be ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. This
card will give you excellent performances and
still for a very affordable affordable price.
For a business PC you can also consider
the FX 5200 (see below) or even
integrated graphic card.
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BUDGET PC
If you
don't feel like paying over $100 for a graphic
card, still a good choice for a value graphic
card would be GeForce FX 5200. This graphic
card in conjunction with a fast processor (for
example AMD 3000+), would still give you
great performances in most of today's
games. Then in the future when your graphic
card cannot cope with the new games any more,
you can buy a better one. By then, those
Graphic Cards that
now cost over $200, might cost less than a
hundred. So FX 5200 should be a great choice
if you are low on money. If you decide to go
with FX 5200 make sure it has fast 128 bit
memory. If there is no fan on the card it uses
slow 64 bit memory. See picture on the top of
this page.
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PC Building
Guide |
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Use this guide if you need a help to upgrade
or build
your own computer from scratch. You will find
it very easy to use. |
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