Understanding Video Cards

Hey guys,

Can anyone recommend a few good websites that explain video cards in a reliable way? I was going to google the information I want, but as to how much it'll be legit, I'm not so sure. I would like to know how to be able to judge the video card I need (without simply asking someone). I understand it depends on several factors. What are they though? There must be a site that covers it well.

Thank you

 

here is a site with some VERY basic but at the same time kinda complex info: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/video/index.htm

any video card will do you just fine for basic stuff but when you get into games it starts getting a little more complicated. The interface (PCI Express, AGP), number pixel pipelines and vertex shaders, memory interface (128-bit, 256-bit etc), clock speeds (memory and core) and the amount of dedicated video memory are the main factors that determine the performance you're going to get from your video card.

 

Thanks, see that's just it. I recently purchased a desktop with an Nvidia Geforce4 430E 64mb card. The fan is about the size of a matchbox and the card is at least 10 years old. I was measuring the power of video cards by their memory, when I was told by someone last night that that was pretty ridiculous.

 

I know it cost money... but.

the July issue of Maxium PC explains everything you could want to know about the current state of video cards (definitions,benchmarks,etc)

I have a subscription-july came about four days ago, it should be in the stores though, check it out. great magazine.

 

Ok, thank you again for the link Viper, yes the information is pretty basic, and extremely out of date, but going through the site map with all those links, there's still alot of the main ideas that are correct.

See I'm looking at getting a video card for gaming, so yes, it's more complicated I understand, however I've bumped into a new obstacle now that makes me question the validity of my mainboard altogether. See, the slot for my vido card is to short for most of the recent models I've looked at. It seems that it's just an AGP slot, which means I'm limited to that type of card.

Now if I've done my homework right, am I right to say that the best think to add to a computer that has an AGP card is memory, since the AGP used part of the systems memory of opposed to coming with some of its own?

 

Thats not necessarily true. Both AGP and PCIe cards can share system memory depending on the card. Nvidia TurboCache cards and ATI HyperMemory (i think thats what its called) are the ones that do so. Aside from graphics cards, if you have 512 RAM or less you should upgrade to a gig or more. Also, you need to find out if its an agp 4x or 8x slot.