INTRODUCTION
Today there is a lot of Graphics card models so, sometimes, it isn't easy to chose the card which suits the most to our requirements. There are some important features of a Graphics card, such as the quantity and bandwith of the graphics RAM or the width of the bus that will help us to decide which card we need. But I would like to say that graphics card is a really important element of your system if you are agamer. If you don't play games usually or if the games you play aren't really demanding, then the most cards are more expensive than what you really need and almost any mainstream graphics card will be suitable for your needs.
ATI RADEON X850XT AGP
THE MAIN FEATURE: QUANTITY AND BANDWITH OF GRAPHICS RAM
The biggest misconception out there is that more graphics RAM will increase gaming performance. But that isn't always true. While the bandwidth of the graphics RAM might have a direct effect on gaming performance, the quantity of RAM doesn't have a direct impact on how fast a graphics card performs.
The bandwidth of graphics card RAM is affected by two main factors: the clock rate and the interface width. Clock rate is measured in MHz, just like a CPU. The width of an interface is measured in bits, such as 128-bits wide. It gets a little complicated because we're talking about two variables here: clock rates and bandwidth. For example, 200 MHz, 64-bit memory should offer approximately the same bandwidth as 100 MHz, 128-bit memory. There are other factors, such as memory latency. Technology also plays a role, as GDDR5 RAM offers twice the throughput of DDR through GDDR4 at a given clock speed (the effective memory clock rate in modern cards is generally between 400 MHz and 3.8 GHz). But, for the most part, all you have to remember is that more bandwidth should have a direct impact on your gaming performance.
As we've said, the quantity of RAM that the graphics card employs doesn't have a direct impact on game performance, but it can have an indirect impact. Graphics card RAM will only negatively affect performance if there isn't enough to handle what a specific game title requires. A graphics card with 2GB (2,048 MB) should perform exactly the same as a graphics card with 512MB as long as the game's graphics memory requirements are below 512MB. If the game's settings and resolution require more than 512MB of graphics card RAM, the 512MB card will demonstrate a performance penalty compared to the 2GB card. Currently, RAM capacity of most modern video cards ranges from 128 MB to 4 GB.
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS PCI Express 16x
ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Every graphics card has a Graphics processing Unit (GPU). A GPU is a dedicated processor optimized for accelerating graphics. The processor is designed specifically to perform floating-point calculations, which are fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock frequency, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 4 GHz and the number of pipelines (vertex and fragment shaders), which translate a 3D image characterized by vertices and lines into a 2D image formed by pixels.
Nowadays the more extended technology is PCI-Express, which has replaced previous technologies such PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), released in 1993, and AGP (Advanced Graphics Port), relesead in 1997. PCI is a 32-bit bus clocked 33 MHz whereas AGP is a 32-bit bus clocked at 66 MHz. A key difference between PCIe and earlier buses is a topology based on point-to-point serial links, rather than a shared parallel bus architecture.
| Bus | Width (bits) | Clock rate (MHz) | Bandwidth (MB/s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCI | 32 - 64 | 33 - 100 | 132 - 800 |
| AGP 1x | 32 | 66 | 264 |
| AGP 8x | 32 | 66 | 2000 |
| PCIe x1 | 1 | 2500 / 5000 | 250 / 500 |
| PCIe x4 | 1 × 4 | 2500 / 5000 | 1000 / 2000 |
| PCIe x8 | 1 × 8 | 2500 / 5000 | 2000 / 4000 |
| PCIe x16 | 1 × 16 | 2500 / 5000 | 4000 / 8000 |
| PCIe x16 2.0 | 1 × 16 | 5000 / 10000 | 8000 / 16000 |
A graphics card can also consists on multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI. This sort of graphics card typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire or SLI and a chassis with more space to install multiple graphics cards. They also require a beefier power supply compared to what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision, although this kind of graphics cards is only worth if you are a gamer.
CONNECTIVITY
Digital Visual Interface (DVI): Digital-based standard designed for displays such as flat-panel displays (LCDs, plasma screens, wide high-definition television displays) and video projectors. It avoids image distortion and electrical noise, corresponding each pixel from the computer to a display pixel, using its native resolution.
Video In Video Out (VIVO) for S-Video, Composite video and Component video: Included to allow the connection with televisions, DVD players, video recorders and video game consoles.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI): An advanced digital audio/video interconnect released in 2003 and is commonly used to connect game consoles and DVD players to a display.
Power demand
Video In Video Out (VIVO) for S-Video, Composite video and Component video: Included to allow the connection with televisions, DVD players, video recorders and video game consoles.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI): An advanced digital audio/video interconnect released in 2003 and is commonly used to connect game consoles and DVD players to a display.
Power demand
As the processing power of video cards has increased, so has their demand for electrical power. Present fast video cards tend to consume a great deal of power. While CPU and power supply makers have recently moved toward higher efficiency, power demands of GPUs have continued to rise, so the video card may be the biggest electricity user in a computer. You must have take power consumption into account in order to buy a suitable power supply.
BRAND
Don’t worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there are close to Nvidia’s and ATI’s reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer’s reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.
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