A graphics card is the most important thing in gaming. So weather you are a hardcore gamer or a normal player or just play games to entertain/fun the major factor that might be keeping you from gaming is your graphics card. There was a time when games ran excellent on a 8 MB AGP card. And 16 MB AGP card was the best. Remember those Voodoo cards?? Now days even some games don’t like to run on a 128 MB card. And graphics cards have changed till the past 10 years. Now there is PCI express. While AGP ran on 8X speed PCI dose it in 16X. Now adays PCI Express cards have dual GPU’s and Mother Boards use dual PCI express for the excellent performance…The technology from ATI is cross fire and from N Vidia is SLI( Scable Link Interface). Mother boards give true 16X bandwidth speed for each graphics card. PCI Express graphics cards have reached 1 GB. Already there are 512MB graphics cards available in the local market.
Now adays the graphics card manufacturers have slowed AGP cards marketing and they have the PCI-E's on Go. So usully there is little stock of AGP cards in the local market rather than PCI-E. But every one who is upgrading there graphics card always thinks which one can I get in the best prize. Well we cant suggest you about the prizing but we have brought up some ways that will be the most helpful for you in buying a graphics card and upgrading your gaming Life. So before you buy a graphics card do remember to follow the suggestions given below.
THE THINGS YOU NEED THE KEEP IN MIND:
1. Memory: When you are buying a graphics card the first thing that comes in mind is the memory. These days if you want to play perfect then it wont do under 256 MB. But even if you have a lower budget then you shouldn’t go under 128 MB. When you are playing Racing games the thing that more important than any thing is the Total RAM of your system and your graphics card. Because the games that change sequence very fast eat a lot of memory of both RAM & GPU. So keep your Eye on that factor.
2. Memory Clock: When you are set on a card, be sure to know the memory clock speed of your card. This is the most important thing. If you have a card with a lot of memory which possess a low memory Clock speed can’t run all games very well.. And the case will be games running slow, un predictable and sometimes might not run at all! So give the memory clock more importance that the memory itself. Try to get as much as clock speed as you can get.
3. Core Clock: You should even have a fast core clock. As much as the memory Click is important the Core Clock is as much as important. So It should be a card with a powerful core clock.
4. Memory Interface (Bit): The memory Inter face is another thing it depends on your card and its model it can be 128 Bit, 256 Bit and even 512 Bit. For cards that have 128 MB or lower model 256 MB‘s have 128 Bit. Like the GeForce 6600GT is 256 MB and is 256 Bit has a 1 GHz core clock and a 500 MHz memory clock. That’s a good card indeed! And some cards like X800 or GeForce 6800GT or upper have 256 Bit and higher cards like 512 MB or 1GB has 512 Bit memory interface. But that’s not such a big matter in hand.
5. Version/ Model: Always try to buy a card which is in a upgraded model. Like for instance for ATI when you are buying a 256 MB X550 PCI Express Card (6,400 TK) it’s better to buy a 128 MB X600 or the X700 Series, even if its gets less MB. Why? Because games today don’t only need the memory clock and memory they need to support your card. Like for instance Flat Out 2 supports above ATI Radeon 9600 Pro/XT and GeForce 5,6,7 series cards. Its wont run on any earlier models such ATI 9250, 9550 etc. So most of games are build supporting most of the latest cards so remember to try to buy the newest model you can.
6. Features: These days games don’t just require a Big memory it also requires some features in your graphics card. Features such as Hardware TNL. Transform and lighting, with out this feature you can play GTA SanAndreas, True Crime plus some games. Also you need some more features smart shader, Pixel shader, vertex shader color separations etc. So be sure to check the features of your card. If it has it all that is! But don’t get worried!!! Nowadays new models cards have them all cards like GeForce FX series, ATI plus 9250 series etc. And if you are buying a PCI Express card then no matter all the new PCI express have them all in different models and versions. But always try to get the higher version of all the features.
7. Heat: All Graphics cards come with a heat sink, but many of em comes with a Fan attached with the heat sink. The fan is very neat & effective when it comes to cool down you card while you are playing seriously! But some older and some new Graphics card models have such fans that are too Big and take away one of your other normal PCI slots. And many of them make a disturbing sound that might detach you from having fun. Also there are some problems such if the Fan stops working then your card might be overheated. And some older versions with cooling fans have problems such as that specially AGP’s. So try to get a cool and quite technology card that uses a good heat sink and if you are going to buy a card with Fan then be sure to buy a card which is made by a good manufacturer such as SPARKLE, GIGABYTE, ASUS, SAPPHIRE, and MSI etc.
8. Real Memory: Some times as much memory is written in the box might not be in the card so be sure to open the card check the chips if the memory is written on any chips and try to check it before bye. But that’s really not a big matter why dose it happen is most of the cards come without the box and that saves a lot of space for the distributors. The Boxes come in other shipment and some times they order boxes in one writing like a hundred boxes for ATI Radeon 9600 256 MB might come in Boxes which say 128 MB. Later it gets hidden by a sticker which says the original memory.
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