What Video Card is recommended?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ridergroov
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ridergroov

Hi again. I am wondering what Video card to put in my new core 2 duo
system. I never really got into graphics too much but it looks like
I'm going to be forced to with Vista's requirements and such. What is
a good card? What things am I looking for? Thanks!
 
Hi again. I am wondering what Video card to put in my new core 2 duo
system. I never really got into graphics too much but it looks like
I'm going to be forced to with Vista's requirements and such. What is
a good card? What things am I looking for? Thanks!
Click to expand...

hey, proboby with todays technology moving fast, take the best there
is right now, so in a year os so you no gonna have to upgrade. I would
recomend NVidia 7900GTX or if you have a lot of money than NVidia
8800GTX
 
ridergroov said:
Hi again. I am wondering what Video card to put in my new core 2 duo
system. I never really got into graphics too much but it looks like
I'm going to be forced to with Vista's requirements and such. What is
a good card? What things am I looking for? Thanks!
Click to expand...

You didn't say whether it was a 3D game platform or not.
If not for 3D gaming, you don't need much of a video card at all.
$50 could well cover it, for 2D stuff like Photoshop, web surfing
email etc.

If for gaming, knowing the resolution you play games on your
monitor, is another useful bit of info. Some of the higher
end cards, would really help if you were planning on
playing at higher than 1600 x 1200, or on setting all
the eye candy options to max.

Paul
 
I agree that most any card for $40=$60 most likely would be fine. I would
look for a card which does not share ram, meaning it has its own memory on
the card and you turn off sharing (sometimes called turbo cache). If you
are not into gaming, 128mb of video ram is plenty. You can make do with
64mb
 
Just an addition to what everyone else said: The on-board video does
pretty well on my home PC for basic things, but there is a noticeable
difference just when surfing the net or running any program. For
doing 3-D CAD modeling and higher level work on a PC, my opinion is
that a top notch video card is a must.

If you're doing modeling applications (3-D Cad, Stress Analysis, Flow
Analysis, etc.) that uses a visual interface, it's important to get a
compatible driver for the software you are using, even if it's an
older version. The latter (analysis of models) also tax memory and
hard drive speed. As for the video alone,the additional load on the
PC to handle RAM sharing, etc. (not having a dedicated circuit to
handle video) makes a significant difference for all applications.
All software is becoming visually intensive, regardless of what you're
doing to make tasks faster and/or easier for the user. I could tell a
difference just opening and closing programs, which is handled mostly
by "explorer.exe" GUI in Windows XP.

I'm just running the basic integrated graphics on my home PC, but I've
noticed a significant difference when using a friend's PC running an
inexpensive graphics card that uses both shared and on-board RAM. It
really depends on whether or not you're in a hurry. I've done 3-D
modeling on both high-end workstations, and obsolete machines that
were still running Windows 98 several years after XP was released.
Both of machines got the job done, but one was much faster and less
frustrating due to its response time.

It all depends on what you're doing with the PC and how fast you wan't/
need to get it done. I like it fast myself, but have to stay within
my budget. Be sure to check whether or not the graphics card has on-
board memory. It does make a huge difference having it on the card
instead of going through the address/data bus to access the memory.

The current trend in lower end cards is to call the card a "256 MB"
graphics card, but if you read, 128 MB of the RAM is shared system
RAM. This feature can probably be disabled. Just shop around and
don't be afraid to ask questions, and keep in mind that not everyone
in retail knows exactly what they're talking about. Do your own
research if it is an important issue to you. It does affect speed.

If you're just looking for an out-right opinion, I'd say go for some
type of graphics card, to take some load off of the MOBO RAM and
resources. You're budget will dictate this.

SDK
 
ridergroov said:
Hi again. I am wondering what Video card to put in my new core 2 duo
system. I never really got into graphics too much but it looks like
I'm going to be forced to with Vista's requirements and such. What is
a good card? What things am I looking for? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Geforce 6200 or higher, minimum 256MB of onboard RAM (not shared). I'd
recommend a geforce 7600 something or other. Main thing to look for is RAM.
For Vista, you will need 256MB or 512MB, depending on how big your display
is and what it's native resolution is. If in doubt, go for 512MB. This
isn't a 2D world anymore. Vista will use all the RAM on the video card.
You won't want to run Vista with less than 256MB, if you are buying a card
specifically for Vista. -Dave
 
Vista will be introducing the DX 10 standard for video and video games
coming out shortly. So ideally you want a video card that is DX 10 capable.
There are only two, both designed by Nvidia: the 8800 GTX and the 8800 GTS
(which is the slower of the two).
 
Vista will be introducing the DX 10 standard for video and video games
coming out shortly. So ideally you want a video card that is DX 10 capable.
There are only two, both designed by Nvidia: the 8800 GTX and the 8800 GTS
(which is the slower of the two).
Click to expand...

AMD/ATI R600 will be out very soon.
 
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