How to Choose the Best
Gaming Video Card

Choosing the right gaming video card for your needs can be a tough decision for many. There are so many different graphics cards out there, all with different specs and features, it's hard to know what is best for you.

This article will discuss the various factors you should consider when buying a video card, so you can make a better buying decision.

Your gaming video card will be responsible for producing the dazzling 3D graphics and effects seen in the latest computer games. A better graphics card makes for a better 3D gaming experience, so gamers should choose the best video card they can afford. You can find the best deals on video cards online here.

AGP or PCI Express

Generally, a motherboard will only support one these slot types. So you need to make sure which it is before looking for a video card.

AGP has been the norm for a long time now, but it is old technology.

PCI Express is the new kid on the block, and it’s only a matter of time until it completely takes over from AGP. The benefit of PCI Express is that it can handle a greater data throughput than an AGP slot.

PCI Express offers performance of up to 4X faster than the fastest AGP slot. It’s relatively new technology, and it isn’t being used to its full potential yet. Although, we predict that games released in the next 1-2 years will make full use of PCI Express technology.

Another advantage of PCI Express is you can connect more than one video card to your computer. This is impossible with AGP, a motherboard can only ever have one AGP slot.

If you’re simply upgrading your gaming computer with a new video card, you should check whether your motherboard supports AGP or PCI Express, and then choose a card accordingly. Don’t worry if your motherboard has an AGP slot. Even though it’s not the latest technology, AGP is going to stay around for a long time. Many of the best video cards come in AGP versions.

On the other hand, if you’re building a new system from scratch, you have the choice. We recommend choosing a gaming video card with PCI Express, and a motherboard that supports it. As we said before, the games of the future will soon harness the power of this new technology, leaving AGP in the dark. So by choosing PCI Express now, it will save you the upgrade later when AGP becomes obsolete.

Also, don’t confuse PCI Express with PCI. A long time ago you would connect your graphics card through a PCI slot on your motherboard. This is very slow compared to todays standards, and is completely outdated.

Screenshot from id Software's Doom 3

ATI or nVidia

Although ATI and nVidia make the graphics card technology you see in all the latest cards, they don’t actually sell them themselves. They license their best video card chips to companies such as GeCube, Saphire, Asus, and ABit (just to name a few) who then sell their own variants on the original technology.

Understanding the Specs

Clock Speed
The clock speed of a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) determines the number of pixels it can process per cycle. But just like CPUs, the numbers can be a little misleading. A faster clock speed does not always result in better performance.

Onboard Memory
Video cards come with on-board memory to be used solely for graphics operations. The minimum on a graphics card these days is 128MB, although 256MB is becoming quite common. Some of the best gaming video cards have a huge 512MB of on-board memory.

But be aware that ‘the more the better’ isn’t always true. If the software you run doesn’t need huge amounts of memory, then you shouldn’t spend money on more memory. If you compare a card with 128MB against one with 256MB, you would only see a performance improvement if you play a game such as Half Life 2, or Doom3, which requires lots of memory for its many large textures.

Memory Bandwidth
Memory bandwidth is the speed at which the GPU can talk with the on-board memory. It’s more important than the amount of memory you have on the card. The more bandwidth, the better. Graphics card memory comes in two types, GDDR3 and DDR. The former is the fastest type of memory.

Fill Rate
The fill rate of a video card is the speed at which pixels are drawn onto screen memory. It’s usually measured in millions of pixels per second, and is an important measure of a graphics processor’s performance. The best gaming video cards on the market have fill rates as fast as 15 billion pixels per second.

Rendering Features

If you run a game that was written with such features in mind, and your graphics card doesn’t support them, you will experience a significant performance loss, or at worst the game won’t run at all. The best gaming video cards on the market try to keep up with all the latest 3D rendering techniques in the software world.

Screenshot from Valve's Half Life 2

Other Functions

• DVI: This is a higher-definition output used with newer monitors and some high-end TVs. Connecting to your monitor via DVI offers better image quality than the standard VGA connection. If you want to take advantage of DVI, buy a graphics card and monitor that supports it.
• TV-Out: If you wish to display the output of your video card onto a TV screen, you will need a graphics card that supports TV-Out. Many of the best video cards on the market have this feature, aswell as budget-line cards. You connect your graphics card to a TV using an S-video connection. If you have an older TV with an RCA input instead of S-video, you will need an S-video to RCA adaptor.
• Dual Monitor Support: If you want to split your video output across two monitors, you will need dual monitor support on your graphics card. This feature is useful for developers, engineers, designers, and multi-taskers who wish to view many different windows on their desktop at once. Usually, one output will be VGA and the other DVI.

Choosing Your Gaming Video Card

Unfortunately, choosing a gaming video card is no easy task. There are so many different models and different varieties of each model, it can be overwhelming. ATI and nVidia also have different naming conventions that can cause added confusion. We will attempt to clear everything up so you can focus on making the right decision.

Screenshot from UbiSoft's FarCry

ATI Cards

Prior to the Radeon X series was the Radeon 9000 range of cards. Although the 9000 series has now been completely replaced the X series, the best cards from this era such as the 9600 and the 9800 can outperform some of the lower X series cards.

ATI cards come in multiple varieties, and have their own naming system which has caused much confusion for buyers in the past. For example, there’s the Radeon 9800, Radeon 9800 SE, Radeon 9800 XT, and the Radeon 9800 Pro. The Radeon 9800 without any suffix is called the base card. But what do all the suffixes mean?

SE - A cheaper version of the base card. Usually has half the bandwidth.

Pro - A faster version of the base card. It can mean either the GPU or memory is faster, or perhaps there are more pipelines for improved rendering speed.

XT - This indicates a faster GPU than the Pro or base card.

XT PE - An even faster version of the XT.

So in order from slowest to fastest, it goes the SE, then the base model, the Pro, XT, and finally the XT PE.

A Typical ATI Video Card on the Market

NVIDIA Cards

Much like ATI, nVidia has its own naming conventions. Let’s take a look at what the different suffixes mean for GeForce cards:

LE - A cheap version of the base card, running at a slower clock speed.

XT - Much like the LE, an XT runs at a slower speed than the base card. This is confusing because ATI uses XT to label a top-end card.

GT - Means that the card uses the faster GDDR3 type of memory, instead of DDR memory.

Ultra - A faster version of the base card.

Ultra Extreme - An even faster version of the base card.

A typical NVIDIA Card on the Market

The Best Gaming Video Cards

On the other hand, for Nvidia enthusiasts, the GeForce 6800 models should be your minimum. If you have the cash, go for a GeForce 7900GT which is currently one of the best gaming video cards available on the market. It's a great value card, you get a lot for your money. Owning a GeForce 7900GT will allow you to play the latest games on high settings for a while to come.

The graphics card is perhaps the most important component in a gaming computer. Gamers should purchase the best video card they can afford. We have looked into the important issues that surround buying a gaming video card, so you should be ready to make a good decision based on your needs as a gamer.