Buying Guide to Graphics Cards
The graphics card is a vital performance component of your computer, particularly if you play 3D games, or work with graphics and video content. The graphics card sits in an expansion card slot in your PC and it is specifically designed to process image data and output it to your monitor, enabling you to see it. A graphics card works by calculating how images appear, particularly 3D images, and renders them to the screen. 3D images and video images take a lot of processing capacity, and many graphics processors are complex, require fans to cool them and need direct power supply. The graphics card consists of a graphics processor, a memory chip for graphics operations, and a RAMDAC for display output. It may also include video capture, TV output and SLI and other functions.
Graphics Cards
What are your needs?
The first decision you need to make is whether you need a graphics card for handling 3D images or whether you are simply requiring 2D image rendering. For 2D requirements, you need only a low-cost solution. In many cases, an integrated graphics solution will suffice for 2D applications.
However with 3D graphics, the performance of the graphics card will impact directly on the frame rate and image quality of 3D programs and games. The differences between the low and high-end cards can be substantial, both in cost and performance.
Rendering 3D graphics is like lighting a stage, both the geometry of the shapes in question and the lighting of it need to be taken into account. The geometry of an image calculates the parts of an object that can and can't be seen, the position of the eye and its perspective. The lighting is a calculation of the direction of the light sources, their intensities and the respective shadows that occur. The second part to presenting a 3D image is the rendering of colours and textures to the surfaces of the objects, and modifying them according to light and other factors.
Most modern graphics cards include a small microchip called the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which are provide the algorithms and memory to process complex images. They reduce the workload of the main CPU, and provide faster processing. Different graphics cards have different capabilities in terms of processing power. They can render and refresh images up to 60 or more times per second, calculate shadows quickly, create image depth by rendering distant objects at low resolution, modify surface textures fluidly and eliminate pixelation.
What Specifications to Consider
Processor clock speed
This impacts on the rendering capability of the GRU. The clock speed itself is not the critical factor. Rather it is the per-clock performance of the graphics processor, which is indicated by the number of pixels it can process per clock cycle.
Memory size
This is the memory capacity that is used exclusively for graphics operations, and can be as much as 512MB. The more demanding your graphics applications are, the better you will be served with more memory on your graphics card.
16-32M
64M
128M
256M
512M
640M and more
Memory bandwidth
One thing that can slow down 3D graphics performance is the speed at which the computer delivers information to the graphics processor. A higher bandwidth means a faster data transfer, resulting in faster rendering speeds.
Shader model
DirectX Shader Models allows developers control over the appearance of an image as it is rendered on screen, introducing visual effects like multi-layered shadows, reflection and fog.
Fill rate
This is the speed at an image can be rendered or "painted". This rate is specified in texels per second, the number of 3D pixels that can be painted per second. A texel is a pixel with depth (3D). The fill rate comes from the combined performance of the clock speed of the processor and the number of pixels it can process per clock cycle, and will tell you how quickly an image can be fully rendered on screen.
Vertices/triangles
Graphics chips don't work on curves, rather they process flat surfaces. A curve is created by multiple flat planes arranged to look like a curve. 3D objects are created with multiple triangular surfaces, sometimes hundreds or even thousands, tessellated to represent the curves and angles of the real world. 3D artists are concerned with the number of polygons required to form a shape. There are two different types of specification: vertices per second (I.e., angles the triangles), and triangles per second. To compare one measure with the other, you have to take into account the fact that adjacent triangles share vertices.
Anti-aliasing
A technique used to smooth images by reducing the jagged stepping effect caused by diagonal lines and square pixels. Different levels of anti-aliasing have different effects on performance.
RAMDAC
The Random Access Memory Digital to Analogue Converter takes the image data and converts it to a format that your screen can use. A faster RAMDAC means that the graphics card can support higher output resolutions. Some cards have multiple RAMDACs allowing that card to support multiple displays.
TV-out
Some graphics cards provide the option to connect a television via either a composite (RCA) or S-Video connector. TV Out
S-video Out
S-video In and S-video Out (VIVO)
YPbPr Connection for HDTV
DVI
Some graphics cards include a connector for DVI monitors, handy because a lot of LCD screens support DVI. DVI offers better image quality than the standard VGA connector.
Dual-head
Dual-head is a term used when two monitors are used side by side, stretching your desktop across both.
SLI (Scalable Link Interface.)
With SLI you can couple two graphics cards in your computer, enabling each card to take half the rendering thereby doubling the performance.
When considering your graphics card, it pays to think about how much you need your computer to process your graphics output. Using a high end graphics card with a high pixels per clock rating, large memory, fast processor and other features means that you can run the latest games efficiently, or work in intensive graphics development.
Different Models
While there are many vendors of graphics cards, there are actually only two major manufacturers of chips for graphics cards. Nearly every graphics card on the market features a chip manufactured by either ATI or Nvidia. Cards using the same graphics chip will perform roughly the same as each other. However, even though they use the same chip, some feature slightly higher clock speeds, as well as manufacturer guaranteed overclocking-an even higher clock speed than that specified. Other factors that will influence your decision should include the amount of memory a card has (128MB, 256MB, 512MB) and its additional features, such as TV-Out and dual-screen support.
Author Bio
Andrew Gates is a writer for comparison online shopping service - http://www.myshopping.com.au , MyShopping.com.au helps you compare video cards and buy online from top-rated online stores.
Use the search facilities at Myshopping.com.au to compare the features, prices and vendors of graphics cards.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Hardware Information:
Related Articles
How to Build a PC
Do you know what could beat the exciting feeling of having a new computer? Make your own PC!
Guide to Buying Hard Drives
Apart from being one of the most essential parts of your computer, hard drive storage is constantly updating, in terms of both capacity of disk space and in physical size. When it comes time to upgrade your disk storage, there are a number of factors for you to take into account. Once you've made basic decisions about size, connectivity, speed and data transfer rate, and whether you want an internal drive or external, you can search through Myshopping.com.au to find the most suitable brand, and model, and compare the prices of different vendors.
Guide to Buying a Webcam
Webcams are those handy little cameras that attach to your PC and send images to a web page that can be viewed by others. This enables you to share daily life events with friends and family in other parts of the country or the world, or to arrange a video-conference with colleagues and maintain long distance relationships of all kinds. Of course the number of ways to use this technology is limited only by your imagination.
Buying Guide to Graphics Cards
The graphics card is a vital performance component of your computer, particularly if you play 3D games, or work with graphics and video content. The graphics card sits in an expansion card slot in your PC and it is specifically designed to process image data and output it to your monitor, enabling you to see it. A graphics card works by calculating how images appear, particularly 3D images, and renders them to the screen. 3D images and video images take a lot of processing capacity, and many graphics processors are complex, require fans to cool them and need direct power supply.
Notebook or Desktop Computer, What is the Best Buy?
The idea of purchasing a personal computer may be appealing to a lot of people, however they may feel undecided as weather to go for a traditional desktop computer or for a light weight portable notebook. Several aspects should be taken into consideration as for the purposes of such acquisition. If the main purpose of buying a computer is for occasional use, regardless if it is for work or entertainment activities, one may consider buying a traditional desktop computer taking in consideration that its price is usually lower than the portable version.
A Purchase Guide to Budget Notebooks
Since it became commercially available back in the early eighties, notebooks called the attention of computer users because of its small size and portability. Not much of a commercial success back then, it only took a short time before the computer industry improved this item, up to a point that is now considered to be one of the best selling computer consumer products
Is Notebook A Better Choice Than Desktop?
If internet made the world a global village, then we might as well say that notebooks made it a global colony. With desktops, things were a click away from us; notebook shorted the distance. Now we can carry the global colony on our shoulder. High-end technology at your lap, perhaps, we need nothing to conquer the world of convergence.
How To Select The Notebook That Meets Your Requirements
For the past ten years there has been a tremendous growth in the usage of notebook or laptop computers. The impact is that the notebooks are slowly replacing the traditional desktop computers from home as well as from office.
Buying The Right Notebook Computer
The single most important reason anyone buys a notebook is for portability. This is something that you can take anywhere. If you frequently travel in your work, you need a notebook. If you are a student going back and forth to the university, you need a notebook. If you are journalist traveling the world and submitting articles, you need a notebook. And today's notebooks can be as powerful as most desktops with dual processors, large capacity internal drives, and other attractive features. But which one is right for you? How do you determine what type of notebook will fit your current needs plus allow you to expand for the future?
Computers: An Afterschool Necessity for Many Young Students
Shopping for school supplies isn't what it used to be. Sure, kids still need notebooks, binders and pens -- but they won't survive without the latest technology either, namely a computer.
Computer Memory: Do You Have What’s Needed For School?
Any time during the school year can be the right time for a high school or college student to take a closer look at the computer he or she is using to see if it has enough memory.
Best Laptop Computer Requirements
With the Best Laptop Computer and a wireless Internet card, you're ready to take on the world. You'll enjoy gaming, music and movies on the go. You can study anywhere. You'll love being able to work on the beach. Your boss will love sending work home with you. Laptop computers are no longer the poor cousins of desktop tower PCs. The Best Laptop Computer can compete with desktops in processing power and storage, making them robust enough to replace desktops in most homes.
Android 4.0 Tablet Offers Richer Experience
Android 4 may be the latest version of Google's Android Operating-system. It's been code-named because the 'Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)'. The Android 4 OS continues to be created by Google for use both in mobile phones and 7 inch tablet android.
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG Review
The Acer Timeline M3 is a study in polar opposites. Its thin, elegant chassis and superb performance for its class suggest that the M3 might be a true category leader, but an painfully poor LCD panel prevents the Acer from achieving that goal.
Laptop Battery Saving Tips
If you want to make full use of your laptop battery on either Lenovo laptop or other laptop, you can take advantage of disk defragmenter on your machine.