So to continue with the hardware series of howto articles, after processor, motherboard, zip drive and laptop memory, here is an article on how to choose a Video card.

When buying a new video card you have to consider a few aspects so you won’t be disappointed by its performances but also won’t spend too much money for something you won’t use at its full potential.

The fists thing you need to determine is the type of dedicated video card slot you have on your motherboard: AGP or PCI Express. AGP is an old design and video cards for this slot are almost out of production. Also AGP works at a speed of 8x, while the PCI Express has a speed of 16x, 4 times greater.

Next you need to know what you will be using your computer for. This way we can classify the video cards in a few categories:

Budget video cards
These are used mainly for “static” applications like browsing and text editing and support movies but may have problems with high definition ones. These video cards are equivalent to the on-board video card so if you have one you may consider spending the money on some more memory instead. A video card below $100 can be considered a budget one.

Mid-range video cards
Mid-range video cards come with the best quality – performance ratio. They allow you to play most of today’s games, do video editing and 3D modeling and watch flawless high definition movies. The prices in this category range from $100 to $200.

High-end video cards
Here are the video cards for “full job” gamers and professional 3D modeling and video editing. These are expensive, with prices above $200, but they are the most performant on the market.

Besides performance you may be want to look for other characteristic too. Connectivity can be important when it comes to high definition output signal. You will need digital connections so the best image is transmitted to your monitor. Today’s video cards all offer dual screen capabilities, so this won’t be a problem. Also, a thing you may want if you are a gamer is to use multiple video cards (if you motherboard allows that). The technology is called CrossFire and it is developed by ATI.

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