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PC Graphics Cards - How They Affect Your Computer Experience

If you are looking to purchase a PC graphics card for your computer, then there are three things you will need to consider prior to picking one - speed, performance and card type. A graphics card, sometimes referred to as an adapter or accelerator, is a video card that goes inside your computer to control the output to the monitor.

There are two levels of graphics cards to handle the types of graphics you need: 2D graphics cards which are designed for business applications and 3D graphics cards which are more suited to gaming and video playback.

When it comes to performance adding a high speed graphics card to your machine will greatly improve the way your computer runs applications, because you will be replacing the standard on-board graphics processor that came with the computer when you purchased it, with a high performance 3D accelerator card.

There a number of different graphics card manufactures but when it comes to chipsets there are actually only two companies that produce the ones you find on graphics Nevada Lemon Laws ATI and NVIDIA. Known as graphics processing units or GPU's, they are the brain center behind the card.

Performance will be improved automatically when you install a PC graphics card, because all the processing related to graphics will be processed by a separate computer within your computer system. The PC graphics card takes care of commands related to generating graphics in your system. This, in turn, leaves your computer processor free to take on other tasks you might need.

Before you buy a graphics card, you will need to find out what kind of interface your computer's motherboard has. There are three possibilities including PCI, AGP and PCI-E. Most motherboards these days have a PCI slot. However, the PCI interface isn't very fast relative to the AGP or PCI-E.

If you are looking to maintain or improve performance, you will want to look at a card that connects to your computer utilizing the Accelerated Graphics Port of AGP interface or the newer PCI-E. If your computer only supports PCI, you might consider buying a newer computer that allows you to interface with AGP or PCI-E. PCI interfacing is relatively slow when compared to the other two interfaces.

Drivers are also important. You will need to have the correct drivers installed on your computer in order to get the best performance from your new PC graphics card.

There are a number of popular brands to choose from including nVidia, GeForce, Crossfire for ATI products and the like. Some features you may consider including is the Super-Video output and TV-tuner inputs which allow you to record video for multimedia projects.

Now that you know how graphics cards can give your system more speed, improve performance and what type of card is best for your system, there's no reason not to go out and research the brand name you are interested in and look at the extra features you like best.

John D Bartholomew designs computer buy settlement and specializes in computer accessories. Bartholomew recommends pcsuperstation14-Graphics_CardsPC Superstation.

posted by datdk @ 1:59 AM