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Graphics Card Upgrade Guidelines
Some simple guidelines to follow when upgrading your graphics hardware.
Admit it, you went cheap, got a Black Friday deal on a new desktop, went home to play StarCraft II, and you can’t even play on low settings. Odds are you’re playing on integrated graphics, the bane of the PC gamer’s existence. But all is not lost, and if you have the smarts and the resolve to spare, upgrading the graphics card in your PC can be a snap.
It’s funny, but when you delve into the world of 3D graphics acceleration, you’re introduced to a group of people who take computer optimization as seriously as gear-heads take car optimization. These people will stop at no expense to squeeze every last ounce of power out of their processors, RAM, and video cards to achieve eye-blistering graphics performance on their PCs. A great video card can positively influence video playback and rendering performance in applications like Adobe Premiere and After Effects, but for the most part if you’re paying top dollar for graphics hardware, you’re interested in gaming.
There are two major competitors in the graphics card arena currently: Nvidia and ATI. Nvidia’s flagship card series has been dubbed, “GeForce”. ATI’s moniker for their cards is “Radeon”. Within these series of cards you’re simply inundated with model numbers. GeForce 480, GeForce GT 220, GeForce GTX460, etc.. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle here, so here are some basic principals to follow.
1. Figure out a reasonable price range to work with. Think around $150 for the low-end, and $600 for the high-end.
2. The more on-board RAM, the better. Current 3D games can eat up your system’s RAM quicker than I eat up Taco Bell. That’s fast, trust me.
3. Consider your computer. It doesn’t make sense to buy a $600 dollar video card when you’re using a Pentium 3 processor with 1 gig of RAM. If your computer is composed of cheap, low-power components, a great video card can only do so much. Your processor and RAM can act as a bottleneck.
4. If there’s a particular game or application that you’re upgrading specifically for, make sure to check the system requirements for the software before you upgrade. Like I said, it’s not all about the video card.
5. Make sure your power supply and motherboard can handle the card. Current cards like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 require a lot of power to run. In fact you have to connect power cables directly to the card, and Nvidia asks you to have a power supply rated at 600 watts or higher. The higher-end cards also require a lot of space to install. Some cards are dual slot, meaning that they’ll take up two slots on your motherboard as opposed to two.
These are the basics to consider when upgrading your graphics hardware. Keep in mind, this is a broad, deep pond to swim in, so if you want cutting edge, you’re going to have to do a lot of research. But don’t let that stop you...I mean have you seen what StarCraft II looks like with ultra settings at 1900x1200 resolution!?
It’s funny, but when you delve into the world of 3D graphics acceleration, you’re introduced to a group of people who take computer optimization as seriously as gear-heads take car optimization. These people will stop at no expense to squeeze every last ounce of power out of their processors, RAM, and video cards to achieve eye-blistering graphics performance on their PCs. A great video card can positively influence video playback and rendering performance in applications like Adobe Premiere and After Effects, but for the most part if you’re paying top dollar for graphics hardware, you’re interested in gaming.
There are two major competitors in the graphics card arena currently: Nvidia and ATI. Nvidia’s flagship card series has been dubbed, “GeForce”. ATI’s moniker for their cards is “Radeon”. Within these series of cards you’re simply inundated with model numbers. GeForce 480, GeForce GT 220, GeForce GTX460, etc.. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle here, so here are some basic principals to follow.
1. Figure out a reasonable price range to work with. Think around $150 for the low-end, and $600 for the high-end.
2. The more on-board RAM, the better. Current 3D games can eat up your system’s RAM quicker than I eat up Taco Bell. That’s fast, trust me.
3. Consider your computer. It doesn’t make sense to buy a $600 dollar video card when you’re using a Pentium 3 processor with 1 gig of RAM. If your computer is composed of cheap, low-power components, a great video card can only do so much. Your processor and RAM can act as a bottleneck.
4. If there’s a particular game or application that you’re upgrading specifically for, make sure to check the system requirements for the software before you upgrade. Like I said, it’s not all about the video card.
5. Make sure your power supply and motherboard can handle the card. Current cards like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 require a lot of power to run. In fact you have to connect power cables directly to the card, and Nvidia asks you to have a power supply rated at 600 watts or higher. The higher-end cards also require a lot of space to install. Some cards are dual slot, meaning that they’ll take up two slots on your motherboard as opposed to two.
These are the basics to consider when upgrading your graphics hardware. Keep in mind, this is a broad, deep pond to swim in, so if you want cutting edge, you’re going to have to do a lot of research. But don’t let that stop you...I mean have you seen what StarCraft II looks like with ultra settings at 1900x1200 resolution!?
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