Video Card

The video card is basically a tiny computer that just processes video data for the processor. This alleviates the strain on the processor and frees it up for other tasks. How do you know if you need a video card? The single most driving piece of software pushing the development of video cards is FPS (First Person Shooter) video games. The name is pretty descriptive, these are games you play from a first person view and shoot other people. These games demand high FPS (Frames Per Second. I know, I know.. Acronym hell) which is how many times the screen will be updated in a second. Do you need a video card if you don’t play video games?

There was point in time where this would have been easier to answer, but its not. Some video intensive software is still dependant on processor speed and some regular everyday activities are faster, crisper and clearer when you have a video card. If you can afford it, it will make your computing experience more enjoyable. What you don’t need, is the newest 600$ card out unless you are gamer. But beware of outdated technology, as discussed in the motherboard section of this document, some high-end motherboards have good chipsets built in that use your main system memory. In some cases, this could out perform a low-end or outdated video card, even with the sacrifice of resources cause by sharing the RAM. One thing that is true, is a poor quality image can hurt your vision, cause headaches and generally not make computing enjoyable.

Key Statistics of a Video Card:

·         Memory: Remember when I said these are just tiny computers? Well this is the video cards main system memory or video RAM. See the RAM section for information on this.

·         Chipset: This would be the cards processor. Every card must be reviewed individually. This is a cut throat market and most of the major card makers have engineered their cards at one time or another to perform well on certain benchmarks. This would give them a higher score then the card deserved. Chipsets and boards are so commonly outsourced and shared, you must review each individual card for its performance attributes. You cannot rely on corporate image or reputation.

·         Drivers: The drivers are the software that tells the card how to run and interact with different software. Drivers must be reviewed as carefully as the card.