Build Your Own

Home PC Computer System

In this instance whether or not you need a video output card is dependent on the purpose you're building your home PC computer system for. If you're building a gaming computer, you'll almost definitely need a high end video graphics card, especially as games are becoming much more graphic intensive. For most office or home computers however, the onboard graphic processor should suffice.

Video Output

For a computer to use a display for monitoring it will need some form of video card into which a display can be plugged. The majority of home and office computers, which predominatly use 2D graphics for office applications and web surfing can use an 'onboard' or integrated graphic processor which will be included on most low to mid range mainboards. For building a computer for gaming, or 3D modelling, a good quality graphics card will be needed.

Currently, two companies dominate the 3D graphics accelerator market nVIDIA and ATI. nVIDIA and ATI build their own graphics products, and license their technologies to other companies. Each brand's similar models have comparable performance levels, and each brand has its own supporters. Video cards have their own RAM, and many of the same rules that dominate the motherboard RAM field apply here: the more RAM, and the faster it is, the better the performance will be. Most applications require at least 32MB of video RAM, although 128MB is rapidly becoming the new standard. On the other end, 512MB video cards top the consumer end of the video card market. As a rule of thumb, if you want a high end video card, you need a minimum of 128MB of video memory -- preferably 256MB. Don't be fooled, though; memory is only part of the card and the actual video processor is more important than the memory. It is important to understand that an integrated graphics card uses the system's RAM, and relies heavily on your system's CPU. This will mean slow performance for graphic-intensive software, such as games.

It is generally better to choose your video card based on your own research, as everyone has slightly different needs. Many video card and chip makers are known to measure their products' performances in ways that you may not find practical. A good video card is often much more than a robust 3D renderer; be sure to examine what you want and need your card to do, such as digital (DVI) output, TV output, multiple-monitor support, built-in TV tuners and video input. Another reason you need to carefully research is that manufacturers will often use confusing model numbers designed to make a card sound better than it is to sell it better. For example, the Geforce 4 MX series of cards claim to be a "Geforce 4," however, the actual processor is closer to a Geforce 2, only more powerful, meaning that these cards actually lack many features available even to the Geforce 3 series. However, when these cards were first produced, they were considerably cheaper than a real Geforce 4 (the TI series) making them an ideal choice if you were more interested in working on a spreadsheet than in playing games. For this sort of reason, you have to carefully pick your card depending on your needs. TV outputs can easily be adapted to your computer by using a DVI - Component Video cable.

Newer technologies such as SLI allow the use of two video cards to render the same video scene, similar to using two CPUs or a dual-core CPU. These systems tend to be very expensive, as only the latest video cards offer this option, and you'll need two of them. However, it can be a useful upgrade path to consider. A SLI-capable motherboard is usually not much more expensive than the regular model, and will work fine with a single video card. You can use it with one card now, and buy another one in the future (which will probably be much cheaper by then), which means you will take advantage of your old video card too.

Interface

There are four different graphics card interfaces: integrated, PCI, AGP and PCI-Express.

Most retail computers will ship with an integrated graphics card. This means that if you are looking at playing games you will need to upgrade. Most mainboards that have integrated graphics will also have one of the other three interfaces so it isn't hard to place a new card to suit your needs if the need ever arises.

Old video cards use the standard PCI slots that are now obsolete due to limited speed and memory. PCI cannot transfer data very quickly, so a system with such a card will often seem to "jump" or halt for short periods when data is being transfered. These cards are needed for a few rare systems lacking an AGP slot (usually low end desktop systems designed to be cheap.) They are also useful for adding aditonal video cards to a system.

Most video cards bought in the last 2 years are of the AGP standard. There are 4 different speed and bandwidths of AGP, 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x. While 8x is the fastest and most common for high end products, the true performance of your AGP card is limited by the lower AGP value of your graphics card and motherboard. For example, an AGP 8x card on a 4x motherboard can only run at up to 4x. AGP will be phased out and there will not be an AGP 16x due to technical limitations, and size necessarily.

The newest trend in graphics card is the PCI-Express (not to be confused with PCI-X) system that supports up to 16x speeds. This is new technology and is generally more expensive but it runs at higher speeds. Some newer graphics cards come in both AGP and PCI-E 16x models, such as the Radeon x800 and the GeForce 6800 series. The newest models of graphics cards, such as the GeForce 7800 and the Radeon X1800, are only made for the PCI-E 16x. (Most motherboards have only one PCI-E 16x while having plenty of PCI-E 1x slots... so make sure you use the right one.) Motherboards with 2 PCI-Express 16x slots can combine the power of 2 video cards using technologies known as SLI for NVidia, and CrossFire for ATI. However, you will have to match the video cards to a motherboard supporting the multiple card technology of choice, and use two similar video cards that both support dual video cards.

Keep in mind that to provide best picture quality and to prevent scaling, your graphics card must be capable of displaying same resolution as your LCD display's native resolution.

Visiontek Radeon X1300 256MB AGP (VGA, DVI-I, TV-Out, HDTV)