Buying Guide Graphics Card

1. Identify your needs:

The options are endless in the market, and with the increased development of technologies for video cards, but no one else knows your needs than yourself. Not the same choose a graphics card for a graphic designer for a graphic design student, for a video player or for basic office use. In fact the best question to ask ourselves is the answer for what use I will give the video card?. Believe me, if you answer this question will be on track to make a good decision. Simple and clear, sometimes we fall into the mistake of thinking I needed the latest generation of the ultimate card even when playing on the computer was lonely and did not know how to use Photoshop.

2. Overhaul the budget you are willing to invest in your video card:

Set the money you invest is a key point, since it limits the search options and you avoid looking 35 options even if your budget only allows you to access 5. Sometimes it is better to wait a bit and save for a card that will allow us to meet our needs.

3. The memory card is not the most important:

This is a point on which we agree that once the have advised well when buying a video card. The most common mistake is to think that just by having 512MB or 1GB of RAM, and is a high-performance card is not. In recent days we have heard that more people know the term GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) or graphics processing unit and the graphics card is that it behaves like a small computer as the processor (CPU) is key the PC, the GPU is key to the performance of the video card. Turn the GPU handles multiple units of measure as is the frequency (always shown on the manufacturer's data sheet), Stream Processors (the more stream processors have more powerful the GPU for a type of architecture), units texture or texels, and raster operation units. Normally the card sheet find the first two but the following values ​​are found on the Internet.

4. Check that your motherboard has the right slot:

A common mistake that people ask often extraordinary cards, they want to connect on older machines, the problem is that once existed AGP port and does not support PCI Express 16x, in this case it is always recommended to update the Board and the processor, is a major investment in the medium term but will save money and performance.

5. The memory capacity not only depends on the size:

Size: The larger the size the higher the performance. The effect occurs in the same way as does the PC RAM.

Type: There are three types available in RAM: GDDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR5. The better the higher the performance benchmark. At this point people get confused because they think that the GDDR must equal the DDR memory. The fact is that there is no compatibility problem, you do not need to connect a RAM DDR3 video card with DDR3 or DDR5 Technology. Back and reiterated the important thing is that you possess Motherboard PCI Express 16x port.

Frequency: Finally and just as with the PC RAM between frequently have better performance.

6. Read about the current situation of the manufacturers:

This is a cyclical point, since there are two houses manufacturers that have 100% market share of Cards. If it is correct we mean ATI (recently purchased by AMD) and NVIDIA. And is that measuring these two titans of the industry is as difficult as choosing between a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Both develop unique technologies and consistently outperform both. Therefore it is best to listen to experts and make conclusions, particularly not choose any brand because both have been tested and have proved very efficient, but there are times when a brand is leading the other.

7. Make sure the model you saw and that these trades is the same:

Often salespeople who prey on this point and will sell the customer a reference in normal terms is the same reference as the quoted, and often do not even realize that he was given a reduced performance. And is that the manufacturers make multiple versions of the same card with different characteristics, for example: Sapphire Vapor X Ultimate, Hawk MSI Cyclone OC should be aware that the box matches the card you saw online or in store, and a 5670 and 5670 have the same reference Ultimate 5670, but very different technologies.

8. Check out which ports have:

Periodically have changed the Video Output ports (VGA, DVI, HDMI and mini HDMI port) the important thing is that you define the connection (HDMI particularly because it's video and audio, and the quality is far superior) but if you have a monitor with VGA output so unless your card has VGA or DVI with a converter you can use it without problems.

9. Think ahead:

When you say you think the future is because they know many customers rushing to buy a card for your budget but what happens is that after two months to buy a higher return. Theoretically it for you, but in this market after several years of experience and is considered a best advice, is what the customer appreciates more and especially when changing as fast as technology.


10. Do not abuse the information:

With the development of social media marketing and Web 2.0 billion internet sources, we tend to read 10,000 views and not bad, but too much can confuse rather than clarify your doubts, so record your benchmarks and making the best decision.