3D Graphics? Coming right up!
Aug 21 '01
The Bottom Line Cutting edge is nice, but why pay over $300 when you only need to spend at most $150 for a slightly lesser card?
Alright, there are many varying opinions on this subject- most of which are biased and/or blinded by favoritism. This opinion is no exception ;)
I will thus TRY to generalize to the best of my ability, but we are all swayed by things that tickle our fancy, am I right?
PRICING
As all great things do, graphics cards cost money. How much? Well, that all depends on a few things. The latest and greatest will certainly put a hole in your pocket, while the cheapest ones will not do you much good in the array of PC games that exist today. I consider "too expensive" anything that goes over $200- I will not purchase any video card over this amount. "Cutting edge" tends to be priced above and beyond this amount. Mid-range cards are right now priced between $50 and $200. This is a good price range to start from for the user who doesn't want to have to wire home for more cash, but still keep up to speed. Anything below $50 is generally not worth your money unless you are just going for a plain old video card. I'd be surprised as to why you didn't go for onboard graphics at this point.
COMPATIBILITY
Well, this is pretty simple. Most of us have a particular game we want to be able to play smoothly on our PC. To do this, you need a highly compatible card. Basically, any card that was manufactured within 1-1.5years from when the game was originally released will give you a general idea of whether or not your card is compatible with the game in mind. Operating System and System requirements should also be followed- these can be found on the box(if you are purchasing in a store or listed on a website if making the purchase online). If you can't find it, find out- you may be buying an incompatible card.
Most graphics cards of today are manufactured for an IBM compatible machine, with an AGP4x slot, a processor of at least 350MHz, and at least 64MB of RAM. If you are anyone like me, your system specs, with the exception of the AGP slot, are at least four times what these are ;) If your AGP slot is lacking, the rest of your system needs to be considerably faster.
PERFORMANCE
Generally, the more expensive the card, the more performance you'll get out of it. While this is true for the most part, don't forget that, just like a lot of things, Graphics cards also carry brand names. The most expensive brands are Elsa, Guillemot/Hercules, and Creative. The lesser brands are eVGA, Visiontek, PNY, and Inno3D. These all perform at about the same speed. Differences in performance are marginal- differences in price are NOT- keep this in mind. The above brands feature chipsets manufactured by nVidia (http://www.nvidia.com). Other chipset brands include ATI(http://www.ati.com), 3dfx(filed for chap 11), and Matrox(http://www.matrox.com). These companies offer the worst in 3d performance to date.
nVidia
The underdog of video chipsets of the mid 1990's until the late 1990's when they broke through with revolutionary graphics processing technologies. They are now one of the best selling, top performing, and most widely recognized chipset manufacturer of today.
3dfx
Once the king of graphics cards. They started the whole phenomenon with add-on "Voodoo" PCI cards that would assist or "accelerate" the existing video card in processing complex 3d worlds and animation. With the release of the Voodoo2 and then the Voodoo3, profits soared as did users hopes with the 1997 announcement of the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5. In 1998, their efforts dwindled with the failed release of the Voodoo5 and late release of the Voodoo4. Soon after their ideas became nothing more than scribbled notes on paper. In 1999, the remaining assets were purchased by nVidia.
Matrox
This chipset manufacturer is constantly being mistaken for a "gaming" chipset manufacturer. They are not. Their chipsets are designed to accelerate 2D graphics and other graphics associated with CAD and business applications- not games. While you can play games with their cards, the performance you might be looking for won't be waiting for you.
ATI
Here's the only competition for nVidia. They have a long history of good products, but perhaps some of the worst customer support and compatibility. As good as they've gotten, they've always been a step behind their competition- this was true with 3dfx and is still true today with nVidia. Despite their incompatibilities and poor drivers, consumers have been known to bite the proverbial bullet and take a chance with this company. Why? Support of the underdog is my only guess. But, as you can see in my reviews, ATI's products are not as good as they may look on paper...
ATI All in Wonder Radeon
http://copain.epinions.com/content_31045488260
ATI All in Wonder 128
http://copain.epinions.com/content_31290986116
RECOMMENDATIONS
I'm sure you can see now that I might be a bit biased, but with ATI as nVidia's only competition, how can you support a company whose market strategy and customer support is flawed? It doesn't make sense.
Personally, if you're in the market right now, and you want to spend no more than $150, go with a GeForce2 Pro- it's not cutting edge, but you will pay at least $300 for cutting edge. If you don't do a whole lot of gaming, the Geforce2 MX is perfect. At around $50 to $75, you can't go wrong with this chipset. Mind you I'm naming off chipsets- not actual graphics cards. nVidia only manufactures the chipset. For a decent brand name card, go with Visiontek or eVGA. If you need that flashy brand name, go with Elsa or Hercules/Guillemot- but you pay for that flashiness (3D goggles, fancy chipset heatsink/fan, attractive board color, etc.)
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Epinions.com ID:
mobomofo
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Location: tha 'noth ; )
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Mobomofo has a great knowledge of electronic components. So great, he thought to share it!
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