Additional Information About the Video Card

The Computer's Video Card

The motherboard slot on this PC is an AGP slot, but the first thing you should know about modern motherboards and graphics cards is that the AGP standard has been phased out in all but the most low-end graphics cards. All modern and high-end graphics cards now use a faster standard called PCI Express, so if you want to upgrade your graphics card to cutting edge but have an older computer that doesn't support PCI Express, you should probably start by upgrading your computer.

That said, once you have decided to upgrade your graphics card and have a computer that will support it, your choice of card depend mainly on what you want your computer to do. Graphics cards have an extremely wide range of capabilities, features, and prices, so it's best to know what you want to do with it before you make your purchase. Just like the CPU, the graphics card has a wide range of specifications, and the best way to compare different graphics cards is to understand these specifications. here is a description of a modern high-end graphics card.

BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXOCE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Brand - BFG Tech, Model - BFGR88768GTXOCE: The brand and model number are simply designators that distinguish this video card from others.

Interface - PCI Express x16: The interface designates the type of motherboard slot that it installs into. Older video cards and some modern inexpensive video cards still use the AGP interface standard, but all new and high-end video cards use the PCI Express standard interface.

Chipset Manufacturer - NVIDIA: Similarly to CPU manufacturers, there are only two companies that manufacture GPUs, ATI and NVIDIA. Though some people may be loyal to one brand or another, if you do not have any personal preference, the manufacturer should not matter as much as the performance for price options that each company offers.

GPU - GeForce 8800GTX: This is the name designation for the graphics processing unit on the chip. The numbers do not have any special designation in and of themselves, and can be used by the company to mislead users into thinking that some cards are better than others based on this arbitrary designation, so only use this name as a reference when researching graphics cards, and do not base your decision on the GPU's numerical or alphabetical designation.

Core clock - 600MHz(vs. 575MHz standard): The clock speed describes the speed at which the GPU processes instructions. 600MHz is a speed of 600,000,000 instructions per second. Comparing this number among graphics cards can give you a good idea of their relative graphics rendering speeds, but it is not an absolute designation, as many other elements go into the speed and efficiency of instruction processing in modern GPUs.

Stream Processors - 128: The number of stream processors in your graphics card is another determining factor in its overall graphics rendering speed. It is a measure of the card's pipeline, or how much information can be processed by the GPU at a given time.

Memory Clock - 1800MHz: This clock speed describes the speed at which the graphics card's dedicated onboard RAM operates. The faster information from the onboard RAM is accessed, the smoother transitions between graphical images will be on your computer.

Memory Size - 768MB: This number describes the amount of dedicated onboard RAM that the graphics card has. Most standard graphics cards today have at least 256MB of onboard RAM. If you want to use your graphics card to play high-end games or work with video rendering, it should have at least 512MB of onboard RAM.

Memory Interface - 384-bit: This is a good specification to look at when comparing two cards with similar RAM sizes and speeds. The higher the memory interface, the more information is passed between the GPU and the onboard RAM at a time.

Memory Type - GDDR3: This designation describes the type of onboard RAM that the graphics card has. This graphics card has Graphics DDR3 memory (see the advanced information on RAM for a description of the different types of RAM). Other graphics cards may have DDR2 or DDR4 memory. Numbers after the designations indicate the relative speed of the RAM, with 4 being faster than 3 being faster than 2.

DirectX - DirectX 10: This designation indicates the highest version of the DirectX API(application programming interface) that this card supports. DirectX is the graphical API for all Windows-based machines and programs. Computers running Vista or any of the latest games for Windows must have a graphics card that supports DirectX 10.

OpenGL - OpenGL 2.0: OpenGL is the open-source alternative graphical API alternative to DirectX, and there are many games and programs that use it as their standard instead. It has also been updated recently in order to support advances in computer graphics, so make sure you have a card that supports the latest versions of both DirectX and OpenGL if you want to run modern graphics programs or video games.

DVI - 2: Your graphics card will support VGA or DVI monitors or both, and sometimes it will have the ability to plug multiple monitors into one graphics card. This graphics card has the ability to support two DVI monitors, but not a VGA monitor,so if you have an older CRT monitor, you should make sure that your graphics card will support it. However, you can get DVI to VGA converters in case you find yourself with a monitor that is not directly supported by your graphics card.

TV-Out - HDTV / S-Video / Composite Out: This list shows the different types of video output besides the monitor that this graphics card supports. If you want to plug your computer into a television, you should always check to see if the video card supports S-Video or Composite Out. High-end graphics cards like this one also support high-definition output to your television.

VIVO - No: This designation tells you whether the video cards supports video in/ video out. If the graphics card allows VIVO, it means that you can plug the video-out cable from your TV into the graphics card and watch TV on your computer.

Tuner - None: In addition to supporting VIVO, your graphics card may also have the ability to directly support cable television being plugged into your computer directly through the cable connection, rather than going through the TV. If you wish to use your computer as a TV, or as a digital video recorder, you can get a graphics card with a built in TV tuner.

SLI Supported - Yes: Some motherboards support the ability for you to run two graphics cards in parallel, an ability that, when supported by the graphics card as well, is called SLI by NVIDIA cards and CrossFire by ATI cards. This is an option that is only found on high-end graphics cards, and is only necessary if you are planning on running two graphics cards in tandem.



Now that you know everything you need to know about the video card: