If you’re looking for one of the very best graphics cards there are a few things worth thinking about before you make the financial plunge.
The graphics card market has come a long way in the last two years thanks primarily to the two main video card manufacturers that are leading the way both striving to create the best graphics card these are Nvidia and AMD/ATI, and it really goes without saying that if your looking for one of the best video cards your next one should be one manufactured by one or the other.
One other reason that the graphics card market has come such a long way in such a short space of time is the gaming market, as game developers give games better and slicker graphics the processing power to make it look the way the developers intended increased ten fold, hence the need for more and more powerful graphics cards.
How do you find the best video cards for your need?
The thing that really limits a computer accepting a graphics card is its interface which depicts if a card will be compatible or not.
Desktop Computers
Modern desktop computers have a PCI Express (PCIe) graphics slot which allows you to use the fastest and newest graphics cards
Older computers have an AGP graphics slot which means you’re never going to be able to use the best graphics card possible, but you can still get some fast cards, but not as fast as PCI Express as the bus speed is around 8 x slower than the PCIe bus.
Laptop Computers
As laptop computers have built in graphics cards its just about impossible to update the card, so when purchasing a laptop look for ones with the best video cards you can afford as like I said upgrading the graphics is really not an option.
Next you need to think about what you need to card to be able to do, after all there is no point is spending £500 on a graphics card if you only need something for browsing, word processing or editing your photos.
If you’re into gaming, this is where the demands of a graphics card begin to increase; I’m not talking about quick or simple games such as online java stuff, but the latest generation of games which come with a multitude of options such as high resolutions, extra detail options which will push even the latest graphic cards.
The graphics card market is one of the fastest moving computer component industries around, and we should look at bench marks to find the best video cards as opposed to simply the technical specifications, a good indicator of a cards power is the cost of the card, by this I mean a £200 card will not be able to compete with a £500 card even if heavily overclocked.
The ATI HD5870
Our card choice of the month for the best graphics card goes to the ATI Radeon HD5870 coming it at around £300 it offers excellent performance at all levels.
Search for more help and tips on the best graphics cards
computer adviser best video cards article