Video Card Upgrades Need Careful Choosing

One of the most common upgrades to a desktop computer is the video card. Most often, it's due to users seeking better performance for gaming and graphics, or a desire to run multiple monitors from one PC system.

However, these choices are often confusing and prone to mistakes, which can lead to frustrated returns to stores and mail order firms and hefty shipping and restocking fees.

The most common mistake made in choosing a video card upgrade is selecting the wrong interface. Many inexpensive desktop computers come with built-in graphics on the system motherboard, but those graphics are often quickly overwhelmed when faced with much more than Web surfing and simple video playback.

Many recent low-priced desktop systems from vendors such as Dell and HP came with onboard graphics, and they also offer a variety of possible slots for upgrading graphics, with many offering only a PCI slot. A few small-form cases also require a “low-profile” card to fit in the case.

There are three choices available for video card upgrade, PCI, AGP and PCI Express. The fact most major video card retailers offer similar looking packaging for many cards makes selecting the correct card even more confusing.

If you're looking to do an upgrade, you need to find out which video interface your system has. This is the slot in your computer where your card will plug in.

PCI slots are available on nearly every computer, but are also the slowest for running gaming and other graphic-intensive applications.

If your system has either an AGP or PCI-E(xpress) interface, be sure to choose a video card that will use that, rather than PCI, as it will provide better performance, often at lower cost. In a future column I'll talk about choices in AGP and PCI-Express cards.

PCI video cards also use slower graphics processors than other choices. Two basic current video card chipset providers are available, NVIDIA and ATI.

In the NVIDIA chipset the choices include the FX5200 and FX5500, and the GeForce 6200 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Cards are available with either 128 or 256MB of graphics memory. A good rule of thumb is usually the higher the number of the GPU and the more RAM, the better the likely performance (and the higher the price).

ATI-based cards are generally sold under the Radeon banner by companies including Visiontek, Sapphire, MSI and Best Data/Diamond.

The current Radeon PCI choices are the X1300 and X1550 with either 128 or 256MB of RAM. The ATI cards offer somewhat higher performance than the NVIDIA cards in many cases, but are also more expensive. ATI drivers also often provide fewer choices in resolutions, especially in common 5x3 HDTV capable monitors (such as 1366x768).

It's also important to check the monitor output choices, which vary from card to card. Some video cards, especially the NVIDIA FX5200 and FX5500 series, only come with a standard 15-pin VGA output, and don't have a DVI connector.

Many other cards feature one VGA and one DVI connector, with others including an S-Video or component video output which can be used to hook a computer to a standard television monitor.

Still others include two VGA or two DVI connectors, which can be handy for attaching multiple monitors to one computer.

It's also extremely important to check the size of the required power supply, as a few cards (such as the Diamond x1550PRO), require a power supply well in excess of 300 watts, and can burn up the cheaper power supply found on many inexpensive desktop computers.

PCI video card upgrades can cost from $50 to $150, so be careful to make the right choice.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.