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Build Computers:
Choosing a Graphics Card
When building your own computer, the four key components of overall system performance are the motherboard, processor, RAM and the video card. As good as the video cards of today are, they can still be the bottleneck when used with high-end processors and RAM. The MX video cards are very tempting. They are excellent performers, low in price, and frequently packaged with nice software. But it's a waste of money to get a high-end processor and not follow-up with the video card. This video card comparison illustrates how the video card can be the bottleneck in a performance system. Computers designed with graphics capabilities in mind should have a GeForce4 5200 video card at the very least.
The ATI and NVIDIA Video Card Wars
There's quite a battle raging between the top and only two video card makers, NVIDIA and ATI. Like the contest between the AMD and Pentium processors, both offer select products that would help make an excellent computer. Ultimately, we consumers will benefit as they race to add performance and features while cutting costs. Go to it guys! You as PC builder just need to make sure you get one of the better models and one that's right for you, and I can help with that.
Another feature that tends to distinguish high-end video cards from one another is whether or not they support AA (antialiasing) in hardware. Those that do support it in hardware perform much better on AA benchmarks than those that do not. Again, I don't consider this a factor in which high-end video card to purchase. AA is a process whereby jagged edges are made a bit smoother. It's a somewhat subtle effect. It's not worth a lot of dollars, in my opinion.
Most high-end video cards support AGP 8x. To get the most out of a AGP 8x video card, the motherboard also needs to support AGP 8x, as the EPoX 8RDA+ does. An AGP 8x configuration will give a 5% to 10% improvement in performance over the same computer configured with AGP 4x.
The GeForce FX models by NVIDIA are so physically large that they take up two card slots, namely the AGP slot and the adjacent PCI slot. Although this seems extreme, it's not as big a negative as it might at first seem since modern motherboards now come with features built-into the motherboard itself that previously required an add-on PCI card. Most motherboards come with 5 PCI slots or more and it's highly unlikely any computer would use them all.
Be aware that to get the most out of a high-end video card you should have a high-end processor and fast system memory to go with it, otherwise the processor will not be able to keep the video card busy under load. I haven't seen any studies on this point, but my recommendation is that you should use at least PC2700 memory and at least an Athlon XP 2200+ processor at a minimum to get the most out of a high-end video card.
What's happening is that these two titans of video cards, ATI and NVIDIA, are in an aggressive, money-is-no-object (for you) struggle to claim "fastest video card in the world". But the reality is that even dedicated PC enthusiasts wince at a price point over $200 for a video card, and those less enthusiastic are looking to spend considerably less than that. Well, that's ok, in fact that's good. Historically it hasn't taken long for the highly touted video cards to come rapidly down to earth in price to clear the decks for the latest-even-better video card.
ATI 9600, ATI 9800 and GeForce FX 5900
These are the newest video card models available from ATI and NVIDIA. All of them have established themselves as powerful, solid choices in a video card. The ATI 9600 Pro offers about the same performance as the GeForce4 Ti 4200, but with Directx 9.0 support and AA built-in. The ATI 9800 Pro is now the most powerful video card on the market, clearly pulling ahead of the ATI 9700 Pro and overall faster than the GeForce FX 5900. Like their ATI predecessors, the ATI 9500 Pro and ATI 9700 Pro, both the ATI 9600 Pro and the ATI 9800 Pro are on the quiet side for noise. The GeForce FX 5900 is faster than the ATI 9700 Pro, but falls just short of the overall performance of the ATI 9800 Pro. The noise of the GeForce FX 5900 is not nearly so loud as its GeForce FX predecessors (the 5200, 5600 and 5800) and is considered normal by video card standards.
The ATI 9600 Pro is not particularly cheap but does deliver well for the money and is within the price range of many. The ATI 9800 Pro and GeForce FX 5900 are very expensive and are aimed at the serious gaming and video editing enthusiasts. The ATI "Pro" models of the ATI 9600 and ATI 9800 perform better than their non-Pro counterparts and should be the ones considered in this line.
The ATI models are also available as the ATI 9600 XT and ATI 9800 XT. Both of these variations offer improved performance over their "Pro" counterparts and both variations are more expensive than their "Pro" counterparts. Both variations support "Overdrive", which is a feature whereby the video card drivers automatically - and I assume safely - overclock the video card based on the temperature of the video card to boost performance even further. A total performance increase of 10 percent to 20 percent is not unusual over the "Pro" variations. The ATI 9600 XT is tempting since it's extra cost is not disproportionate to the extra performance it provides over the ATI 9600 Pro. The extra performance of the ATI 9800 XT comes at a hefty premium to the cost of the ATI 9800 Pro.
GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5800 Video Cards
These are the first models in which NVIDIA supported DirectX 9.0 in the hardware of the video card. Performance-wise they are certainly an improvement over the GeForce4 line, but otherwise they have disappointed and fallen rapidly out of favor. First, they are pricey, although the GeForce FX 5200 is the least expensive video card on the market that supports DirectX 9.0. Second, they are unbelievably noisy. They have been measured at 77dBa, which is designated as "Loud" on the decibel rating chart which describes this as a "Noisy office". And third, the competing ATI models suffer from none of these deficiencies (well, they're not particularly cheap), but are at the same performance level and feature level.
ATI 9500 and 9700 Video Cards
These models compete with the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200/5600/5800 line and the NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200/4400/4600 line. These ATI models support DirectX 9.0 and AA in the hardware, same as the GeForce FX models I mentioned. The GeForce4 models I mentioned support DirectX 8.1 in the hardware but not AA. I mention that so you know, but I'd give the dollars more weight than these features.
The "Pro" models of the ATI 9500 and ATI 9700 perform significantly better than their non-Pro counterparts and should be the ones considered in this line. The ATI 9500 Pro performs right about the same as the GeForce4 Ti 4200, but includes the extra features. The ATI 9700 Pro performs well above the GeForce4 Ti 4200, providing an improvement around 20% to 25% in performance. And the difference is huge, like around 300%, if the measurements are done with AA enabled since the NVIDA GeForce4 42nn implements AA in software. But like I said, the difference with AA enabled is pretty subtle and I, like everyone else, just run with AA disabled.
The ATI 9700 Pro is considered "the" video card to get nowadays for a top-tier gaming system. It costs considerably more than the GeForce4 Ti 4200 but it delivers more both in features and performance. On the other hand, a GeForce4 Ti 4200 does get the job done.
GeForce4 Video Cards - GeForce4 Ti 4200/4400/4600, GeForce4 MX 420/440/460
The GeForce4 4n00 video card line has the same excellent image quality features as the GeForce3 video card line, but with a significant performance boost. The three high performance cards in the GeForce4 line (in order of increasing performance) are the 4200, the 4400 and the 4600. They include the same core hardware functionality but at different levels of performance. The GeForce4 Ti 4200 is the first video card that provides enough performance for even demanding applications. And it provides the best dollar value among the high-end video cards available today, but some will find the bragging rights that come with even more powerful video cards worth the premium. The GeForce4 MX 440 is a very popular choice for those wanting a good video card, but don't require a high end video card. A nice summary of the performance expectations for the GeForce4 video card line is this GeForce4 Video Card Roundup Review by GameSpot.
GeForce3 Titanium Video Cards - GeForce2 Ti 200, GeForce3 Ti 200, GeForce3 Ti 500
The GeForce3 Titanium line of video cards replaced the GeForce3 line. The GeForce3 Titanium line of video cards consists of the GeForce2 Ti 200, the GeForce3 Ti 200 and the GeForce3 Ti 500. The GeForce2 Ti 200 has the same features as the GeForce2 Pro, but has a faster core clock. In raw terms, the GeForce2 Ti 200 is a little faster video card, but in real-world terms it performs essentially the same as the GeForce2 Pro.
The other two video cards, the GeForce3 Ti 200 and the GeForce3 Ti 500 are more interesting since their feature set is the same as the GeForce3 video card line. The feature set of GeForce3 video cards is significantly different than that of GeForce2 video cards. The GeForce3 is capable of providing a much better, more accurate, more detailed image than the GeForce2 at the same performance level. That's saying quite a lot because the GeForce2 will knock your eyes out if all you've seen is pre-NVIDIA images. But the GeForce3 takes rendering to the next level.
The GeForce3 Ti 200 video card easily outperforms the GeForce2 Pro video card - by 10 percent to 20 percent or more, depending on the type of test being run. But not only that, since the GeForce3 Ti 200 is a GeForce3 video card it has the potential to render much better images with no loss of performance. The GeForce3 Ti 500 video card solidly outperforms the GeForce3 Ti 200, but at a much greater cost.
For a performance comparison of the different GeForce3 Titanium video cards and how they compare to the ATI Radeon video cards such as the ATI Radeon 7500 and ATI Radeon 8500, plus other NVIDIA GeForce2 video cards, such as the GeForce2 Pro and GeForce3, this GeForce3 Video Card Family Roundup Review from AnandTech is excellent.
ATI Radeon 9000, 8500 and 7500 Video Cards
The ATI Radeon 9000, 8500 and 7500 video card lines compete with the NVIDIA GeForce3 and GeForce2 video card lines. Technology has moved beyond all of these ATI and NVIDIA lines of video cards and they are not commonly pursued for new computers today. In their day, the NVIDIA models were the video card of choice by computer builders due to their price/performance, reliability and wide support (excellent utilities and excellent, frequently updated drivers).
GeForce2 Video Cards
For a performance comparison of the different GeForce2 type video cards, including the GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 GTS, and GeForce2 Ultra, this GeForce2 Video Card Roundup Review And Comparison from GameSpot is very good!
Best Video Card Choice
The two choices I would weigh are the GeForce4 Ti 4200 and ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. Practically speaking, the GeForce4 Ti 4200 provides more than enough performance for anything you might do and is less expensive than the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. On the other hand, you get more with the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro and it might be worth it to spend more now to lengthen the time between desiring a video card upgrade.
Value Video Card
But what video card is good if you don't need a top-level video card? If you know you won't be using your PC for top-tier games or other graphic intensive operations then you may be interested in saving some money on the video card. As a matter of fact, the value video cards of today pack enormous punch when compared to top-tier video cards of just a few years ago, so saving money in this case still gets you respectable performance. A very handy comparison of a great number of video cards that have been produced over the last several years is available in this Video Card Roundup Comparison from Tom's Hardware. By examining the benchmark results, you can get a very good idea of each video card's relative performance to other video cards (be aware that many of the video cards listed are not readily available today). And here's a valuable piece of information you need to understand how much video card to buy - the minimum video card you need to reach playable levels with even the most demanding PC applications is one that reaches at least 30 frames-per-second (fps). Video cards peforming below this level will still be more than sufficient for typical web browsing and non-game PC applications. Above this performance level will allow gameplay at greater resolutions and greater color depth with fewer instances and lessor severity of gameplay stuttering. The frames-per-second achieved by a video card for an application can be affected by the computer's configuration, especially by the screen resolution, but a GeForce4 MX 440 video card is an inexpensive video card widely available today that often meets the 30 fps benchmark under reasonable computer configurations.
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