How to choose a video card for your computer

The video card is a separate device of the computer, the main task of which is calculation, formation and output of the image on the monitor screen. Video cards are integrated and discrete. A discrete video card is a separate board with its own graphics processor, memory and a set of interface ports for connecting monitors. For information on how to choose a video card for a computer, see below.

In order not to make a mistake when choosing this card for your PC, you need to familiarize yourself with all its features and capabilities. It is the internal parameters that determine how much the video card costs. Therefore, there is no need to hurry.

Graphics processors (video chips)

An integrated graphics card is a GPU chip that is soldered directly to the motherboard. When you use it to store video data is allocated part of the RAM. At the same time, integrated videochips for performance are much inferior to the simplest and cheapest discrete graphics cards. The video card processor calculates the graphic data, processes it, and builds the finished image. The performance of the video card directly depends on the characteristics of the video chip, such as the clock speed and the number of blocks (pixel, texture and rasterization).

Video memory

To store the information required for graphic calculations and image building, the graphics card has its own video memory chips. It stores graphical information of different levels of readiness - ready images and intermediate results of calculations.

The performance of the video adapter depends heavily on what type of video memory chips are used. Memory standard DDR2 - the slowest and has long been morally obsolete, is used in the most budgetary devices for low-power office computers. DDR3 memory chips are now widely used in devices of the initial and middle price segment. Gaming same video cards are equipped with chips of the fastest video memory standard GDDR5, working with an effective frequency of about 5 GHz - this must be taken into account before choosing a video card for the computer.

Memory bus

Two-way information exchange between the graphics processor and video memory is performed on a set of conductors, which are called the memory bus, its main characteristic is the bandwidth (bus width) - the amount of information in bits transmitted on the bus per clock cycle. The optimal memory bus width of modern video cards is 256 bits.

Other criteria for choosing a video card

What should I consider before choosing a video card for a computer? If you are going to purchase a card for games, then pay attention to the number of pixel pipelines. It is desirable that their number is 64, and there were also 32 blocks of sample textures. Less productive, but still acceptable solution will be a device with 32 pixel pipelines and 16 blocks of sample textures.

Before choosing a video card for a computer, you need to take into account its power consumption. It should not exceed the power of the power supply, since in this case the computer may not even turn on. The other way is to buy a suitable power supply to a powerful card. In order not to be mistaken, before you buy a video card for a computer, study its characteristics in detail.