Buying a Graphics Card

When buying a graphics card, what do you look for?

I need detailed answers on this.

Hey jarrod. I put quite a bit of detail into this so please read it all.

The two main thing are the allocated ram to the graphics card and the video bus connection.

The allocated ram, is used for the OpenGL/Direct X rendering and the higher the allocated memory (1.5 gigs is more than enough), the less lag you'll have for playing on high quality.

The important part though, and the part most people don't bother researching is the video bus. Its the connection your graphics card has to your processor. It is crucial to choose a graphics card with at least 192 or more bits of connection. You know the lag you get when theres a mando in elixir shooting a nade launcher? Thats the video bus hard at work. It would probably be better to gave a 1 gig graphics card with a 256 bit connection then a 3gig one with 128 bits, because your video bus connection bottlenecks any rendering your graphics card does, regardless of how good it is.

Will my 32gb ram suffice?

Fatality wrote:

Will my 32gb ram suffice?

Lol...

Your ram has nothing to do with your graphics card... the same way your hardrive has nothing to do with your download speeds.

Also... why the hell do you have 32gb? You can basicly do any combination of the most demanding tasks (Gaming/movie rendering/photoshop) and still will perform perfectly with 12 gigs.

Cheers Gen. I'll look into that.


and noah, 32gb is just useless if you're playing games like bfh.

Is another term for video bus, 'Memory Interface'?

Tell me what you think of these ones
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Nvidia-Geforce-1GB-GT440-Graphic-Video-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-FAN-HD-PCI-Express-/290632306088?pt=AU_Components&hash=item43ab090da8
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Palit-GeForce-NVIDIA-GT520-2GB-Graphics-Card-HTPC-PCIE-/260840464706?pt=AU_Components&hash=item3cbb4da142
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gigabyte-AMD-Radeon-HD6450-1GB-DDR3-PCI-Express-2-0-Graphic-Card-HDMI-NEW-/130574054206?pt=AU_Components&hash=item1e66d1f33e
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ATI-Radeon-1GB-HD6750-Graphic-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-Video-Game-DDR5-AMD-PCI-Express-/280786770845?pt=AU_Components&hash=item4160321b9d


It has all the specs of each one in the description below the image. Tell me which of those specs I need to be looking at. (other than the Memory Size)
Note, I only want to spend 50-100$ as I'll be building a custom computer, with top of the line shit, this time next year.

RoyalsAreRetards wrote:

Tell me what you think of these ones
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Nvidia-Geforce-1GB-GT440-Graphic-Video-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-FAN-HD-PCI-Express-/290632306088?pt=AU_Components&hash=item43ab090da8
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Palit-GeForce-NVIDIA-GT520-2GB-Graphics-Card-HTPC-PCIE-/260840464706?pt=AU_Components&hash=item3cbb4da142
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gigabyte-AMD-Radeon-HD6450-1GB-DDR3-PCI-Express-2-0-Graphic-Card-HDMI-NEW-/130574054206?pt=AU_Components&hash=item1e66d1f33e
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ATI-Radeon-1GB-HD6750-Graphic-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-Video-Game-DDR5-AMD-PCI-Express-/280786770845?pt=AU_Components&hash=item4160321b9d


It has all the specs of each one in the description below the image. Tell me which of those specs I need to be looking at. (other than the Memory Size)
Note, I only want to spend 50-100$ as I'll be building a custom computer, with top of the line shit, this time next year.

For the first link (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Nvidia-Geforce-1GB-GT440-Graphic-Video-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-FAN-HD-PCI-Express-/290632306088?pt=AU_Components&hash=item43ab090da8):

Memory Specs:
Memory DDR3
Standard Memory Config 1GB (DDR3)
Memory Interface Width 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 28.8 (DDR3)
Ramdac 400 Mhz

--

128 bit interface is a no no so definetly not.

--


The second one is pretty good (its 64bit so its a 256 bit interface)


The last two are radeon and would highly disrecommend them because their c/s is shit.

Gen wrote:

For the first link (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Nvidia-Geforce-1GB-GT440-Graphic-Video-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-FAN-HD-PCI-Express-/290632306088?pt=AU_Components&hash=item43ab090da8):

Memory Specs:
Memory DDR3
Standard Memory Config 1GB (DDR3)
Memory Interface Width 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 28.8 (DDR3)
Ramdac 400 Mhz

--

128 bit interface is a no no so definetly not.

--


The second one is pretty good (its 64bit so its a 256 bit interface)


The last two are radeon and would highly disrecommend them because their c/s is shit.

Two questions.
Why does the second one multiply by 4 (64x4=256bit) to get its' memory interface, but the first one (the 128 bit one) stays how it is?
and if it's a 64bit, does it only work with a 64bit computer, coz I only have a 32bit.

Sorry if these are stupid-sounding questions. I'm just a novice when it comes to computer stuff.

RoyalsAreRetards wrote:

Gen wrote:

For the first link (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Nvidia-Geforce-1GB-GT440-Graphic-Video-Card-HDMI-DVI-VGA-FAN-HD-PCI-Express-/290632306088?pt=AU_Components&hash=item43ab090da8):

Memory Specs:
Memory DDR3
Standard Memory Config 1GB (DDR3)
Memory Interface Width 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 28.8 (DDR3)
Ramdac 400 Mhz

--

128 bit interface is a no no so definetly not.

--


The second one is pretty good (its 64bit so its a 256 bit interface)


The last two are radeon and would highly disrecommend them because their c/s is shit.

Two questions.
Why does the second one multiply by 4 (64x4=256bit) to get its' memory interface, but the first one (the 128 bit one) stays how it is?
and if it's a 64bit, does it only work with a 64bit computer, coz I only have a 32bit.

Sorry if these are stupid-sounding questions. I'm just a novice when it comes to computer stuff.

Because essentially the memory interface is the amount of connectors/pins that connect your graphics card to your processor. For a graphics card to run a 64 bit interface, it must have at least 192 connectors or more. Also, it has nothing to do with a 64 bit computer.

My recommendation will be... allthough its a bit pricey i'd invest in one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-01G-P3-1361-KR-GeForce-GTX460-1GB-DDR5-192bit-PCIE-Video-Card-/270878571190?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3f119efab6

Or even this if your prapared to go a bit extra for power:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-01G-P3-1461-KR-GeForce-GTX560-1G-GDDR5-Video-Card-/200692357851?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item2eba325adb

The first one has a 192 bit interface and the second one a 256 bit interface, so a graphics card with a 128 bit will have to run at about 1.5 gigs to match up with the first one and 2 gigs to match up with the second one. Also, both those graphics cards use DDR5 technology which is a much more effeicent than DDR3. I know its a bit pricey but these graphics card is built to last.... and in the long run you'll save money from not having to buy newer updated versions of graphics cards every year or so which normally occurs if you choose to invest in cheaper graphics cards (The reason they are cheap at all is because their old and outdated)

I know, but this graphics card only needs to last a year, and I'm at my dads' every 2nd week. So it'll only be used for about half a year.
Also, with year 12, I'll be flat out doing work and won't have as much time to play games.