Comments on: Giz Explains: How To Choose The Right Graphics Card

By: Prof. Robert D Jewell

Prof. Robert D Jewell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:44:34 +0000

Wise advice, unless, of course one is trying to find a card that will run Photoshop CS4 (c) or the whole CS4 suite. [Evidently not the same requirments.] No one seems to test for this.
I wonder why?

By: Blah

Blah — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:17:37 +0000

Lance, they are dedicated as opposed to onboard. An onboard card is integrated into the motherboard, and generally leech of the main RAM. They are weak and crappy. Dedicated are actual cards that have their own RAM, sometimes great clock speeds, and are actually useful for gaming.

By: pk

pk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:09:39 +0000

The opposite of dedicated is integrated. i.e. integrated into the motherboard. An example of this is the intel GMA chipset.

By: Freddie

Freddie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:01:17 +0000

2 x gtx 275 full stop!

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:06:42 +0000

I still don’t understand how a Graphics Card can be advetised “dedicated”. Does this mean that some computers have “apathetic” graphics Cards?

By: matt

matt — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:09:00 +0000

the only specs you might wanna find out are power usage (or min PSU wattage required) and card length(also weather the power ports are on the back of the card, extending its length or on the top come into this). unfortunately these specs are hard to come by and the specs from ati/nvidia are usually contradicted by the manufacture.

when i last got a computer, the 6800 ultra was the biggest card, i got a 6800gs, and this fit in the small mid tower case i got for LANs fine, but now if you wanna go anything above midrange gfx, you will find that the cards overlap the mobo, and as such, they completely disregard the ATX standards and there is no guarantee these cards will fit in your case. just something to keep in mind if you were planning on getting a small case, or using an old case :)