*Selecting a video card upgrade can be an intimidating task.Unless you’ve kept up with all the GPU announcements and performancereports, it’s practically impossible to know which cards are worthbuying.
Appendix: Term related to Graphics Cards
Framerates: As the term implies, framerate is an indication of how many frames persecond your systemcan display. The rate not only varies from game togame, it is alsoaffected by the game’s settings and the action takingplace at anygiven moment in the game. Framerate is, in some ways, theultimate testof a video card’s speed, so a lot of sites compare cardson this basis.The fastest cards in this regard are usually the mostexpensive as well.
DirectX: Whileyou may need the latestversion of Microsoft DirectX(DX) software torun a game, this doesn’tnecessarily mean that your card must be fullycompatible with the latestversion of DX, you simply won’t be able touse certain graphicsfeatures. Most new games support cards that havebuilt-in DX 9 features, but will still run on a video card from the DX8 era, for example. Whenin doubt, look for the specific chipsets thatthe game you want to playsupports.
Hardware Transform and Lighting: This has beena standard feature in game-oriented video cards for quite afew years, but there are still PCs around that don’t have it. These areusuallysystems with Intel graphics integrated into the motherboard, commonlyused in budget laptops and desktops designed for office use.If yourdesktop doesn’t have hardware T&L and you have a graphicscard slotavailable, adding a newer graphics card could be an option.
Power Consumption:Many cards designed for gaming require a considerable amount of power, andthey often have additional power connectors on them because theycan’tget enough juice through the slot itself. They also requirearelatively good power supply, especially for SLI and Crossfiresystemswith dual video cards. If you’re upgrading to the latesthigh-end card, you may find yourself upgrading your power supply aswell. Powerrequirements are usually stated in the graphics card’sspecifications.
3D Graphics Accelerators: I still receivethe odd question about 3D acceleration, but it’s safe tosay that allcards and PCs, including laptops, now have this feature.3D acceleratedcards handle a variety of 3D display functions that usedto be sent theCPU for processing, which makes 3D games run much moresmoothly. Again, this is no longer a concern because you’d have to goback many years tofind a system that doesn’t have 3D acceleration.