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218 Comments
- KevenM, on 01/14/2009, -3/+171My video card is so old, it doesn't use RAM, it uses PUSH.
sorry, that's all I got. bury me. - belyle, on 01/14/2009, -2/+84Helpful article. I personally don't fall for those, but I've been trying to convince my non-geek friends that a 512MB 7200 is a POS compared to a 256MB 8600 that they could get for the same price.
- Kretien, on 01/15/2009, -1/+66wow, I feel stupid. I spent far too long trying to figure out what PUSH stood for...
- punchinelli, on 01/15/2009, -0/+31The memory/RAM thing has to be the most repeated mistake I see. "But it has 512 memory!!!!!!!!"
- Plopfish, on 01/15/2009, -0/+31TomsHardware and other sites do a ton of comparisons on ingame and tech. performance stats.
You can choose wich card(s) you want to compare and see it.
Search google
Also , http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics- ... - kd420, on 01/14/2009, -0/+30Good article, and really helpful since I just built a computer (my first) and I'm on the lookout for a video card. Once you get the numbering schemes down (for ATI and Nvidia) it's not too hard to quickly tell which card is better if your just comparing models. I guess the relatively hard part (for people like me at least) is comparing cards from the two different brands, i.e. what would be the equivalent ATI card for a 9800GT or something.
- mmittimm, on 01/15/2009, -1/+29The video on my old Performa was so weak it only used NUDGE.
- Arramol, on 01/14/2009, -0/+26Generally speaking, the only reliable way to know a video card's performance is by the benchmarks. The amount of memory can be misleading, even the name can be misleading. Take NVIDIA's 8 and 9 series for example. A 512mb 8800GTS is more powerful than a 640mb 8800GTS since the 512mb model uses a newer GPU. It's also on par with or ahead of a 9800GT, which is essentially a re-branded 8800GT. Furthermore, different cards are better for different games since some games are more dependent on different aspects of a video card (number of cores, core speed, amount of VRAM, etc.). If you're shopping for a video card, always, always, ALWAYS read benchmarks.
- Cancerkitty, on 01/14/2009, -0/+21I've made one or two of these classic gaffs in my time.
- dragonrebornn, on 01/15/2009, -2/+23Don't worry, that was awesome
- offrdbandit, on 01/15/2009, -0/+21If I were your brother, I would buy myself the good ***** and hand down my old stuff to you...
- steviesteveo, on 01/15/2009, -0/+15My old BASIC interpreter microcomputer used POKE.
No, that's not a joke, it actually did, debugging tool. - inactive, on 01/14/2009, -2/+17Mistake numero uno is all me baby!
- Sonan, on 01/15/2009, -1/+157. Buying two lower-priced cards and using SLI when you have multiple monitors. Many people probably don't realize that when you're in SLI mode, you can only have one monitor active. And to switch SLI mode on or off requires a reboot. Talk about a pain. I ended up not using SLI most of the time to avoid the hassle.
- pitchblack16, on 01/14/2009, -0/+13I avoid these mistakes by having my computer savvy brother take care of these things for me.
- Fixhotep, on 01/15/2009, -0/+12Dugg for Toms Hardware and their comparison chart.
- slvrbullet87, on 01/15/2009, -0/+11He said he wanted to play games
- Fixhotep, on 01/15/2009, -0/+10Right, because people can't learn new skills, which would often involve making mistakes... such as these. gj
- PabloIV, on 01/15/2009, -0/+10I spent the better part of a minute trying to figure out what PUSH could be an acronym to.
Pixel
Update
Software
Hardware
I eventually got the joke. - Jaliyl, on 01/15/2009, -0/+9Two GTX 295s, along with some extra blue LEDs/Cold cathodes to keep it cool.
- gaqua, on 01/15/2009, -0/+9"...use thoughtful thinking"
Well, I'm not sure there's another type... - MrMongoose, on 01/15/2009, -0/+9#3 gets me every time. Friggin' things are almost bigger than motherboards now (certainly longer). I went from a 6600GT to a 7900GT to an 8800GT, and each time the back of the card crept closer and closer to my drive bays (Sonata case). The 8800GT with power connectors is almost touching the case fan!
- Macko112, on 01/15/2009, -0/+9Then you're overpaying
- coadyj, on 01/15/2009, -0/+9I tend to make more mistacks letting my non savvy mother pick mine
- LethalGeek, on 01/15/2009, -1/+10WoW is a bad example.
WoW's video engine was upgraded as part of the expansion and the geometry of the world itself has increased dramatically. I can get 100FPS in one of the original zones of the game, and then get 60FPS in one of the new areas.
They also added a lot of shadow effects that can eat up time on a GPU if you care to flip them on. Plus lets not go into what happens when there is a 50+ player fight in the new PVP area. Most people can't even get a frame per second. - MisteryMeat, on 01/15/2009, -1/+9Benchmarks published by independent hardware sites, not the manufacturers which are always skewed. Tomshardware.com is where I always look first.
- MisteryMeat, on 01/15/2009, -0/+8A couple of years ago the general rule of thumb was to spend around the same amount on your video card as your CPU was worth.
- omjeremy, on 01/15/2009, -1/+9rofl
- link3333, on 01/15/2009, -1/+9Brucie?
- My571k, on 01/15/2009, -1/+9LOL. An integrated video card.
- dragonrebornn, on 01/15/2009, -1/+9Very good article. I've made a few of those mistakes in my day. Who knew that a 500W PSU isn't enough to power all of the components along with the GeForce GTX 280. Oh and had to remove a fan enclosure in the Antec 900 to fit the video card.
- likwidfuzion, on 01/15/2009, -6/+147. Taking the advice of an article with horrendous spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
- Chainheart2, on 01/15/2009, -1/+8#7 Not buying EVGA brand
Because you'll regret having bought any other brand when a better card is available at a lower price within 3 months (step-up program). EVGA generally has superior support and products anyway - Gerbil_Juice, on 01/15/2009, -0/+7#3 got me on my new build. My 9800 GTX+ was huge and the new case I bought for it wasn't. I ended up putting my new computer in my old case and my old computer in the new case. I'm very happy with the card, though.
- fuzzynyanko, on 01/15/2009, -0/+7They make AGP 16x slots? Anyways, I heard a Radeon 3850 is available for AGP
- jcsoc, on 01/15/2009, -0/+7no
- omjeremy, on 01/15/2009, -0/+7A 500W PSU is more than enough to power that card with a C2Q, four sticks of DDR2 memory, two SATA HDs and two optical drives. The problem you had was that your PSU was overrated or couldn't handle the load the GPU required. It's not about wattage only.
My HP Slimline has a 180W PSU which powers a C2D, 2 sticks of DDR2 memory, a SATA HD, 7600GS and an Optical drive. - offrdbandit, on 01/15/2009, -0/+6That sucks...
DDR1 is freaking expensive. - antoniuk, on 01/15/2009, -6/+12A new computer. You should not install hardware or you might electrocute yourself
buy a mac - crossmr, on 01/15/2009, -0/+6This was not really that helpful. go to tom's hardware, take your budget, grab the vga charts, line them up, find the one ranked highest in your price range end of story.
- kaod, on 01/15/2009, -0/+6well since you asked, i actually research my $300 purchases.
- Bluenose2, on 01/15/2009, -1/+7you gave me a chuckle.Thanks
- BabyWookie, on 01/15/2009, -3/+9"4- Teaming a powerful video card with a slow Cpu"
That's BS, even though I hear it all the time. These days, the vast majority of games are so completely GPU bottle-necked that it's not even funny. In reality, any C2D or Athlon X2 CPU is enough for gaming. I remember reading a detailed Crysis CPU performance analysis article. At 1280x1024, the game ran exactly the same on a 2 Ghz C2D as it did on the one overclocked to 3.4 Ghz. Of course, as with most games, quad-core made no difference, whatsoever. It's only when they underclocked a C2D to 1.6 GHz, they began to see a performance drop. If you play at resolutions of 1680x1050 or 1920x1200, the video card becomes even more of a bottle-neck.
Don't believe the hype, kids. Save money on the CPU and put it towards a more powerful GPU. - steviesteveo, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5Well, a couple of years ago the 8800GTX was NASA levels of cutting edge technology, would someone in the market for a system with one or two of those not be expected to splurge a little and pick up an Extreme Edition processor, say? Those are right back up in the same price levels as high end graphics cards.
Whereas someone putting a midrange $200 dollar processor in their computer might not (I'm reaching a little here) go quite as far to the top of the tree for a graphics card. MisteryMeat's rule is avoid people overspending on one part of the computer and ending with a bottleneck at the cheaper component, there's obviously exceptions to a general rule but it's a good rule of thumb to have in mind. - Traze, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5Umm, no.
- mrBitch, on 01/15/2009, -1/+6POKE wasn't just used for debugging. You could load up a complete set of hex opcode sequences and run them, in effect using the BASIC code to load and run machine language code.
You could also POKE directly to screen video addresses and draw images onto the screen. - WBWB, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5I have an AGP NVidia 7800GS in my old PC.
Better hurry, AGP cards are getting hard to find. - digitnsm, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5Thoughtless unthinking?
- mmittimm, on 01/15/2009, -1/+6Can't agree with #5... I'll take the Mustang over the Civic any day(literally and figuratively [unless it's a CRX])
My card may have been way more powerful than I would need but at least I have peace of mind knowing that I can run nearly anything on it and smoothly, and I can crank up the detail settings to high for most games. - peters1023, on 01/15/2009, -0/+5Yeah, or any other manufacturer.... FAIL
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