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Well before you start looking for the right Graphics Cards to compliment your existing system you need to understand what these cards are and what they do.

What Do You Use Your Computer For

One of the first things that you’ll need to do is a take a close look at what you use your computer for and at the collection of games that you’ve got. Are you a casual games player that perhaps prefers to save money and buy older or second hand games, or do you want the latest and greatest?

If the majority are older titles then you simply will not need a high end high memory card and will be better suited with a budget card especially in an older system. Surprisingly one consideration you need to take into account is your current processor speed. Take care here before you buy anything. Getting the latest upgrade when you’ve got an older chip in your computer will be a waste since the two won’t be compatible.

Not Universal

Bear in mind that different types of cards have different slot types so you need to ensure that the card you buy is correct for your mainboard.

Depending on your mainboard there will be a choice of suitable card types; PCI, AGP and Pci-e

Does Your Computer Have Sufficient Memory?

Most of the time doing a graphic card upgrade will also require a computer memory upgrade too!

Graphics cards have different amounts of memory and the better (in most cases) the card the greater the memory, and if your computer system only has a smaller amount of onboard memory then you will run into problems as you will have insufficient on board ram to support your system devices and the card will either not install or your computer will end up slower than before.

Is Your Power Supply Good Enough?

Bigger cards draw more power from your computer so you so you’ll need to make plans for this as well, older power supplies may only be around 350w give or take, so depending on if you have already added additional hardware to your system, this may over strain the supply which can lead to computer instabilities. Also be aware of the fact thatmany of the new breed of graphics cards may need an extra direct power connection so you need to check to see if you have a spare connector (that will reach the card) available.

Is There Enough Space In My Case?

This is one aspect that is often totally forgotten about but some cases will be quite small or the layout out of the main board may simply not be conducive for larger cards and a newer card will simply not fit!

The new generation of cards often have multiple GPU’s or large amount of memory so the tend to be a lot longer than previous cards. With newer cards working a lot harder they tend to generate a lot more heat so onboard cooling has been increase. This tends to lead to a thicker card as well so you may need to move other Pci cards to accommodate a larger graphics card.

A graphics card upgrade is worthwhile but does need some planning, but if you mainboard is based on the older AGP graphics standard you will more than likely be better off buying new if graphics performance is what you require.

For computer support visit the Dorchester computer repairs website.

Technorati Tags: Computers, Computing, Graphics Cards, technology

Tags: Computers, Computing, Graphics Cards, technology