How to pick the right video card?

I was planning on upgrading my desktops video card... so my question is how do i pick the right one for my desktop? what do i look for and such.. thanks|||First thing, you need to make sure it is supported by your motherboard (i.e. the correct PCI type). Secondly it should have the outputs you want (HDMI, VGA, DVI, etc.). Thirdly your card must must support the correct version of DirectX (XP and Vista are 10, Windows 7 is 11). Now pick a card and go to the websites for games you like to play and ensure that the games you like are supported on your chosen card.



That's the sequence I follow for picking out a card for my build. But the website below will offer more info and things to look for.|||first determine what cpu you have, if it is an amd cpu most of those will be running on chipsets which dont support SLI (2 Nvidia cards working together) so you would be better off with an (Ati) card, (incase you ever want to utilize the crossfire feature (2 Ati cards working together). if you have an intel cpu then forget what i just said.



the key to knowing if card X is better than card Y at first glance is this:

if the name of the card is

Axyz then the A tells you how "new" it is, the xyz parts more or less denotes its power and how good it is



so (contrary to popular belief) an Ati 5850 for exanple would walk all over a 6670 even though the 6670 is "newer" but its not as powerful



this is also applicable to nvidia cards GTX 480 > GTX 550



also something to look out for is the memory (most are 1gb)



as for which particular one would be best for you, then it entirely depends on what you use your pc for! (what games you nplay and what resolution your monitor is but these are my recommendations (price taken into consideration)

Movies & casual gamer: ati 5670 $75 approx.

Gamer : Nvidia 460 GTX $155 approx.

serious gamer (high res. monitor) : Ati 6870 $190

Hardcore! (40 inch tv full hd madness LOL!): Ati 6950 2GB $275 approx.



youll find that various company will manufacture their own models based on these ones (eVGA, powercolor, HIS, XFX etc.) basically the onlt thing they differ in is the type of cooler they sick on it so it doesnt really matter which onre you buy!



good luck man i hope i helped!



edit: but yeah you do have to provide more info on motherboard etc. to iron out any compatibility issues you may have|||First off we need to know what your motherboard supports as far as video cards so a model specification would be nice, also what are you wanting to do with the video card? Gaming? Blu-Ray movies? Regular movies?|||well obviously price, but other than that I can't help you much (still learning)



I would recommend AMD for eyefinity (and better prices!)



I plan to get AMD 6870 black edition (1gb gddr5, eyefinity, hd3d, crossfirex support) its ranges from $170 to $240|||I agree with everything everyone else is saying, but you also need to be sure that your power supply will be able to handle whatever card you get.|||Depends on what you will be playing, the size of your case, your power supply and your processor.



I'd say get something like a 5770.|||It will be depending on what software you are installing in your desktop. But if you want a very good video card try Nvidia 2gb