What do i look for when i buy a video card?

Right now i want to upgrade my hp computer i have an hp pavillion a1610n

i might just buy an a new computer but i was just wondering how do u buy a video card?Do u look at the name of the videocard like nvidia gefore 9600?what do yyou look for?|||To be honest, this article sums it up about as well as I can.



http://www.hardware-revolution.com/mista…



He covers all relevant points and gives good advice as to what to look for in a new card.|||first you have to start looking at cards with the right connection as there are 3 different types: AGP (which is now more or less obsolete as they are only found on old computers), PCI or PCI Express (which is the newest one with cards running at speeds of 16x) The name of the card indicates what chip set it has(the nvidia geforce 9600 is a good card) you also need to look at the clock speed and the on board memory as these all add to a faster and more powerful graphics card.



that's basically it and i hope that i have helped|||a video card is just like a computer, the faster the core clock and the bigger the memory the better your off. (NOTE: nvidia doesnt really make video cards. pny, bfg, xfx, etc make the cards-- i have no idea of what order the quality is but if you keep an eye out you'll somewhat get an idea)



with nvidia the series numbers (7xxx 9xxx)have a lot more to do with features over performance.the xxx numbers refer to what level the video card is, 9800's core will better then a 9300. the extensions are the most important, gtx is the highest quality gt being the second highest and then they just get creative from there down.



ati is a little more difficult to understand. a little research will help with that though.|||The major thing is making sure the card type matches your computer's video slot (usually either PCI-Express or AGP)



The article linked by Bjorn does a nice job of explaining the card model numbering.



For the scoop on specific cards, check recommended card lists, like this one: