The Right Graphics Card For Your Gaming Needs

With the ever present thought of Windows Vista and Directx10, many gamers will be looking to upgrade their graphics card within the next couple of years. However, there are so many available models and products out there that it is hard to decide between them. It really boils down to what you want to get out of your computer. It is no use springing for the best card out there if you aren’t going to use it to its full potential. Nevertheless it’s no use buying a cheap card when you are going to be running such games as Crysis or Alan Wake.



The current generation of graphics cards has a native API of Diretx9.0c. Currently the top contenders in this format are Nvidia’s 7 series and ATI’s R520. Specifically, the Geforce 7950GTX and the X1950. These two graphics cards have no problem running the games made for Windows XP today. Since they are the best of their kind at Directx9.0c games, there should not be any major problems. However, in the next few years the number of games being made for native Directx9c cards will decrease and native Directx10 games will increase. When faced with graphically amazing games such as Crysis or Alan Wake, these two cards will undoubtedly have a significant problem trying to run them at optimum speed. Though these two cards are a good choice at the moment, they should not be considered adequate for running games of the future at ideal settings. Thankfully, both of these cards are priced relatively low compared to some of the newer generation cards. These cards are perfect for those who want to stick with the DX9c games and mostly avoid the newer games.

The new generation of DX10 native cards is Nvidia’s 8 series and ATI’s R600. The current benchmark cards are the Geforce 8800GTX and the X2900 XTX. Both these cards come at high price of around $600. Nevertheless, they can handle the most detailed games at the highest setting without so much as blinking. These cards are sure to last for a while, so those that are looking to stick to one card for the years to come should be looking to spring for the best they can afford.

SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface. This feature combines two graphics cards in computer to greatly increase the speed. Using SLI is guaranteed to get you a better performce than with just one card. This is perfect for hardcore gamers that are looking to squeeze everything they can out of their computers and produce the best looking results on screen. However SLI does not come without it’s price. SLI requires two of the same graphics card connected together in the computer. With the highest end graphics card costing $600, the best SLI connection would cost $1200.

Regardless of graphics cards, there will certainly be vast range of games appearing throughout the next few years to satisfy any gamer’s need.