Most of graphics or video cards that can be used in today’s computers can be easily found in many stores. Many of these cards will have different interfaces that are used and some will have high definition television compatibility. However, not all of the graphics or video cards are going to be the same.
The graphics or video card that is available on the market these days is the GeForce 8800 GTX. Made by NVIDIA, this features a GDDR3 memory technology chip and is PCI compatible. This is what is also used in Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming system. This second best video memory chip is available and has a memory clock rate that well expands over one gigahertz in speed.
More of the benefits of the GeForce 8800 GTX is that it is the first video card that features DirectX 10 GPU. This is the latest edition in the Microsoft series of multimedia programming and is used exclusively with the new Windows Vista operating system.
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PNY’s GeForce 8800 GTX Overclocked is a variation of this video card and is also one of the top video cards that are available today. In addition, a PCI card, this feature has the ability to create image resolutions as high as 2560x1600 in quality. It also supports DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.0 and high definition television systems. The memory bandwidth of this card is especially high, as it has a bandwidth of 96 GB per second.
The GeForce 8 series arrived with NVIDIA's first unified shader Direct3D 10 Shader Model 4.0 / OpenGL 2.1 architecture. The design is a major shift for NVIDIA in GPU functionality and capability, the most obvious change being the move from the separate functional units within previous GPUs to a homogeneous collection of universal floating point processors (called "stream processors") that can perform a more universal set of tasks.
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GeForce 8's unified shader architecture consists of a number of stream processors (SPs). Unlike the vector processing approach taken with older shader units, each SP is scalar and thus can operate only on one component at a time. This makes them less complex to build while still being quite flexible and universal. Scalar shader units also have the advantage of being more efficient in a number of cases as compared to previous generation vector shader units that rely on ideal instruction mixture and ordering to reach peak throughput.
The lower maximum throughput of these scalar processors is compensated for by efficiency and by running them at a high clock speed. GeForce 8 runs the various parts of its core at differing clock speeds (clock domains), similar to the operation of the previous GeForce 7 Series GPUs. For example, the stream processors of GeForce 8800 GTX operate at a 1.35 GHz clock rate while the rest of the chip is operating at 575 MHz.
AGP cards are available for those who have computers whose motherboards can only take in AGP formatted cards. Diamond Multimedia’s S120 Radeon 9550 is one of the top video cards in this category, and it is great for those who are not willing to spend a great amount of money on a video card. This costs around fifty dollars in a typical retail store. This contains a VGA analog output. This Video Graphics Array output is easy to connect. It also features 256 MB of video memory and a maximum resolution of 2560x1600, and it is AGP compatible. This is a great video card for those who are looking for a card that is affordable.
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Another good AGP video card is the XFX GeForce 6200. These features VGA connectors and a dual 400 MHz RAM. It contains 256 MB of video memory, which refers to the coordination of depth in three-dimensional images. The CineFX 3.0 engine is one of the most notable parts of this card. It makes it one of the top video cards because it uses unique shader architecture so that images will be displayed at a smoother rate.
Some of the graphics or video cards are SLI ready cards. This refers to Scalable Link Interface, which helps to link multiple video cards to create one output. NVIDIA’s GeForce 7300 GT is one of the top video cards in this range. It features DDR2 memory and is compliant with PCI Express cards. Its unique transmission encoder will help to provide HDTV and composite output signals.
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Biostar’s GeForce 7100 GS TurboCache is also popular. This has 256 MB of video memory and a top resolution of 2048x1536. It is also HDTV ready.
Those are some of the top video cards to look for when shopping. These video cards all have different interfaces for PCI, AGP and SLI formats. They all have different resolution qualities and video memory ranges, but some of them will even handle HDTV signals. These cards will not only be great for a computer but they will work well for individual computer users.
