Graphics Cards

I like to know the about the technical side of computers and cameras. But when we walked into computer store today, I really had no idea why one graphics card could be $45 and another $390.

And now I have a slighter better idea.


New and Old Graphics Cards

These cards have more than just Graphics RAM--the extra space dedicated to providing space for giving your pretty pictures. They also have image processing power. The problem is that this number is not made public on the boxes.

So, look for the RAM size and speed (1gig DDR2 vs. 512 GDDR3...), but if you can find out the difference between the 4650 and the 4820, or the 9600 and the 9720, you may discover that the $200 swing is due to the number of processes it can handle (320, we were told, is pretty good for our price range).

<shrug> Who knew?

What to learn a little more? Check out the How Stuff Works article on the subject of Graphics Cards.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor