What to look for in a home - office graphics card
Let's talk about some specifics for the average home/office PC
user. This PC is used for word processing, spreadsheets, viewing
photos, and even watching a DVD movie or playing a 2D game. Most
all of these functions are handled easily by today's low-end
graphics cards.
To accomplish these tasks, you can get by with a 32-64MB card,
with a clock speed around 166MHz. You can find a good card with
these specs for $40. Most of them will have only a VGA
connector, but you can find some with DVI and even S-Video for
more like $100.
Prevent eye fatigue If you are looking at spreadsheets and
documents for hours on end, the best thing you can do is get a
card that has a high refresh rate, at the resolution you work
at. A minimum is 75MHz. The higher the resolution, the more
memory is used on the card and the harder it is to refresh. If
this rate drops below 75MHz, your eyes will be fatigued from the
flicker of the monitor. Find out what your monitor can support
at the resolution you use, then get a card that can pump it out
that fast.
Don't get features you don't need If you just play on the
Internet, or balance your checkbook on the computer, you don't
need all those available connectors on the back of your video
card. Don't spend a lot of extra money on a card that has
features you'll never use. If you're just playing solitaire,
it's not likely you'll notice the difference in a $50 card and a
$500 card. Another good thing to check is the software that
comes with the card. Most come bundled with nice utilities to
change resolution and even add some effects to the way XP looks.
A lot of them also come with a game or two, which are usually a
good indication of what the card can handle.