Eye Candy. Review on General Tips on Graphic Cards

# Oh Boy. A Pentium IV -  2 GHz, with 512 MB RAM, 17 inch monitor.but.

Man. Still I dont get smooth Frame rate . I wonder why?

# Arre yaar Pacman, Tetris andMario are ok.but when I try to

play better games. the performance is very poor.i wonder why?

# I can play many 3 D games. Quake 3 shows some error.I wonder why?

# Yeah.Games are nice in 600 X 480 resolution.but when I try to move to 800 X

600, they computer slows down and sometimes game just crashes.I wonder

why?

Well the list goes on and on.the Answer to all these question in GRAPHICS CARD.

So what exactly is it?

In layman's terms.it is the Hardware which is responsible for all the colors, text, images you see on your screen.   I n  a bit geeky terms.it is a hardware device to render, refresh and calculate all the pixels displayed on your screen at any point of time.

To understand them better let me first tell you what the HELL is Resolution! .well let's put it this way.When I say that my computer has a resolution of 800 X 600 pixels.that means. that .My monitor is displaying 800 pixels horizontally(width wise) and 600 pixels vertically(length wise).

Now some people will ask.what is PIXEL?

Pixel is the smallest part or your monitor screen, carrying then information of a color, which is going to be displayed on you monitor. Ok. try this. open any image in a Image viewer.now Zoom it.More.more.More. Ok. now what do u see.some tiny squares.right? This tiny box is called a PIXEL.

Now Lets get back to Graphic Cards. There are few things in a Graphic Card.that seperates it from others.

#1)   V - RAM:

V RAM or Video RAM.is the RAM(Ramdom Access Memory) that is inbuild in the card only. It helps taking load off  your System RAM while running some Graphic Intence Software. A Simple rule.More V RAM.Better Performance.

#2)  AGP Bus:

Its the Speed at which the information can be trasfered to / from

the card.

#3  Interface:

They are of two types. PCI.and.AGP.  ok.no more geeky language. PCI is the WHITE slot u have in you computer.and AGP is the brown one. Thats all u need to know, why? well.just to make sure that the new Graphics Card that you are about to buy.is compatible for your computer.

#4  API Support:

API  ?.well I'll tell you in simple words.Hey Gamers.you must have read on the Game - Boxes.Direct 3D support.3dFx Sopport.Open GL Support.right? well thats what I am talking about. Well API is a set of library.which contains a huge list / functions for graphic rendering / creation. The most popular of these are  DirectX  and Open GL.

. there are many other points.but I dont want to make it a journal on GRAPHICS CARD .so I am gonna stick to these only.

So now you know what to look for in a AGP( Accelerated Graphics Card) or a Graphics Card, but there is a catch.not every one needs a huge - fast  AGP card.lets say.all you do on your comp is .Word, Power Point, little music, internet Browsing. then trust me.you don't want to spend few grands for AGP card.

But if you are a Hardcore gamer.or.use software like.Autocad, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop.then u need at least  a    16 MB AGP Card.

So why do we need AGP card anyways.when you have one INBUILD in your motherboard. Well.The job of a AGP Card is to take load off the PROCESSOR and the System RAM.while you are playing Quake 3 or Rendering a 2 Min Movie in 3 D Studio MAX.