What Are the Different Types of Video Cards?

There are dozens of different types and brands of video cards on the market, so finding the right card for your needs and price range can take some research. Knowing which features you need makes it easier. Video cards can come in a few different types of connections; however, PCI-Express is the current standard and most new cards will be of that interface. All current video cards will be able to display standard web pages and be used for email and word processing. Higher-end types of video cards should be considered if your computing needs include modern video games and high-definition video.

High-end Enthusiast Cards

Enthusiast cards are usually the most expensive of the different types of video cards. These cards will have the most memory, fastest processors and newest technology. In 2009, NVIDA released its GeForce GTX 295 with dual processors, physics processing, 1,792 MB of memory and a 1,242 MHz GPU. High-end cards, like the GTX 295, will give the highest frames per second on the newer video games; however, this comes at a price premium. High-end cards will have no problem playing high-definition video or any business related task.

Mainstream Cards

Mainstream cards are usually the previous model of high-end cards. Once a new model or set of features come out, the existing high-end cards are replaced and those cards will be considered mainstream. In 2009, ATI released their Radeon 4000 series cards. When the 4000 series cards were released, the previous generation of video card, Radeon 3000, lacked newer features like GDDR5 memory. The Radeon 3000 moved to the mainstream category and had a more affordable price than when first introduced. Most current video games will be able to be played on a mainstream card; however, some of the newest graphical effects may not be available. Most mainstream cards will be able to play full-screen, high-definition video with no issues.

Value Cards

Much like mainstream cards being comparable to the previous generation enthusiast card; value cards are usually very similar to the last generation of mainstream cards. Value cards are not typically recommended for playing newer graphic intensive games; nonetheless, they are fully capable for daily use and Internet browsing. Depending on the card, full-screen, high-definition video may be an issue with these cards.

Onboard Video

Many budget and entry level PCs will include onboard video. Onboard video is a low-end graphics card that is built into the motherboard. Onboard video typically shares computer system memory instead of having its own dedicated memory. The onboard video cards are usually not recommended to play graphical intensive games or full-screen, high-definition video. Onboard video will lack many of the features found in the other types of video cards. Onboard video cannot be upgraded; however, adding in a separate video card will disable it.

Multi-Head Cards

Multi-head cards are video cards that display to more than one monitor at a time. Some multi-head cards like NVIDIA's Quatro line will be able to connect four monitors to a computer and have the desktop spread over all of the screens. Multi-head cards are widely used in business and development environments due to the large number of applications typically used at the same time. Most high-end and mainstream cards will have the ability to connect two monitors.

References

• PC Hardware
• Diamond MM
• NVIDIA