How to Buy a Graphics Card for Desktop Publishing

If you use your PC for desktop publishing, you need a machine that is capable of producing sharp, clean images. The types of graphics cards needed for desktop publishing are typically mid-range cards--you don’t need a huge amount of graphics power unless you’re creating 3D or moving images.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet connection
• A credit card

1. Find out what kind of graphics card your motherboard supports. Unless your computer is several years old it will probably use either an AGP graphics card or a PCI-Express graphics card. Older machines will use a PCI graphics card.
2. Decide how much graphics power you need. Look at features such as the amount of onboard RAM the card has, and how fast the memory is. In general, faster memory is designated by a higher number—for example, a card with DDR3 memory is usually better than one with DDR2.
3. Read product reviews at places like PC Mag (see Resources below for a link). There are several different graphics card manufacturers, and a place like PC Mag will help you find out which is more suitable for your purposes. Find out as much information about your choices before you buy anything.
4. Shop online or at a computer hardware store for a card that meets your criteria and falls within your price range. Buying a card online gives you access to the greatest range of products, and you’ll usually get a better deal too.

Tips & Warnings

• For current desktop publishing programs a graphics card with 256 MB of memory is plenty.
• Look for cards that fall into the mid-range in terms of price. These will give you plenty of power and are typically very good value. There’s no need for the latest powerhouse graphics card unless you’ll be using the computer for 3-D gaming as well as desktop publishing applications.
• It’s usually better to buy a newer card with less memory than an older card with more--newer video cards typically operate more effectively than their older counterparts even if they have less onboard RAM.
• The flip side of buying online is that returning faulty goods is more time-consuming than if you’d bought the item in a store.
• Make doubly sure you buy a graphics card that is compatible with the rest of your computer hardware. Once you get the card home and open the box, you can’t return it unless it’s faulty.
• If your computer can only support a PCI graphics card, it may be time to replace the whole machine--these types of cards are no longer made by most companies, and if you have only a PCI slot in your computer it generally means that the entire machine is outdated.

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