Video Card Reviews

I like writing video card reviews. Next to your CPU the video card is probably the most exciting component. The video card is like a little computer inside of your computer. It has a processor (GPU) dedicated to making calculations that will render your graphics. The video card has its own memory and BIOS too. On top of that you can overclock the GPU and memory on your video card just like you can overclock your computer. Does it get any better!

This is the intro to what will be a series of video card reviews. There are many different factors to consider when buying a video card. There are also many of terms thrown around such as pipelines, shaders, and it seems like just about every component of a video card has a clock speed. Add to that the fact that the GPUs are manufactured by ATI and Nvidia and then sold to video card manufacturers. The end result is 20 versions of each video card. So how do you know which one to get? We?ll get to that in a little bit. Let?s start by choosing our GPU.

GPU Rankings

The first thing we need to do is determine what GPU we want in our video card. The GPU is the brain of the video card. It?s much like the CPU for your computer. Actually, it?s exactly like the CPU in the computer except that the GPU is dedicated for graphics. This is what makes the video card so important and the reason that for gaming purposes the video card is as important if not more so in determining your gaming computer?s performance.

In the video card reviews in the coming months we?ll take a deep dive into what sets GPUs and video cards apart. For our primer we?ll put them in brackets so you can an idea of what?s what. If you?ve read our motherboard reviews you probably read my analogy with the cars. The same thing goes for our video cards. There are different classes of video cards. We aren?t even going to look at the economy cards. I?m actually going to skip the lower level of what many consider mainstream/enthusiast video cards as well. We?re looking at building high performance computers here. I?m not going to waste your time reviewing low end cards.

Below are the tiers for the cards we will be discussing in the video card review section. For the most part the cards in the same tier will yield equivalent performance. It?s just like our discussion with the cars 0-60mph speed in the motherboard reviews. When you are driving you are never going to notice a couple of tenths of a second. The same principle applies here. The performance differences are negligible in the same bracket. What will set those cards apart from each other are the price, features, and the reliability of the manufacturer.

Video Card Tiers

Tier 1:
Radeon HD 5970

Tier 2:
GTX 295, Radeon HD 4870 X2, Radeon HD 5870

Tier 3:
Nvidia GTX 280, Nvidia GTX 285, Radeon HD 4850 X2, Radeon HD 5850

Tier 4:
Nvidia 9800 GX2, Nvidia GTX 260,Nvidia GTX 275, Radeon HD 4870, Radeon HD 4890, Radeon HD 4850, Radeon HD 5770

Which GPU?

Tier 1 is our Ferrari. It?s a little more moderately priced than a Ferrari so some of you may be able to find this in your budget. Unless you are building a Core i7 based computer the Radeon HD 5970 will be overkill though.

Tier 2 is like the Corvette. It?s in reach but it might stretch the budget just a little bit. The performance can definitely be justified. If you can afford one I?d definitely consider one of the tier 2 cards.

Tier 3 are our Camaros and Mustangs. They are high performers and priced to appeal. This is where the majority of us will be buying our video cards.

I've decided on my GPU, but which Video Card?

Once you've decided on your GPU it's just a matter of how many video cards you want to run and which specific video card. Since ATI and Nvidia sell their GPUs to manufacturers you will find that there may be 10 different manufacturers that make a Radeon HD 5870. How do you know which one to choose?

There are a couple of things to look at because all video cards with the same GPU are not made equal. Look at the memory. The more the better generally speaking so if you are torn between a card with 512MB and 1024MB, get the one with 1024MB.

The video cards will also list the core clock and the memory clock. Most of the time the card with the higher clock speed will be higher performing. It is possible to adjust these by overclocking the video card. Not everyone wants to play around with that though.

Finally, look at the reliability of the manufacturer. The great thing is that sites like TigerDirect.com and Newegg.com allow customers to leave reviews of products. If you are looking at a specific model and see several video card reviews from customers indicating they had problems then you should probably pass on that card. This should get you started. Stop back because we will be talking about the benefits of SLI and Crossfire in the up coming video card reviews.