Technical data

N
o matter what the intended use of your PC,
be it games, office work, photo and video
editing or anything else, you’re going to
need a graphics card. However, the impor-
tance of the card’s performance depends greatly on
the nature of the application! These days, the most
important differentiating factors are video and 3D
performance and quality.
The first step in determining your ideal graphics
card is to take stock of the primary applications for
which you use your PC. If most of your time on the
computer is spent using office applications (word
processing, spreadsheets), or other 2D software, then
the 3D performance of a graphics card won’t play a
great role in your buying decision.
However, in future operating systems such as
Microsoft’s “Longhorn”, the user interface will make
much heavier use of a graphics card’s 3D functional-
ity, so 3D performance may be potentially important
even for those who do not use 3D applications. For
example, to use even the simplest 3D version of the
Longhorn interface -- which goes by the name
“Aero” -- full DirectX 9 support and 32MB of
video memory are likely to be the bare minimum
graphics card requirements.The grander “Aero
Glass” interface version will require DirectX 9 sup-
port and 64MB of video memory!
Of course, there is still some time until Longhorn
makes it to the marketplace and a computer near
you. And even when it arrives, it will also come
with a 2D-only user interface for systems that don’t
meet the 3D requirements.You can get more info
on Microsoft’s Longhorn here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/dev
ice/display/graphics-reqs.mspx.
There are measurable 2D performance differences
between individual cards and the various chip gen-
erations. However, the 2D performance of current
graphics processors has reached such a high level
overall that these differences won’t make a tangible
difference in everyday use, for example in a
Windows XP environment. Applications such as
Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop or Acrobat won’t run
any faster on a bleeding-edge high-end card than on
a mainstream offering.This means that these days, a
graphics card’s performance is determined nearly
entirely by its 3D performance.
Modern games such as Doom3 are very demand-
ing on graphics cards.
Since today’s graphics cards differ the most in 3D
performance, this is the probably the main factor to
look for if you intend to do any gaming on your
PC. The variety of different card models from differ-
ent generations and price brackets is enormous, as
are the differences in 3D performance and feature
sets. Even if you’re more of a casual gamer that only
plays a game every now and then, you shouldn’t try
to save money in the wrong place. After all, gaming
time is your free time, and you don’t want to ruin it
with stuttering or low-detail graphics. Cut too many
corners and may end up with more exasperation
than entertainment.
The 3D arc h i t e c t u r e of the card -- that is, w h i c h
generations of which 3D standards it supports -- is
ve ry import a n t . U s u a l l y, a d h e ren ce to 3D standards is
e x p r essed in terms of support for a certain generation
of Micro s o f t ’s DirectX 3D A P I , which is updated re g-
2
#1: Intended Use
A Short Overview