Technical data

material, the brunt of the burden is still borne by
the CPU!
Most cards with video-in & out connect to
video sources using breakout boxes or dongles.
Cameras or video recorders can also be connected.
Video-out in HDTV quality is a new and hot
topic.While most new graphics chips support this
feature, the appropriate RGB cable is (still) usually
absent from the bundle. If this is an important fea-
ture for you, be sure to check the cards’ feature and
accessory table.
Software Bundle
One significant area that sets individual card makers
apart from each other is the software they bundle
with their cards. Aside from the obligatory driver
CD, most cards come with a software DVD player.
Graphics cards with video inputs also often come
with video editing
software. In most
cases, these pro-
grams are either
older or slimmed-
down versions,
usually carrying
the SE or LE tag.
Some companies
also develop their
own display tools
that operate in par-
allel with the
graphics drive r .
These are n ’t
re q u i r e d , t h o u g h ,
since the card
m a ke r s have no
p a rt in drive r
d e velopment these
d a y s ; t h e y are written exclusively by the chip make r.
Depending on the card manufacturer, some
games may even be included in the bundle.These
run the gamut from entirely useless (outdated titles,
limited versions or freely available demo versions)
to highly attractive (retail versions of top titles).You
can save money this way, if you find a card that
ships with a game you were planning on buying
anyway. In most cases, the bundled versions ship
without a manual, however. And of course, there’s
no advantage if you’ve already bought the game, or
if it isn’t one you like.
As usual, i t ’s up to the individual to decide how
much of a factor the softwa re and/or gaming bu n d l e
is in the buying decision.
#6 The Purchase
O
nce yo u ’ ve picked out the right model, i t ’s
time to clear the next hurd l e , namely the pur-
chase itself. A g a i n , t h e re is a lot to consider.
F i r s t , you need to decide whether you want to
o rder online or buy at a local store. On the whole,
online shops tend to offer lower pri c e s , but make
s u r e to check out the cost of shipping and handling!
M a n y online re t a i l e r s charge a pre m i u m , and that
would-be bargain can turn out to be more expen-
s i ve than it would have been at your local store.
Buying at a store can also offer some other adva n-
t a g e s , especially if you can get competent advice
f rom the employe e s . If yo u ’re lucky, your local store
m a y even let you test the card in the show ro o m , s o
you can check out the 2D signal quality of the VG A
o u t p u t , for example.This is an especially import a n t
factor in the case of low-cost models.
The main thing to remember is to closely scru t i n i z e
the part i c u l a rs of the offer in question. If inform a t i o n
on the card ’s memory and core frequencies is conspic-
uously absent, i t ’s best to keep looking! An exact list-
ing of the card ’s specifications is the least a customer
should expect. F r e q u e n t l y, even a scan of the manu fa c-
t u r e r ’s spec sheet may not be of any help. Especially in
the low-cost sector, m a n y manu f a c t u r e rs just don’t
give detailed information on their card s ’ clock speeds
or memory bus width, as the following pictures show :
Abit’s data sheet for the Radeon 9200SE-T
shows quite detailed information on the card’s
specifications, with only the clock speeds missing.
The note about the slower 64-bit memory is par-
ticularly important.
MSI does the exact opposite. Not only are the
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