Lets clear away some misconceptions I had about graphics cards that I learned from buying one.
- Yes, you really need a card to play games
- Many of
the features list on a PC like buzzwords to make their PC sound more
powerful than it really it. Take my case: My computer featured a stellar
HD Radeon 4200 integrated graphics!
"Oh," I thought. "I bet it can play games better than my old lappy.!"
But all integrated graphics means its that the motherboard itself does graphical work for stuff like playing a movie or web browsing. To play the video games of a console, a part akin to a console is necessary. - Graphics "card" is a bit of a misnomor
- With
computing getting smaller and smaller these days, I never understood
why they say you can't upgrade the cards on a laptop. I didn't
understood what a graphics card looked like, but when I think "card" I
think something that fits in my wallet.
Boy oh boy was I surprised when my first card showed up.
[pic of box] [pic of card]
You see, when one thinks of a graphics card, one should properly visualize something more akin to say...a license plate. That is why for Home Theater Purposes, PCs will always be what you need, even as mobile computing becomes more and more convenient for regular needs and business work. - Hooking up a graphics card is no real different than hooking up a VCR
- Remember
that very first awkward, terrifying moment when you had to hook up a TV
or a VCR for the very first time? How you thought "What if I mess
something up?!"
When it comes to the concept of computer upgrades, most people, which included myself, have the apprehension that opening their computer for any reason is bound to break...something! But then you discover that the cables are designed so that it's actually not possible to mess it up, as the cables are thankfully shaped in a manner where its simply a matter of Lego blocks.
- With great power comes the need for power
- It
was a really good deal at the time my father bought this computer. I
had it appraised for the potential for upgrading from a Geek Squad
associate to confirm it was scalable.
He affirmed for me that it was indeed an excellent base to make a gaming computer at the time, and wondered how they managed to get the price so affordable.So he popped it open to appraise it. And confirmed a suspicion he had.
They way they did so was to go cheap on the Power Supply. Or PSU. Its the job of a PSU to take Volts from a wall outlet and convert it into the Watts that an appliance needs. Without enough watts, it seems you really could break a system (fortunately, if your PSU isn't up to snuff, it normally doesn't come with enough connectors and stuff however).
So just be prepared to check if you have enough power to go with your gizmo. Short on cash at the time, I bought an inexpensive 500 Watt Power Supply to take care of things. - Surprisingly Inexpensive Options
- At the time, I was inbetween jobs and scrapped for cash. I will
never forget how I was able to find my card, which was then amongst the
top twenty money could buy, at only $180. To me, someone who was working
multiple part-time jobs and temp work, was so low that even I could
afford it. Based on your budget, there truly are some inexpensive
options out there!
For the next two years my Sapphire would keep me happily gaming on Very High settings. Absolutely beatiful details. So it was later on, for very specific reasons I would develop later, that I would come to wish to have a new high performance system itself. As having shopped, I'd like to advocate that once you start building, beware the temptations of power lust. Gaming need note break the bank. As I would later journey into the world of building a full spectrum.
