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Graphics cards aren’t just for gamers. They help you to work with large graphics, photoshop, play high-definition video “HDVD”, and upgrade the monitor ports on an aging PC. Graphics cards can help the Windows Vista and even some mainstream applications work more easily and look much better. Some models even give you the opportunity to choose between different video inputs and outputs required to hook up your camcorder or cable TV to the PC. Graphics cards and board makers update their hardware every six months, mainly to enable the development of much more complex and more realistic PC games. But games aren’t the only reason to get a new graphics card. Such features as support for two, three or even four displays, DVI ports (for digital flat-panel displays), a TV and/or FM radio tuner, and video connections–such as S-Video, Component, and, the brand new, HDMI-are other compelling reasons to upgrade.

Main features to look at

Interface: Today’s consumer graphics cards come with a PCI Express interface to plug into a PC’s PCI Express slot. A few mainstream and cheaper options with an AGP interface plug into the AGP slot on an older PC. You can’t plug a PCI Express card into an AGP slot or vice versa. PCI Express graphics cards transfer data much faster than AGP cards (theoretically 16X versus 8X), and the majority of new cards are PCI Express only, if you looking for performance choose PI Express.

Graphics processor: Today’s graphics cards can efficiently handle sophisticated full-motion 3D video at high FPS(frames per second), thanks to advanced graphics processors, or GPUs. Right now, the GPUs populating most graphics cards for desktop PCs and Laptops are developed by two main companies: nVidia and ATI. The faster your graphics processor, the faster graphics will render on your PC. How quickly a graphic card can render game graphics, as measured in frames per second, gives you a good measure of its performance. Game graphics with advanced 3D effects–such as pixel shading, transparency, or high dynamic-range lighting–will challenge a graphic card, thus lowering frame rates. So will playing a game on a larger screen (at 1600 by 1200 resolution) and with antialiasing turned on (the feature smooths the edges of graphics). GPU’s speed is measure in MHz these starts at 300MHz and go all the way up to 800MHz for the top of the range graphics cards, the faster the better!!

Memory: When you use your PC for graphics-intensive activities, such as playing games or editing video and photo, the information necessary to display images is buffered in graphics RAM. You’ll need a large amount of dedicated graphics RAM to handle today’s complex, texture-rich games. The more complicated the game, video or image you’re viewing, the more memory you’ll need. These days, you’ll easily find budget graphics cards with at least 128MB of DDR3 SDRAM (some may still come with 128MB of DDR2 SDRAM). 256MB should be the minimum amount, since, for Windows Vista, Microsoft’s initial recommendations are to have a graphics card with 128MB of memory to run Vista’s Aero Glass graphics-heavy interface. Mainstream and power graphics cards offer 256MB to 512MB of memory; 512MB is common on consumer-level power boards, though at least one board with two graphics processors offers 1GB of DDR3. Newer boards are starting to offer a theoretically faster DDR4 SDRAM as well. For older games, 128MB is sufficient, though it’s not likely to deliver high FPS with new games or at resolutions above 1024 by 768 pixels. For such demands, it’s best to get a card with at least 256MB of video memory. Many games today don’t require more than that, but you may want to opt for more memory rather than face upgrading again when new memory-intensive games arrive, choose 512MB for a future prof choice.

Two display ports: All new graphics cards offer two monitor ports. Some offer one DVI (digital, LCD) port and one VGA (analog, CRT) port. Others offer two DVI ports. DVI gives the cleanest signal to a digital LCD display; VGA, however, connects to a wider and older range of displays. You can plug a VGA monitor into a DVI port so long as you have a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Enhanced video playback: Newer graphics cards have technologies such as ATI’s Avivo and nVidia’s PureVideo that enhance DVD playback, particularly at high-definition resolutions. Similar to what high-end DVD players do, Avivo or PureVideo equipped graphics cards can deinterlace images (remove artifacts) and scale them to better fit your monitor.

HDCP support (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection): This is an up-and-coming feature whose wrinkles aren’t completely ironed out as of this writing. For a graphics card to be able to play an HD DVD or a Blu-ray Disc movie, it must support HDCP to decode movie studio copyright protection. HDCP support is a complex issue. The GPU, graphics card, monitor, and DVD player must all support HDCP, or else you won’t get full-resolution HD. Most recent hardware are HDCP ready, however you want to check this option.

S-Video-out/-in: The S-Video-out port allows you to send video signals to a TV, projector, or any other display or recording device. The S-Video-in port lets you bring video into your PC, Laptop from a camcorder or the like. By the way, if you see the term VIVO (Video In Video Out) advertised with a graphics board, it means that the graphic card has video in and out through one connector.

Composite-out/-in: Composite ports fulfill the same function as S-Video ports, but deliver better video quality than S-Video. However, composite ports are particularly handy for use with older devices, which may lack S-Video ports. Many graphics cards that provide S-Video ports also include an S-Video-to-composite adapter cable.

TV tuner: If you want to play and/or record live TV on your PC,Laptop you’ll need a graphics card with a TV tuner. Several midrange and power graphic cards with such tuners are available.

Out of the Box Overclocked Graphic Cards: Running a graphics processor faster than the manufacturer’s specified speed is popular among PC tweakers and hardcore gamers. While it carries risks such as overheating, when done within vendor specified safety limits, it’s a viable way of eking extra performance out of a midrange or power board. Some vendors like BFG Technologies, XFX, EVGA and others, sell cards that have already been overclocked;these cards perform faster then the same model not overclocked but are more expensive, however they are stable, others bundle overclocking software with cards; and some manufacturers, like ATI, don’t officially support it. Be sure to read the manufacturer’s recommendations and instructions before overclocking by yourself.

Antialiasing: Most graphic cards offer antialiasing, which smooths and softens the jagged edges of 3D images. This feature is especially helpful at lower resolutions. Enabling it can lower FPS, though, so gamers have to choose between smoother images and faster performance.

Dual-card support: Running two graphics cards simultaneously within one PC appeals to gamers who want the most graphics performance they can get for their graphics-heavy PC games. To run two graphics cards, make sure you have a motherboard that supports either nVidia’s SLI (Scalable Link Interface) or ATI’s CrossFire dual-board technologies. At the high end, a two-card configuration makes the most sense. It’s most suitable if you want higher resolutions, if you dint pretend to play games at really higher resolutions(1600×1200 to 2560×1600) just stick with a single card.

Best Choice

For the hardcore Gamer: nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra, nVidia GeForce 8800GTX

For the Pc and Gamer enthusiast: nVidia GeForce 8800GT, ATI Radeon 3870HD, ATI Radeon 2900HD

For the value Gamer: nVidia GeForce 8600GT, ATI Radeon 2600GT

For one time Gamer, officce production: nVidia GeForce 8400, ATI Radeon 2400HD

For professional video editing: nVidia Quatro FX5600, Matrox Millenneum G550, P650

If you want to upgrade your graphic card, now is the moment, especially with Crysis just around the corner, unless you have a Geforce 8800GTX or Ultra and want to play your games at high specs and high resolutions, GeForce 8800GT is probably the answer to your problems, it will be for the mainstream gamer with prices around 230$ in US or 170£ at UK.

The chipset is the new G92 thus integrates 754 million transistors; an 11% increase compared to the G80’s 681 million. Yet, the number of computational units decreases; we go from 128 stream processors to 112, but we must keep in mind that, on the 8800 GTS, only 96 of them are active. Accordingly, the number of texturing units increases from 48 to 56. Finally, thanks to the 65 nm process, the die’s surface shrinks 33%, although its size is still twice as big as a G84. It will be faster then the 8800GTS 320 with the GPU clock @ 600 MHz, shaders clock @ 1500 MHz and memory clock @ 900 MHz, it will be shiped in two flavours 512/256 MB and of course is a directx 10 and 9 compatible. The GeForce 8800 GT is the mid-range card that we’ve been waiting for, go for it! Check here for a full review at Tomsharware.