Fact: There is NO such thing as the “best” video card for a computer, only the most appropriate one for a particular computer. You would laugh at the number of people who ended up spending too much on video cards that can’t be supported by their not-so-latest PCs or those who get stuck with cheap video cards that they thought were ok.

Here are some guidelines when picking a video card for your system:

How much does your system need? Don’t bother getting an expensive 9800 Pro graphics card if you can ascertain that you’ll only be working with mail servers and non-graphics heavy functions that could be pulled off with a 32-MB card.

Are you playing games? How big? Games are actually one of the biggest issues to picking a video card, simply because games are heavily graphics dependent. Games known for their meticulous graphics like Unreal Tournament or Quake will definitely call for top of the line cards (the more updated the better). But if you’re the type who just likes to play Book Worm or some other !Yahoo game in between work hours, then get a cheaper card.

Will you work with graphics? This is the second most important consideration. Are you a professional graphics artist, animator or a video editor? You will need lots of video card power then. Pick out something close to what video games would need.

Basically, the rule of thumb is just to make a compromise between quality and price. Don’t be fooled by the highest quality stuff because your video card must also work with your system.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com