Choosing a graphics card

Now you've decided to upgrade and install a new graphics card you'll want to spend a little time picking the right one for your budget and your needs. As noted in our post on why you might want to upgrade your graphics card, nowadays it's the most important part of your PC when it comes to playing the latest games. Click through for some advice on choosing a new graphics card that's right for you.

It's worth doing some research at this point, in particular make sure you know the resolution of your monitor. You can check this by looking in your display properties in Windows. Most monitors nowadays have a resolution of either 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 for bigger screen sizes. You want to look for a card within your budget that will run games at this resolution. We'll go ahead and suggest some models that you might like to look at:-

Budget conscious:-
Nvidia Geforce 9800GT: This slightly older card will run most games at 1680x1050 extremely well and comfortably at 1920x1200 with lowered detail. For around $100 in the US or £80 it's still a steal.

Mid-range:-
ATI Radeon 5770: One of ATI's new 5 series of graphics cards, the only cards that support Direct X 11, which will help with future games. It's feature packed, will do a good job of running games at 1920x1200 resolution and costs around only $160 in the States and £120 in the UK.

Upper end performance:-
ATI Radeon 5850: Another of ATI's new 5 series - this a fast card that will run games at 1920x1200 with graphics settings on high. It's more expensive at $300 in the US or £200 - £250 in the UK but the performance is pretty impressive.















There are of course faster set-ups than the 5850, but if you're looking at those you probably already know what you're going for!

Once you've selected your card, head over to our article on how to install a new graphics card!

If you'd like some more information on how the cards above handle a specific game then why not check out the graphics card benchmarks at Tom's Hardware