What should you look for in a video card?

A lot of variables go into how well a video card will work.

To name a few: Dedicated vs Shared Memory (Anything with shared memory should be a no-go), Clock Speed (Faster clock speeds are usually better), and OS Compatibility (That expensive card is just a paperweight if it isn't detected and being utilized properly).

I won't sit here and pretend to be an expert on any of this, but take the above into consideration and then look for cards, Do your research on all of them, check reviews on gaming sites and forums, look into comparisons, etc.

Basically what I look for is what kind of software that I will be using with it. For example video editing, PLaying games, digital photography, simple movie editing. And work with what I have the operating system. So my video card will vary to what I need.

The graphics processor is probably the most important aspect of a graphics card. As of November 2012, the GTX 6xx series and the Radeon HD 7xxx series are the newest and best.

Nvidia's best single GPU card is the 680. From there is the 670, than the 660ti, 660, 650ti, and 650. Anything lower than a GTX 650, I would not buy if I planned on gaming.

AMD's offering with the Radeon HD series works the numbering a little bit differently. AMD's best single GPU card is the 7970. From there, the best is the 7950, next is the 7870, 7850, 7770, and 7750. I would not buy anything lower than the Radeon HD 7750 if I were planning to use it for gaming.

Brands don't usually matter when it comes to performance, but different brands do offer different value. The graphics processor manufacturer (AMD or Nvidia) gives a reference design to video card manufacturers (HIS, Gigabyte, Asus, Sapphire, EVGA, PNY, XFX, etc.). From there, the video card manufacturers can stick with that design, or improve upon it. Most of the time, when a card is first released, it will be the reference design. After a while, some video card manufacturers choose to release a new version with open air cooling. When it comes to cooling, looks at the two pictures below:


The first example (HIS) is a reference 7970. It has the blower style cooler. It takes the air from inside your case, pushes it over a heatsink, and ejects all of the air out of the back. The reference style cooling generally doesn't work as well, and the card will usually get hotter than a video card with open air cooling.

The second example (Sapphire) has open air cooling. What open air cooling does is blows air from inside of your case onto the heatsink and dump the air back into the case. If you're going to choose this kind of card, it's because you want to get the best cooling, but you'll need to have decent airflow inside of your case.

I've been rambling on, so I will stop and allow you to ask questions.