Which Graphics Card?
 

I'm getting an Asus A7V8X Motherboard for my Mums computer and I'm not sure which is a good graphics card to go with it.

On Scan ( http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=60010 ) it says:
AGP type; AGP 8X (1.5 V device only)

Most of the graphics cards don't give a voltage spec on this, so is a general card going to be ok? Or does it mean something completely different?

:)

TIA

Pretty much any graphic card on the market will go in that board.

Now what card to get depends on what she or you will be doing with it. If she is just surfing or reading mail (2d) then you will not need a whizzy 3d card. An ATI 7000 or similar with 32Mb will be cheap and fine.

If you are gaming then thats another matter. ATI 9800 128Mb is optimal. There are better and cheaper.

i use a NVIDIA Quadro 980 XGL. Its an 8x 1.5v Card. Never had any problems with it.

All cards now are 1.5volts. BTW I have that board, excellent performance and reliability, as usual from Asus! :)

Excellent. It seemed to be a good price with just enough features and expansion slots to last a few years. Thanks.

I'll go check it out. Thanks for the advice.

She's not going to be doing anything too flash, just general surfing and word processing. Thanks for your help.

Given the intense competition between Nvidia & ATI to produce the best graphics card, is there any web-site which compares the cards directly and shows which cards are faster or better than which. I suppose I'm looking for a graphics card league table, with each ATI and Nvidia board listed.

The impression I have at the moment is that the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB version is seemingly the best choice, but maybe someone knows something different. Any info greatly appreciated.

ATI's hardware has the lead atm. However ATI are let down by poor drivers.
Nvidia seem to have captured the low price DX9 card market with their rather excellent (my choice of words)and cheap FX5200.

I am however not a fan of ATI. I much prefer Nvidia.

But I am being fair when I say top end ATI cards blow Nvidia away right now.

Just got the ATI 9600 Pro and I'm very please with it. Gr8 price too only £123 :)

Ive got an Nvidia 64MB graphics card and it seems to run fine. bering in mind that the card came with the PC when i bought it last year.

I am waiting for the nvidia geforce fx 5900 ultras to come down a bit in price.