I have a full HD 22" monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution. I would like to get a video card that can handle this kind of resolution, but I don't have much money.
Can you give me some advice?
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Hi, and welcome to gaming.stackexchange.com. Unfortunately, shopping recommendations are not considered on topic here. Please check out the FAQ: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/faq – Raven Dreamer Mar 18 '11 at 01:26
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1@Raven: As long as you're asking for general advice (which is something that tends to remain true over time) and not about specific products (which become out of date quickly), questions like this are fine. – Brant Mar 18 '11 at 02:00
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2People, as Brant says, i'm trying to get general tips. Like, "for big resolution you've to consider memory", etc. – user7881 Mar 18 '11 at 02:11
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possible duplicate of How to buy a graphics card? – Matthew Read May 05 '12 at 16:22
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Things to consider when choosing a video card are (in no particular order):
- Your budget
- The games you want to play
- Your image quality requirements
The best way I've found to choose is to find a good card roundup that has benchmarks for the games I want to play at the resolution of my monitor. For example if you like to play Left 4 Dead 1 or Dirt 2 this anandtech roundup shows that the gts 450 will be playable even at maximum quality, but Bad Company 2 would be playable only by lowering the quality settings, so at that point it becomes personal preference.
I generally go by benchmarks of my games rather than just looking at the specifications, but as an overview:
- More powerful GPU lets you run at higher resolutions with better image quality.
- The memory of a card is mainly used for textures rather than frame buffer so more memory == better image quality rather than higher resolutions.
- That being said pretty much any card made in the last year can run at 1920x1080 if you set the quality settings low enough.
Alex J. Roberts
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Good answer. This is not particular what i was looking for, but great tip. Thanks! – user7881 Mar 18 '11 at 02:27
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Thanks Alex. But, for example, if you should trade memory for GPU, considering the "resolution" thing. What would you do? – user7881 Mar 18 '11 at 02:50
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Yeah I would definately get trade memory for GPU. For example the 460 768MB is noticably better than the 450 1GB at higher resolutions. But of course dont just go by the specs because the 550 is only marginably better than the 450 ... – Alex J. Roberts Mar 18 '11 at 03:18