What Sort of Video Card Should I Get?

The Video Card that’s installed in a computer has a big impact on performance. It also has a big impact on price.

How much RAM?

Just like your computer needs RAM (Random Access Memory) to operate smoothly, your video card needs memory of its own, usually called VRAM (Video-RAM). While its easy to replace or upgrade the RAM in your computer, VRAM is permanently built into your video card. If you want more VRAM, you need to replace the video card entirely. No VRAM, no vroom.

Discrete or Built-in?

Most motherboards come with built-in video. When your computer uses the built-in video, it uses part of your RAM for normal computing and part of it for video. Obviously, sharing is not as good as everyone having their own resources for their own tasks. If you install a discrete video card, the motherboard will automatically use the newly installed card as the video source instead of its built-in video capability.

To understand this arrangement, imagine a TV with a built in VCR. A motherboard is like that TV VCR combo. You can still attach an external DVD player or a Blu-ray player to a combo TV if you want to. If all you need is a VCR, then what’s built-in works fine. If you need DVD or Blu-ray, then you need to add something extra, bypassing the VCR. Video that’s built into a motherboard is adequate, but for high performance, you want to add something external, a discrete video card which bypasses what’s built-in.

Is it Built-in?

It can be difficult to tell whether a computer has a discrete video card. Manufacturers don’t like to admit when video is built-in. The phrase to look for is ‘up to’. If the spec sheet says, ‘Video: 256MB’, then that’s VRAM in a discrete card. If the spec sheet says, ‘Video: up to 256MB’, then it’s built-in and that’s the amount of RAM that the motherboard is able to divert to video, leaving less RAM for the computer to work with.

Most inexpensive computers don’t bother to put in a discrete video card, they just use built-in video. A decent Video Card will bump the cost of an entry level computer by 10-30%, and when the industry is as cut throat as it is, you have to do everything you can to keep costs down.

On a desktop, it is easy to add a discrete video card in later, so there’s no risk buying something underpowered. You can just upgrade. On a laptop, adding a video card in later isn’t really an option. Hard drives can be replaced on a laptop or added via USB, memory can be upgraded, optical drives can be added via USB. But, the video card and screen are the part of a laptop that you’re really stuck with if you buy too little at first. If you buy a laptop with built-in video and you need more, you’d better hope the store has a good return policy.

Cost vs Power

An underpowered video card can slow down an otherwise snappy computer, but the reality is that many users just don’t have a need for that much horsepower. Certain graphics-intensive programs, like video games, need a video card with kick. But, if all you’re likely to use the computer for is word-processing, email and web browsing, then built-in graphics will suffice.

Consider what you’ll use the computer for, and if you need power, don’t skimp on the video card, especially on a laptop. If you do buy a laptop with built-in video, make sure you understand the terms of the return policy.