Why are you buying a video card?

The obvious number one reason why you are looking to buy another video card are simply because your old one is outdated or not working properly. But it is important to know what the specs mean, even if you are looking to buy a whole new computer. The most important question to ask when buying a video card is what do you want it to do? Do you do a lot of gaming on your PC? Watch movies? Launch a lot of applications? If your computer does not contain the necessary video card for your purposes, you will find that your computer will tend to get choppy and is not fun to use.

What does it mean?

Memory Bus—Think of memory as a highway. The Memory Bus can be viewed as how many lanes the highway has (essentially how much information can flow through at a time).

Memory Speed and Type—If Memory Bus is the width of the highway, then Memory Speed and Type determines how fast or slow the cars (data) can move on the highway.

Shaders— Shaders are able to perform the specific operations your computer tells it to do

Clock Speeds—Determines how fast the graphics card will perform. There is a happy medium between working too slow and underutilizing your system, or overworking and overheating your system.

TDP—Stands for Thermal Design Power, and represents the maximum amount of power that your cooling system is allowed to dissipate.

The key to buying a video card is to understand what you need it to do. If you need any more help with understanding or buying a video card, please take advantage of our resources such as our online community forum.