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Are You Ready for Vista Graphics?: Page 7 of 8

Pick A Graphics Card For Vista
Both NVIDIA's Andrew Fear and ATI's Terry Makedon were quick to point out that you don't need to spend $500 for a gamer's speedball graphics card to run Vista. In fact, because of the huge growth in PC gaming, as well increasing interest in video recording and editing and media creation on PCs, Vista's graphics technologies are already widely implemented in graphics products at all price levels.

Vista Graphics


•  Introduction

•  What Will It Look Like?

•  Is Your PC Ready?

•  Pick A Graphics Card


•  Vista And Laptops

Here's a look at some low-end, mid-priced, and high-end graphics cards that would make good choices, either to upgrade existing PCs or to equip new ones:

The Low End: Under $100

  • e-GeForce 7300 GS

    With 256MB of DDR2 graphics memory, this PCI Express Video Card will run Vista Aero, play back DVDs and downloaded video (it includes S-Video output), and play games. Street price: $65 to $95.
  • ATI Radeon X1300

    256MB of DDR2 memory, a good assortment of output connectors (15 pin VGA, S-Video, DVI, and composite video), an HDTV Encoder, and support for Shader Model 3.0 put this thrifty card comfortably in the Vista column. Street price: $85 to $125.