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

Windows Vista will offer varying levels of functionality depending on what kind of video card you have. When you upgrade, will your PC be up to the challenge?
November 01, 2006

  • The Mid-Range: About $200

  • Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate
    256MB of GDDR3 graphics memory, the ATI Radeon X1600 chipset, and a mostly passive cooling system makes this card well suited to home-theater applications. The card does have a fan, but it spins slowly unless temperatures in the computer rise. Heat sinks on the front and back of the card linked by heat transfer tubes do most of the cooling work so the card runs more quietly than fan-cooled cards. Street price: $130 to $160.
  • XFX Geforce 7900 GT

    PCI Express card with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, 256-bit memory interface. High-definition video playback, dual digital video outputs to drive two monitors. Well beyond the requirements for running Vista, this is a very respectable HD gaming card at a good price. Street price: $229.99 to $287.

    The High End: $500 And More

  • Radeon X1950 XTX.

    With these cards, we leave the realm of
    personal computing and venture into religion. Are X1950 cards faster than GeForce 7950 cards? Is Crossfire better than SLI? These are articles of faith. In any case, if price is no object, then why not pick this screamer, with its 512MB of DDR4 memory, Shader Model 3.0, dual DVI outputs, and HD video? And
    it's CrossFire-ready, so of course you'll want a second X1950-class card and a motherboard that lets you tie them together to process graphics even faster.. At this level of graphics function, running Vista is not even under discussion -- your major worry is paying your electric bill. Street price: $440 to $525.
  • XFX GeForce 7950 GX2

    Nvidia has pushed SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology for hooking together multiple graphics cards to improve graphics performance. But up to now it's taken two PCI Express slots and a motherboard with a special MCP (Media Communications Processor) installed. This card boils SLI down to one PCI Express slot by sticking together two 7900 GT cards so you don't need an SLI motherboard, but it's really two slots wide. Street price: $575 - $660.

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