Cheap Video Cards
Built-in computer video card
If you are in the market for a new computer or have a new on and are thinking you need to upgrade these are some of the built-in computer video card options that are available and would be more than suitable for office type applications.
“Built-in” computer video card means that the parts that are often put seperately on a video card are actually on the motherboard. The quality of these has improved much, and can produce good graphics. Not high-powered, but very good for office use.
On the motherboard it is often possible to spot the graphics chip if your board comes with one. By looking at the list below you will be able to spot that chip on your motherboard, as they are marked on their surface with the company and brand.
- ATI Radeon - XPRESS 200, 9100 IGP, RX330 motherboard chipsets
- Intel Extreme Graphics II - Intel i865G, i865GV chipsets
- Intel GMA 900 - Intel i915G, i915GV, i910GL chipsets
- nVidia GeForce4 MX - nForce 2 chipset
- S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro - IGP Integrated in the VIA PM880, PM800, K8M800 chipsets
- SiS Mirage Graphics - SiS 661FX, SiS 741, SiS 741GX chipsets
- SiS Mirage Graphics 2 - SiS 760 chipset
Basic video cards - for most work computers
If you already have a computer and the graphics power is not enough then you might have no option but to upgrade. These bottom of the range video cards are more than enough for most applications, but NOT FOR GAMES. They don’t have enough clout to handle that kind of graphics requirement. Here is a list of the companies and their cards. A good cheap video card can be a great way to get the motherboard you like. Sometimes a motherboard that suits your needs lacks built-in video, which can be simply overcome with a cheap video card.
A note on naming of cards: nVidia and ATI chipsets are used by many different companies to make video cards. So when you see a video card like “Chaintech GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCIe w/TV & DVI Out”, the name “Chaintech” refers to the company that produced the card. The “GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCIe” part shows that it is based on the “nVidia GeForce 6600GT” as they are the ones that make the GeForce series.
- ATI PCIe - Radeon x300se
- ATI AGP - Radeon 9200 series, Radeon 9250 series and Radeon 7000 series
- nVidia PCIe - GeForce FX 6200 with TurboCache
- nVidia AGP - GeForce4 MX and GeForce FX 5200
- Matrox - this company specializes in graphics cards for 2D applications
- XGI - Volari V3, Volari V3XT