Graphics, Games, and Business
As part of my recent PC upgrade saga, I decided to run some tests to see whether built-in graphics cards could in any way match the performance of, for instance, an SLI card. The new Intel DG35EC board came with built-in video and an DVI connector, so it seemed a good idea to try it out first. It boasts HD video capability and other nice features.
The initial tests looked pretty good. The video was reasonably fast, refresh rate was good, and overall I was very pleased. Then I decided to try the acid test, which is currently a copy of THQ’s “Company of Heroes — Opposing Fronts.” It’s a very graphics-intensive game, and I knew it was the straw that broke the camel’s back on my old system. I fired it up, and was immediately appalled.
The overall refresh rate was fine, and the game’s cut scenes performed reasonably well. But during gameplay, it was nearly impossible to fly over the combat map without everything freezing for up to 20 seconds. The lack of video memory apparently meant the game had to flush the video buffers and reload them with the new map location. It made gameplay intolerably slow
Once the new card (a GeForce 9500 GT SLi unit with 512MB on board) was installed, the difference was amazing. The graphics were richer, faster, and fuller in density even than on my old machine, which also had a fairly high end 512MB card. Now there’s absolutely no stutter, no delay in scene changes, and I can run the game in its highest graphics density.
Does everyone need a card like this? Absolutely not. If you’re just using a browser and mail, or even business applications like Office, there’s no reason to invest in a high end video card. But one can make a significant difference if you game, work with high resolution video, or do other video-intensive work.
In fact, if your PC is relatively new and you’re only having problems with graphics refresh rates, a $75 upgrade might be all you need. Faster CPUs don’t necessarily translate to better graphics. But you may have problems finding a very high end card if, for instance, your system doesn’t include SLi or PCI-E card slots. Shop around.