Cheap Graphic Cards
This is one of the most important parts of your computer, if you are planning on playing the latest games. If not, you can easily get a cheap 64 MB graphic card, as that will be more than enough for every day office use.
However, if you are planning on playing games, don't bother buying a graphic card with less than 128 MB of video memory, but preferably get one with 256 MB. But remember, 256 MB of memory does not necessarily mean that a graphic card is good.
Good benchmark would be that if you are serious about playing computer games, do not spend less than $150 on a graphic card. Today, you can even find graphic card with 512 MB of memory for less than $150, but remember, if it is cheaper than $150 it is definitely not good enough.
A thing to know is that at any given time there are graphic cards that sell for over $1000, usually the very latest models. However this is simply a waste of money, as most cheaper graphic cards will do the job extremely well.
For example, at any given time, graphic cards that cost somewhere in $300 range, in conjunction with a good CPU, will do a magnificent job in 99% of the games, if you don't want to run them in resolutions above 1280x1024, which you really shouldn't do anyway. If you have money you can pay as high as $500-$600, but do not pay any more than that (even if you have plenty of $$$) as it is really a waste of money, trust me!
Today, two biggest manufacturers of graphic cards are ATI and nVidia. Even though there are many heated debates on the Internet on who is better, I really think that it would be very hard to come up with the good reason on why is one better than the other. Regardless if you chose ATI or nVidia graphic card, performance will be equal to the money you spent, almost to the same extent for both manufacturers.
Note: Do not make a mistake of buying an AGP graphic card. Make sure that you buy a PCI express graphic card, and a motherboard that has a PCI express slot. All future graphic cards are made with PCI express slot, so if you get an AGP slot, you wont be able to upgrade you graphic card in the future.
Also, keep in mind that the latest graphic cards require a lot of power, so make sure you get a powerful enough power supply. For example, most of the latest graphic cards from nVidia and ATI require a 550 watt power supply and recommend a power supply of at 750 watt. This is just amazing, considering that today's graphic cards use as much power (or even more) as all other computer parts together. But I guess it is something to be expected, when you consider these screenshots.
The solution for the upcoming chips is PC power supplies in the 1,000 watt range, or secondary power supplies, which are also available. These can get really expensive though, over $300. Decent 700 watt power supply costs around $100 (the price is only for power supply, and does not include the case) The good news is that graphic chips that will come after nVidia's G80 and ATI's R600, will almost certanly require less power.
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