When the first video cards started appearing around the middle of the 90’s, I admit I was quite skeptical about the whole thing. Why the need to get separate hardware to handle graphics when the games I was playing then (Heretic, Doom 2, Command and Conquer, Quake 2, Diablo) didn’t really need it? I thought it was just a gimmick cooked up by hardware manufacturers to increase sales. I was smirking the whole time when Rob, a friend of mine, spent so much money on a Canopus 3D card. “What a lemming”, I thought to myself.
But a few months after I read an article on what video cards can do, and how it can actually help free up the processing power of the CPU by having a dedicated chip handle all of the graphics calculations. I got a little convinced about the need for a graphics card after reading it. But what really convinced me was when I saw my first graphics accelerated game. When I saw it, I knew that I wanted one then and there. Of course, it took me a couple more years before I actually bought a video card (as part of replacement computer).
I’ve been using video cards ever since but even though, I am an avid PC gamer, I have never gone overboard when it comes to my hardware. I also love the bells and whistles that the latest, fastest video cards offer but I am not insane enough to buy a card that is worth a low end desktop computer. I think it’s a waste of good money. Why? Well, because of depreciation. Take for instance the new GeForce 8800 GTX cards from Nvidia. This top of the line card costs about $570 right now. But you’d be lucky to even sell it for $450 a year from now. And the longer you keep it, the more it depreciates.
I’d rather buy a mid end card for my gaming needs. It costs less, gets sold much faster in the second hand market and I don’t have to throw away my hard earned money. The bottomline is, I’ll never be a lemming.
[tags]video card, Nvidia, 8800 GTX[/tags]