Graphics Card

[tnbogeyman]

My son is upgrading his desktop with an new graphics card, which is a Radeon 256mb. I have a NVidia 128mb on my desktop. Would I see much graphic improvement if I switched cards when I'm playing links, from a 128mb to a 256mb? Computer novice here. Thanks for anyones' input.
tnbogeyman.

[terrell]

the amount of memory on a graphics card has little to do with its performance. what you look for, is the graphics processor speed, and most importantly, the number of pipelines the card has for transporting the graphics pixels to memory.

for example, if you have a graphics card with 256mb of memory, but only 2 pipelines, links redraws will not be very impressive. but you might have a graphics card with 128mb of memory, and 8 pipelines, and the card will give you some serious performance.

best thing to do is goto the manufacturer's website, and compare each cards' technical specs side by side.

edit: my favorite place to read about graphics cards:

http://forums.guru3d.com/

[in2bluz]

Personally I wouldnt mess with it. Links doesnt have anything to offer along the graphics styles that really pop out at you as newer games, so what you see with your current graphics card wont change with a newer card that has more graphic bells and whistles. not only that but your using a graphics driver for your nvidia that doesnt jive with the radian card. so you would have to get rid of it and then load the latest driver for the radian. and that could possiby pose a problem for you if traces of the other driver still remain. and if your running fine already you wont gain any kind of speed in changing a graphics card. not worth the hassle in my opinion.