The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

When you buy a video card, have you ever considered looking at the video card’s memory bus width? Did you know that a video card with a higher memory bus width can draw faster to the screen (of course, assuming that your monitor has a high enough refresh rate :-]  )

Let’s say you buy a video card that has 1 GB of on-board memory and has a 900 MHz core clock. However, the video card only has a 64-bit memory bus width. Your cost for your video card is: $250.00

Now your friend across the street bought a video card that has 768 MB of on-board memory, and it has a 750 MHz core clock. Now his video card has a 256-bit memory bus width. Your friend’s cost for his video card: $180.00

Now which of the two video cards would be the best for your money?

While the one you bought looks “better”, in reality, the video card that your friend bought is the better choice because of the higher memory bus width (this is assuming that both video cards have the same type of video memory). Hence his video card will draw faster to the screen than yours would.

Always be careful when buying a new video card. You may end up spending a lot of money for something that is supposed to be “better” but really is not!