All Graphics cards are not the same. Apart from obvious differences in power being related to it’s price, there are 3 main types:
On-Board
Most low-end motherboards have graphics circuitry built in to a specialized chip on the motherboard. This is fine for general usage like internet/word processing/spreadsheets and general office-type applications. They are not suitable for Gaming, 3D CAD and video editing.
Discrete Video and Gaming
If you are into Gaming, a discrete graphics card is a must. The main players are nVidia and ATI. There are many brands of graphics adapters available but they are all based on either nVidia and ATI chips.
ATI Radeon HD6950 Gaming Card
Neither is significantly superior to the other provided you compare on price. It’s fairly simple – you pay for what you get in performance. Graphics cards optimized for gaming range from R800 to R10000. Anything cheaper than R800 will be matched by a modern integrated graphics solution built right onto a modern motherboard.
Discrete 3D Graphic visualization, modelling and rendering
With 3D stuff it gets a lot more complicated. You can indeed use graphics cards designed for gaming, but they are not optimal. You need to use a professional workstation graphics card which is optimized for 3D visualization. (This is not the same as the visualization in gaming) Newer professional adapters also have circuitry on board which is used in conjunction with the CPU for rendering.
A Quadro 4000 Professional Graphics Card
Again, the two chip manufacturers ATI and nVidia are both competing for your money, the ATI versions are branded as ATI FirePro and the nVidia versions branded as Quadro.
Professional 3D graphics cards are unfortunately expensive – the most expensive part of your workstation. An entry-level professional card will set you back around R1600 but you really want to go for something more powerful. Prices range from R1000 to R30000 – price usually determines performance. But this time it is wiser to stay with the Quadro card if you are using AutoCAD, AutoDESK Inventor, 3D Studio Max or Maya. (In other words, products from the company AutoDESK). Rhino also works best with Quadro cards. Huge Photoshop files work well with the ATI FirePro. It is best to check which professional 3D chip your software manufacturer approves for your application.
