Drivers
The drivers on the CD that comes with your new card will probably already be out of date by the time you buy it. So, after you get the card home, we recommend downloading the latest drivers for it from the Internet. Newer games, especially, tend to have more problems with older drivers. The same holds true for Microsoft's DirectX, which you should also keep up to date. Newer games often ship with a runtime installer of the current DX version, though. To make life a little easier for you, we have compiled a list of the most important links:
Current Drivers:
- ATI-based graphics cards (Radeon, All In Wonder, IGP) -
- Intel integrated graphics (chipsets i865G, 915G) -
- NVIDIA-based graphics cards (GeForce, nForce) -
- S3-based graphics cards (Deltachrome) -
- SIS integrated graphics -
- XGI-based graphics (Volari) -
In many cases, the manufacturer of your card will also offer graphics drivers on their own website. Unfortunately, these are rarely as current as the ones found on the chipmaker's website. As we mentioned before, driver development is now handled exclusively by the chipmakers anyway. Nonetheless, regular visits to the cardmaker's website make sense, for example to download updates for utilities and tools, or to find newer BIOS versions for the card.
Closing Words
The Tom's Hardware Graphics Card Buyer's Guide is meant as a guide and a reference to help beginners select and buy a new graphics card. Through constant updates, it is our goal to create a comprehensive and current overview of the models available in the marketplace and the technologies upon which they are based. Be sure to drop by regularly - it will be worth your while!
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