Axel Cushing is in the process of upgrading his computer. In this ongoing series of articles, he'll give other PC gamers food for thought when upgrading their own rig.

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Building The Perfect Rig

Part II: Lights & Sounds

As the holidays approach, it is entirely likely that gamers will have some spiffy new computer hardware products on their wish lists. Of all the components that are the most likely to be upgraded, video cards are unquestionably the first ones to be swapped out. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or just a casual gamer who's tired of being left behind in the visuals department, a new video card can help extend the life of an old rig for at least a good year. However, when you're building from scratch, you have the opportunity to be right on the bleeding edge. While video cards are an obvious sort of upgrade, sound cards are obvious only when you're wondering why you aren't hearing the earth-shattering explosions from your favorite shooter. In this article, we'll take a look at your options for making your computer put on a impressive visual and auditory display.

Card Wars: The State of Video Cards Today

To give you an idea of how frighteningly old I am, and how incredibly far video cards have come in the last 20 years, I can remember my very first video card upgrade. The old Epson Apex I used to run (before even the Intel 286s were popularized) had built-in CGA and Hercules graphics. Which meant that I could see things in a color palette of Black / White / Cyan / Magenta or Black / Yellow / Green / Magenta. Needless to say, this color scheme sucked no matter which way I went. I salivated over, and ultimately bought, a VGA video card for the computer. The good news was that now I had a great and glorious 256 color palette The bad news was that the thing used up enough memory I couldn't boot into Windows 3.1 until after a memory upgrade. For gaming, I didn't much care, since all my games were DOS-based at the time. For everything else, it did present a problem.

Today, video cards are capable of a virtually incalculable color palette, able to pump out enough pixels and triangles to create near-photorealistic 3D models and environments in real-time, and generally help breathe life into the virtual environments of our games. The state of the art in video card technologies is actually moving faster than the state of the art in CPUs. Moore's Law fits CPU chips just fine, but it's utterly inappropriate to video cards. For this state of affairs, we have two companies to thank (sort of): nVidia and ATI.

The last few years have seen an arms race in the video card industry. Originally, when 3D graphics first appeared on the scene, the big name was 3Dfx and their Voodoo series of cards. Other names, such as Diamond and nVidia, had their own ideas and their own standards, which lead to a great deal of confusion among game programmers. As the smaller players were taken out one by one, it became clear that there would be two prevalent standards, 3Dfx's Voodoo and OpenGL. Then Microsoft decided to butt in with DirectX. Three standards just could not compete together for very long, and 3Dfx's failure to innovate led to the company being purchased, along with their Voodoo standard (now long since obsolete). Ultimately, DirectX would effectively stand alone as OpenGL slowly faded into semi-obscurity.

While DirectX became the de facto standard in terms of the software SDK used to make 3D graphics, a new standards war began to brew between nVidia and ATI. Rather than two competing software standards, these companies were engaging in a war over hardware standards, the pipelines and logic paths that the rendering instructions would take before they came out on your monitor. Both companies have since committed themselves to a policy of releasing a new video card about every six months. The practical upshot of this is that every quarter, one or the other company holds the top spot in terms of video card performance. nVidia, in particular, is exceedingly aggressive in regards to its driver updates and its willingness to license their chipsets to 3rd-party manufacturers. Game developers are not immune to this rapid progression and many titles will specify one manufacturer over another. While such a title will play on any system, there are certain bells and whistles that appear only with a given chipset.

Ultimately, the choice of one's video card is going to be as much a matter of personal preference as it is price and technological capabilities. If you've had good experiences with one type over another, chances are you'll stick with that type of card. There's nothing to say that you can't experiment with the other type, but bear in mind that such an experiment could be exceedingly expensive if things don't turn out like you planned.

One technological consideration that you're going to have to factor in now and in the future is how the video card connects to your motherboard. For a while, the dominant motherboard connector was the Advanced Graphics Port or AGP. However, with the advent of the PCI Express standard, it is entirely likely that you will see video cards moving away from AGP and to PCI-E in the next year or two. When buying your card, think carefully about how long it's likely to last, and how long its connector will be supported.

Another consideration is that of space. A video card can run across the entire width of your motherboard, or longer, depending on the specific model that you purchase. Consider the new GeForce 8800 GTX. It is the pinnacle of nVidia's technological progress, yet the boards that the chipset is mounted on are invariably longer than the motherboards they are socketed into. If you have a large enough case, or are willing to make judicious use of a Dremel tool to make a necessary alteration, oversized boards won't be a problem. Otherwise, the rule of thumb which carpenters and tailors have used for centuries can be applied here: measure twice, cut once. Nothing ruins a good case like a sloppy job of case modding, and nothing wastes your money faster than buying a card which won't fit into the box in the first place.

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A final technological consideration on your video cards is going to be the question of multi-linked cards, using either nVidia's SLI or ATI's Crossfire standard. Of the two, nVidia's is more demanding in that you must buy two identical cards from the same manufacturer in order for it to work properly. The trade off is that actually connecting the two cards together is done inside the case

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with a simple and easily installed circuit bridge. ATI's Crossfire solution creates a little more flexibility, but you need to have either identical components or a card specifically designated as a Crossfire card combined with a regular card. Moreover, there are certain combinations which may not work, so you'll have to check ATI's website to get the current matrix of compatible configurations. The two cards are generally connected through an external Y-split video cable, which is easier to get to, but slightly more labor intensive than the SLI bridge.

For the gamer on a budget, or one who's not quite so interested in the latest blistering graphics quality, you can get a video card from three generations back or so for about $70 to $125 US. Many earlier cards have TV-out as an option, so be sure to check the specs if you're looking to make a nice media center without shelling out the big bucks.

Your average video card, either one from the last generation or the one immediately before that, will run you anywhere from $150 to $300 US. Since a new generation of nVidia cards has just come out, expect to see a price drop on the earlier nVidia-type cards in a couple of months, somewhere between $25 to $75 dollars. As time goes on, the prices will drop further, but it will probably take another generation or two before they fall into the "cheap but good" category. Also keep in mind that these cards have not been optimized for the soon-to-be released DirectX 10, so while your older library of games may scream, you may find yourself left out in the cold when it comes to future games.

The high end video cards, representing the latest generation of chipset from either nVidia or ATI, will start at about $500 US and only go up from there. The bad news is that these cards will represent a sizable investment, probably a quarter to a third of your computer's total construction cost, even for a single video card. Expect the percentage to go even higher if you decide to go with an SLI setup. The good news is that you'll be right at the top of the technology curve and will be able to take advantage of any new features that come down the pipe. So far, ATI does not yet have a DX10 compatible card, but expect them to release a new series soon.

Cushing's Choice: For years, my preferred chipset has been nVidia. Upgrading drivers, video performance, color palette, tweaking options, all of these have made me a very satisfied customer. From my first Riva TnT card to the card in my current rig, nVidia has not disappointed me. As far as an actual board vendor, the card gracing my new rig will be a BFG GeForce 8800 GTS. BFG has always had user friendly setup software, uses nVidia reference drivers as opposed to a manufacturer specific set, and continues to carry lifetime warranties with their cards. Probably the best cards in the industry right now, hands down. While the GTX would deliver greater performance, it won't fit in my case. I've measured. It's too big. So, while the GTS is not as cutting edge, it's still right up there and it should provide plenty of graphical horsepower for my needs. As for SLI, I'm going to hold off on that for now. While it might be nice, it's not exactly necessary just yet. A second identical card for SLI would be up at the top of the upgrade roster.

The Sound of The Fury: Sound Cards

Over the years, sound cards have had a single de facto standard: the Sound Blaster standard. Although there have been more than a few manufacturers out there who try to rival or surpass Creative Labs in terms of sound cards, the road has been littered with the electronic corpses of the competition. Creative is the 800 pound gorilla of the computer audio market, continually churning out sound cards that not only deliver great performance but also set new standards for other companies to shoot for. Companies such as Diamond and Turtle Beach tend to follow their own standards, and as such, your performance when gaming is probably not going to be as robust as it would be with a Creative card. Given this state of affairs, your options are not quite going to be the same as they are in terms of video cards. Creative doesn't license chipsets the same way that nVidia or ATI do, so it's not quite so much which brand of sound card you're going to buy as it is the standard being employed.

For the gamer with limited funds, one of the Audigy series of sound cards from Creative can be obtained for anywhere from $20 US for one of the original Audigy chipset cards to $80 for an Audigy4 chipset card without a lot of bells and whistles. The Audigy series of chipsets have improved gradually over the years and, much like the original Sound Blaster standard, is ubiquitous throughout gaming. If you have an Audigy card, you're going to get good results whichever game you happen to run. Also in this same range, you find the other manufacturers such as Diamond and Turtle Beach. In terms of experimentation, this wouldn't be a bad investment, but you may want to have an Audigy card handy in case your rig doesn't play well with one of "the other guys."

Gamers with a bigger budget, $100 to $200, will have an equally broad range of options for sound cards. Creative chipsets in this price range go from Audigy2 all the way to the new X-Fi chipset, with various accompanying bells and whistles. You're likely to see control bays which mount inside of a 5.25" drive bay, much like a CD or DVD drive, that provide easy access for microphones, stereo tuners, and other devices which would let you pipe sound through your computer. Note that there are also some other manufacturers who have their own offerings at the lower end of this price range, but they'll be running a standard which may or may not play well with your games.

There are sound cards which are well over $200, but these cards do not seem to really offer anything that cannot be had with a different and less expensive card. Always check the specifications of the card as printed on the box, and think carefully about your own needs from an audio standpoint.

Cushing's Choice: Since this is supposed to be a gaming rig, I decided to go with a card that is intended to be used in a gaming situation, Creative's X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS. A 7.1 surround sound card with Creative's EAX environmental audio system, plus a handy control bay so I don't have to reach around the back to plug in a mic or headphones, will undoubtedly provide excellent acoustic performance as I pwn the rest of the staff in Unreal Tournament 2007.

Final Thoughts: The Periphery of The Sound and the Shiny

You have undoubtedly noticed that I have not gone in to detail about the components which actually help deliver the mind-blowing graphics and the eardrum-shattering sound. Part of the reason is that I plan to use my existing monitor, at the very least, when the new rig gets built. I can almost hear somebody say "Why would you hook up your hot new rig to your old busted monitor?" As it is, the monitor isn't old and busted. It's perfectly functional. Moreover, I'm something of a purist and I happen to like the clarity and color accuracy of a CRT type monitor as opposed to an LCD. I know, I'm in the minority, and sooner or later, the monitor will die on me. But I'll take care of that when it happens. For now, I'm happy with what I've got.

As for speakers, again, I'm pretty happy with what I have, but I may look in to getting new speakers before long. The actual hookups haven't changed appreciably between my current card and the X-Fi card going into the new rig. I'll see how it sounds with the old speakers first and then replace them if necessary. Also keep in mind that if I'm going to be using a headset while blowing away my colleagues, the subwoofer and speakers aren't going to be used as much. We'll have to see what happens.

Until next time. . .

Axel Cushing

(December 5, 2006)


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