| The most important thing you'll need to make your video adapter work is an up-to-date driver. Drivers are small programs that tell your computer how to communicate with your video adapter. Whether you're using a PC or a Macintosh, you're telling your computer to use a different driver -- or a different feature of the same driver -- when you change resolution or color depth through the control panel.
On a new computer system, the drivers for your video board are likely to be on your hard disk. If you're buying a new video board, the drivers will come on a disk, and you'll have to go through some sort of installation process to take advantage of them.
A good driver will get the most out of your video board's special features and make your screen snap to attention. A poorly-designed or "buggy" driver can slow your whole system down or even produce conflicts with other hardware or software.
Unfortunately, new video boards may ship with buggy or incomplete drivers, and it may take manufacturers six months to a year to produce good ones. Because a video adapter may sit on the shelves of a store or warehouse for months before you buy it, check immediately with the manufacturer to see if updated drivers are available. Most manufacturers will send you the drivers on disk, or you can download them from the maker's dialup bulletin board or site on the World Wide Web.
You'll also want a monitor that can deliver the performance your graphics board demands. Updating your computer with a state-of-the-art video card may not help much if you old monitor can't match the video board's resolution, color capability and refresh rate. |