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Let's face it: Most of the time people buy a video card (also known as a graphics card) for a non-business PC, it's to play games. Oh sure, discrete video cards may offer additional benefits with video playback or transcoding (and, increasingly, Web browsing), but who are we fooling? The main reason discrete video remains such a huge and fiercely competitive market is because, when it comes to playing games that don't come from PopCap or Big Fish, integrated graphics just don't cut it.

The ugly truth about buying a discrete card can be summed up in five sad words: The more expensive, the better. There's almost no way around the fact that the more money you're willing to drop on a video card, the better your gaming experience will be. So if you have $700 (or more—and yes, that is possible) to drop on a video card, you're going to be buying yourself an outstanding gaming experience, even if the rest of your computer isn't so special.

That said, there are a few other things you'll want to keep in mind when selecting a video card. They're all subsidiary to that one (sorry), but may help you make a better determination if you don't want to buy a single card for an amount of money that could buy a complete computer system.

PCMag has the details HERE!