Repairing and Upgrading Your PC

Choosing a Video Adapter

Years ago, Proctor & Gamble, RJ Reynolds, and other consumer products giants discovered that the best way to increase their sales was to go into competition with themselves. Instead of making only one or two brands of laundry detergent or breakfast cereal or floor wax or cigarette, they started making dozens of brands, all similar, but each appealing to a different type of buyer. Just as important, the flood of brands meant the giants could stifle competitors by monopolizing scarce retail shelf space.

The two major video card makers, ATI and NVIDIA, have taken this scheme to ridiculous extremes. Each produces two dozen or more video chipsets, from old, slow models that are used in $20 video cards to models that are used ...