Can someone help differentiate graphics cards for me?

I'm looking for a new computer and am getting confused between the different graphics cards. I'm definitelyy not a hardcore gamer, but would like the few games that I do play to work well, and I don't want it to be outdated in 1.5 months. What are the gradations of the different product lines' graphics cards, i.e. how does a ATI Radeon Xpress 200 compare to NVIDIA 6600 and so on. Integrated vs. non, etc. Thanks for any help!!

Can someone help differentiate graphics cards for me?
You can read here for a quick lesson on graphics cards.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_ca...


But in my opinion, even if you aren't a hard core gamer, you should still get the best graphics card you can reasonably afford. Eventually the newer software programs are going to be written where older graphics cards make the program average. Read the specifications on a graphics card package or game cd and you will see what the minimum requirements your computer must meet are. You want to be better than average so you aren't outdated like you say in a month and a half.
Reply:If you want good performance without being outdated soon, I would recommend one of the new Nvidia graphics cards. I run a GeForce 7600GT, available for under $200 and plays anything you want. The 6600 you mention is part of their older GeForce 6 Series line, the 7600GT part of the new 7 Series. You can check out www.nvidia.com and www.ati.com to see the newest models available.