Major Video Card Manufacturers

• There are two major players in the video card market, ATI and Nvidia. Both companies are innovative and produce comparable products. Over the past several years the two companies have traded back and forth the title of king of the graphic card industry. When one company comes forward with an advanced product, the other usually will counter with their own titular announcement. Nvidia has a reputation of producing quality graphic cards at an affordable price. Their video cards are popularized as the GeForce series of video cards.
  
  

GeForce 5200

• The GeForce 5200 was announced and released in 2003. It features a 250 megahertz (MHz) core clock speed, 400 MHz memory clock speed as well as a 64- or 128-bit memory interface. The GeForce 5200's memory transfer rate is 6.4 GB/sec while running 4 pixels per clock cycle. The integrated memory size is 128 MB. The GeForce 5200 is compatible with DirectX 9.0.
  
  

GeForce 6200

• The GeForce 6200 was announced and released within the 2004 to 2005 time period. The video card features a 300 MHz core clock speed coupled with a 550 MHz memory clock speed and a 128-bit memory interface. The specified memory transfer speed for the GeForce 6200 is a blistering 8.8 GB/sec with a measured 4 pixels per clock cycle and the card is compatible with latest DirectX 9.0c. Like the GeForce 5200, the newer 6200 sports a total 128 MB memory capacity.
  
  

Comparison

• When looking at the two cards together, the GeForce 6200 has a small lead in the basic statistics. The 6200 has a 20 percent faster core clock speed while hefting a 37 percent faster memory clock speed. Although their pixels per clock cycle rating is tied at 4, the GeForce 6200 has a higher memory transfer speed at 8.8 GB/sec versus the 5200's slower 6.4 GB/sec. The difference, however, is not all one sided, as the GeForce 5200 is priced (in early 2010) at $27, while the faster GeForce 6200 is priced around the $40 mark.
  
  

Expert Insight

• Your computer is only as strong as its weakest link. Although the GeForce 6200 is a little more expensive than the GeForce 5200 (about $13 more in early 2010), the performance gains you'll see compared to the 5200 will make the cost worthwhile. Although neither card is considered near the top end in the video graphics card market, they're both considered better options than most integrated video cards.