Miguel writes, "I'm putting together a budget to build a new gaming computer. I want to build a machine that can play the latest games, and some of the next generation games - how much money should I set aside for the graphics card?"

One of the problems with setting a budget is that technology changes constantly, and we're currently right on the threshold of a time of transition: the fastest card on the market are almost a year old now, and nVidia and ATI are getting set to introduce new cards to the market.

Historically, the "next generation" of graphics cards usually hits store shelves by December - just in time for the tweaker crowd to get that special something under the Christmas tree - which means that if you're looking to get the top of the line graphics card a few months from now, you can estimate its price by looking at the cost of the top of the line consumer card you want and adding about $400.

Of course, you don't need to buy top of the line in order to get great graphical performance. While the $600-$1000 price range does offer significant performance, the much cheaper $200-$300 price range offers great performance at about 1/4 of the price. In fact, the GTX275 - which falls in this range as of this writing - will play all of the modern games and some next generation games for about $300, which is the same performance you will get out of a GTX295 (albeit with a lower framerate).

In short, if you're a sane human being with a decent budget, you'll put aside about $200 to $300 for a graphics card. If you're out of your mind, or you just have a lot of money, you can budget anywhere up to $1000 for a graphics card.

If you have a question, e-mail me at lordkat@gmail.com

Be safe,
Jason