The images on the monitor are made of small dots called pixels. In most common resolution settings, the screen is displayed as one million pixels, and the computer must decide what to do to take a picture. To do this, you need a translator – something that allows you to download binary data from the CPU and transform it into an image that you can see. If your computer does not have a built-in graphics card, the translation is on the graphics card.The graphics card’s task is complex, but the rules and components are easy to understand. In this article, we will look at the basic elements of the graphics card and what they do. We will also consider factors that work together for a fast, efficient graphics card.
Think about your computer as a company with your own art department. When people in a company want a piece, they send a request to the art department. The art department decides how to create an image and then put it on paper. The end result is that someone becomes a real, visible image. The graphics card works according to the same rules. CPU, which cooperates with applications, sends image information to the graphics card. The graphics card decides how to use the pixels on the screen to create an image. It then sends this information to the monitor via a cable.Creating an image with binary data is a demanding process. To make a 3D image, the graphics card first creates a line with straight lines. Then rasterize the image (fill the remaining pixels). It also adds lighting, texture and color. In fast-paced games, the computer must go through this process about sixty times a second. Without a graphics card to perform the necessary calculations, the workload would be too much for the computer.
The graphics card performs this task with four main components:
- Connection of motherboard for data and power supply
- The processor decides what to do with each pixel on the screen
- The memory is used to store information about each pixel and to temporarily store complete images
- Monitor connection so you can see the final result
Like the motherboard, the graphics card is a printed circuit board with a processor and RAM. It also has an input / output system (BIOS) that stores card settings and performs diagnostics in memory, input and output at startup. The graphics card processor, called a GPU, is similar to a computer processor. However, the GPU is designed to perform complex mathematical and geometric calculations that are necessary for rendering graphics. Some of the fastest GPUs have more transistors than the average processor. The GPU generates a lot of heat, so it is usually located under the heatsink or fan. In addition to processing power, the GPU uses special programming to help analyze and use data. ATI and nVidia produce the vast majority of GPUs on the market, and both companies have developed their own GPU performance improvements. To improve image quality, processors use:
Full anti-aliasing (FSAA) that smoothes the edges of 3-D objects
Anisotropic filtering (AF) that makes images are crisper
Each company has developed special techniques that will help the GPU apply colors, shading, texture and patterns.Because the GPU creates images, it needs information and photos. For this purpose, it uses the RAM of the card, storing data about each pixel, its color and its position on the screen. Part of RAM can also act as a frame buffer, which means that it has completed images until it is time to display them. Usually, video memory is running at high speed and is double-moved, which means that the system can read and write to it at the same time.
RAM connects directly to a digital-to-analog converter, called DAC. This converter, also called RAMDAC, processes the image into an analog signal that can be used by the monitor. Some cards have a lot of RAMDACs that can improve performance and operate more than one monitor. You can find out more about this process on how analog and digital recording works.
RAMDAC sends the last image to the monitor with a cable. Graphics cards connect to the computer via the motherboard. The motherboard powers the card and allows communication with the CPU. New graphics cards often require more power than the motherboard, which provides a direct connection to the computer’s power supply.
Connections to the motherboard are usually made through one of three interfaces:
Peripheral Interface (PCI)
Advanced graphics port (AGP)
PCI Express (PCIe)
PCI Express is the latest of the three and provides the fastest transfer rates between the graphics card and the motherboard. PCIe also supports two graphics cards on the same computer.Most graphics cards have two monitor connectors. This is often a DVI connector that supports LCD screens, and the other is a VGA connector that supports CRT displays. Some graphics cards have two DVI connectors. But this is not excluded by the CRT; CRTs can connect to DVI ports via an adapter. At the same time, Apple has made displays using the proprietary Apple Display Connector (ADC). Although these monitors are still in use, the new Apple monitors use a DVI connection.Most people use only one of the two monitors. People who need to use two monitors can purchase a dual-graphics card that splits the screen between two screens. Computer-equipped dual graphics cards with dual PCIe can theoretically handle four monitors.
In addition to connections to the motherboard and monitor, some graphics cards have connections to:
- TV display: TV-out or S-video
- Analog video cameras: ViVo or video / video output
- Digital cameras: FireWire or USB
Some cards also include TV tuners. Then we will look at a good graphics card.Easiest to detect graphics card. It has a lot of memory and a fast processor. Often it is more visually appealing than anything else to enter the computer. Illustrated are many high-end graphics cards or have decorative fans or heat sinks.
But the high card provides more power than most people really need. People who use their computers primarily for e-mail, text-to-speech, or web surfing can find all the graphics support they need on an integrated graphics board. A medium size card is sufficient for most casual players. People who need high-end cards are game enthusiasts and people who do a lot of graphics work in 3D games.
A good general measure of card performance is frame rate, measured in frames per second (FPS). The number of frames per second determines the number of images that can be displayed per second. The human eye can process about 25 frames per second, but fast-paced games require a playback speed of at least 60 FPS to provide smooth animation and scrolling. The speed components are:
Threes or vertices per second: three-dimensional images are made of triangles or polygons. This measurement describes how fast the GPU can calculate the entire polygon or vertices that define it. In general, it describes how fast a card builds a frame image.
Pixel Fill Rate: This measurement describes how many pixels a GPU can process per second, which means how quickly the image can be rasterized.
Graphics card components have a direct impact on speed. These are the hardware parameters that are most important for the speed of the card and the units in which they are measured:
GPU clock speed (MHz)
Memory Bus Size (bits)
Amount of available memory (MB)
Memory Clock Frequency (MHz)
Bandwidth (GB / s)
RAMDAC speed (MHz)
The CPU and the motherboard also play a role because a very fast graphics card can not compensate for the inability of the motherboard to deliver data quickly. Similarly, connecting the card to the motherboard and the speed with which they can get instructions from the processor affect their performance.
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