What is a graphics card and what is its function?

What is a graphics card and what is its function?

Computer hardware can be a very complicated topic, even for those who spend a lot of time working on a computer. However, an interesting term that we often hear in this field makes it urgent and necessary to get to know it, especially in the midst of this era, when many ingredients become “obsolete” overnight! It is a “video card” or a video card, so what is a video card.1

The concept of video card or graphics card

A video card is a computer component generally used to improve the quality of images displayed on a screen. Video cards are also known as graphics cards, video adapters, display cards, graphics adapters and graphics accelerators, video controller…

If the CPU is the brain of a computer, then the video card is its imagination.

As such, anything a CPU can think of, a video card can do to our screen in an attractive and impressive way. The job of a video card is to take information from the CPU, convert it into an image, and then send that image to the screen.

While the CPU, in cooperation with computer components, can display simplified 3D images, the video card excels at rendering complex video presentations very quickly. A modern video card can display 1080p video at 60 frames per second. This means that it calculates more than 2 million pixels 60 times every second!

In the early stages of computer graphics, video cards were not very advanced; Its job was simply to send the output data from the processor to the display.2

This worked because the output was generally in text format, so Colors and complex graphics were not available in early operating systems, but today, video cards are more than computer processors.

So, more clearly, a "video card" is a piece of hardware inside a computer that handles image and video processing, as well as some tasks that are normally processed by the CPU.

This means that video cards add some processing capabilities rather than just sending a simple signal on the screen; Video cards can perform additional calculations to check the quality of the output and then customize it to take full advantage of the display's capabilities.

The "classic" shape of a video card is a rectangular piece of computer with a connection port on the bottom and one or more ports on the side for connecting to video displays and other devices.

On a PC, because the motherboard, card case, and expansion cards are designed with compatibility in mind, the side of the video card fits perfectly into the hardware of the computer when installed, making its ports (such as HDMI, DVI, or VGA) available for use.

graphics card components

Some video cards have only one port for connection to a standard monitor or projector, while more advanced cards may have ports for connections to multiple output sources including additional monitors and TVs.3

Graphics card components and parts

A modern graphics card consists of several main components:

 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit): The graphics processing unit or otherwise known as the GPU is the heart of the graphics card, and it is the main component of the graphics card where graphics are processed. Unlike a CPU that has only 2 to 16 cores, a GPU is made up of hundreds or thousands of small cores or units that run in parallel to perform complex graphics operations. Nvidia calls these cores or processors Cuda Cores or Shaders, while AMD/ATI calls them "Stream Processors."

 Memory: Memory is where all the complex constructs and other graphic information are stored. The GPU fetches material from memory, processes it, sends it back to RAM, then sends it to RAMDAC and then to the display. RAMDAC is a Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter that converts the image to the analog signal and sends it to the display screen through the monitor cable. Graphics cards contain different types of memory based on the GPU used in the graphics card. The most common types of memory used in graphics cards are GDDR3 and GDDR5 RAM, where G stands for Graphics and DDR stands for Double Data Rate. The RAM or Memory Card of a graphics card is much faster than that used in a desktop or laptop computer.

Internal interface: The internal interface is the interface through which the graphics card is connected to the motherboard. Older graphics cards used the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) interface to connect to the motherboard, but now it has been replaced by PCI Express 2.0 x16 for faster and more efficient performance.

Heat sink and fan: The heatsink and fan are the cooling part of the graphics card, which are used to cool the GPU and RAM (on some cards). A heatsink is a copper or aluminum passive cooling device whose main purpose is to take heat out of the GPU and dissipate it into the surroundings. The fan is an active cooling device that discharges air on the Heatsink to make the coolant cool faster so that it can quickly draw heat from the components. Some low-end graphics cards are equipped with only a heatsink and a fan, for adequate and efficient cooling.

Power Connectors: Power connectors are only found on mid- to high-end graphics cards because these cards need extra power to run. Examples are 6-pin power connectors, and in high-range cards there can be two such connectors. The low-performance graphics card does not have the power connectors as it does not require a lot of power to run and it draws power only from the PCI Express x16 slot of the motherboard.

Video Ports (Output): These make up the external interface of the graphics card. It is used to connect the display device to the graphics card via the appropriate cable. The low-level graphics card contains only VGA and DVI (Digital Video Interface) ports, while the advanced interface ports include DVI and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). Both DVI and HDMI are a digital interface but in HDMI the audio signal or audio can be transmitted by it. In the past, VGA or SVGA was the most common connection used with computer monitors, but, today, most flat panel displays use DVI or HDMI connectors.

Besides all these major components, there are other smaller components such as capacitors, diodes, resistors, etc. 4

Important facts and questions about the graphics card

A single motherboard supports a limited set of video card formats, so you should always check with your motherboard manufacturer before purchasing any type of video card.

Many modern computers do not have graphics card expansion ports, instead they are limited to an integrated card; Since the GPUs are integrated directly into the motherboard, this provides a less expensive PC but also a less powerful graphics system.

This is a wise choice for businesses that intend to service mid-range devices and the home user when they don't need the capabilities of advanced graphics processors, for example, for video editing or playing the latest games.

Most motherboards with an integrated graphics card - in other words, a "graphics processing chip" - and at the same time accept the addition of a video card - that is, it has a dedicated expansion slot for it - allows disabling the integrated card in order to use the video card installed in the expansion slot. The user can take advantage of this feature through the operating system settings, or through the BIOS.

Using a dedicated video card may improve overall system performance; Because this ensures that the video card's RAM, power regulators, cooling, and even the RAM and CPU can be used for other things.

Laptops, tablets, and even smartphones have video cards, albeit smaller and often non-replaceable.

Can I install more than one video card?

Yes, if sufficient energy sources and an efficient cooling system are taken into account.

Both AMD Radeon (using Crossfire) and NVIDIA GeForce (using SLI) cards are capable of powering two or more video cards together.

What video card do I have?

In Windows, the easiest way to find out what video card you have is to use Device Manager, where you can find your installed video card under the Display adapters section.

Another way to find out which graphics card you have is with some free system information tools like Speccy, which identifies the manufacturer, model, BIOS version, hardware ID, bus interface, temperature, amount of memory, and other video card details.

How do I install or update the graphics card driver!?

Like all hardware, a video card requires a device driver, which is known as a "video card driver" as is common; In order to communicate with the operating system and other computer software. The same process that you use to update and identify any type of hardware applies to the video card driver.

If you know what video card driver you need, you can go directly to the manufacturer's website and download it manually.

This is always the best way to get drivers because the original driver provider is trustworthy, doesn't contain any malware, so you won't have any security and performance issues.

Fortunately, most video card drivers are installable automatically. Once you download the video card driver that matches your hardware, it will install the update or driver at the user's request; Which means that you will not need any manual update steps.

If you don't know the specific video card driver you need, or if you'd rather not download and install one manually, you can use a free program to automatically detect and download the driver you need.

The preferred option for many is Driver Booster, but you can find many other programs for the same purpose.

In the end, the graphics card may not be the main component for a normal or average user but it is the most important component for fans of high performance games and people who run graphics intensive applications or programs. 5

In any case, of course, it is unreasonable to imagine technology today without such a technical element, as it comes at the forefront of the elements required to be available on any device to be a station for creativity!