What is a graphics card? Here’s what you need to know

• A graphics card is an expansion card for your computer that is responsible for displaying images.
• High-quality GPUs are used for games, ray tracing, graphics production and even mining.
• Here’s a brief overview of everything you need to know about graphics cards.
• Visit Business Insider’s Tech Reference Library for more stories.

With the birth of the computer age, the IBM PC became the standard computer, mainly because of the modular architecture with interchangeable components.

Like the original IBM, every computer’s motherboard now has slots in which any third-party manufacturer can insert the components needed to make the computer work. Among the components: the graphics card, which is responsible for displaying all the images you see on the screen.

Nvidia

What to know about graphics cards

A graphics card looks like a smaller version of the computer motherboard – it’s a printed circuit board that has a processor, RAM, and other components. A graphics card is sometimes referred to as a graphics processor or GPU, but in reality the GPU is only one component (though the primary, determining component) of the graphics card.

In fact, GPUs come in two main forms:

• An integrated GPU is built into the motherboard and cannot be upgraded or replaced. You can find it on laptops and cheap desktops. These graphics usually have modest performance and do not perform well for tasks such as games or professional graphic production.
• A discrete GPU is mounted on a graphics card that slides into the expansion slot of a computer on the motherboard. This type of graphics card is replaceable, so it can be upgraded as newer graphics cards are developed, and it prevents a computer from becoming obsolete.

Modern graphics cards are extremely sophisticated devices that act like stand-alone computers in some ways. They perform a huge number of calculations and are usually the most sophisticated components on a computer – especially high-end graphics cards that are optimized for gameplay and advanced graphics processing.

Not only are they responsible for drawing ordinary 2D graphics such as windows and documents, but the best modern graphics cards can generate high-resolution realistic 3D graphics in real time without having to render the content in advance. This is essential for graphic production, such as photography and video production, because they can manipulate and process a huge number of pixels in real time.

Increasingly, graphics cards can also perform a technique known as ray tracing. Ray tracing is a form of 3D graphics in which scenes are reproduced by tracing the trace of each ray of light in a scene and accurately modeling its effect on materials and textures in the image. Graphic graphics tracks are incredibly realistic and could previously only be reproduced with large amounts of processing power. As graphics cards with ray-tracing prices continue to decline, video games will increasingly rely on graphic tracks to produce cinema-quality imagery that is rendered in real-time.

Nvidia

Types of graphics cards

Virtually all graphics cards are developed by two competing brands: Nvidia and AMD. No matter what type of graphics card you buy or find on your computer, it is almost certainly sold directly by one of these companies or by a third-party company that has licensed the technology.

This makes it easier to purchase a graphics card, because although there are many companies that sell graphics cards, you can always compare them directly, as they all use the same underlying architecture. In other words, an Nvidia GeForce 2070 GPU will behave more or less the same whether you buy it from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte or Nvidia.

AMD is a close competitor to Nvidia and the two companies sometimes jump into top performance. But overall, the best AMD cards offer similar performance as the best Nvidia cards.

Graphics card applications

The sophistication and processing power of modern GPUs means that graphics cards are often the most complex and high-performance component in a computer, which is compatible with or greater than the computer’s CPU (central processing unit).

High-quality graphics cards do all the traditional tasks they have always been responsible for, including the version of the regular graphics you use daily. They also deliver advanced 3D graphics in real time for computer games.

Graphic professionals also rely on the best graphics cards. Nowadays, photo, video and graphics production applications rely on the graphics card, not the computer’s CPU, to perform advanced image processing, including computer photography, which uses artificial intelligence and computer processing to achieve results that previously could only be done. ” in the lens “when taking photos or video.

GPUs in graphics cards are also sometimes used for their raw processing power to perform non-graphics work. Miners in cryptocurrency, for example, rely on computers with excellent graphics cards to perform the sophisticated mining process for coins.