Everything You Need To Know About "GRAPHICS CARDS"- GPU explained

Graphics Card - Explained

What Is A Graphics Card (GPU)?

 Welcome guys let's get to know more about the coolest computer part ever. The Graphics Card alternatively called a Video card display adapter, graphics card, video adapter, video board, or video controller, a Graphics card is an expansion card that connects to a computer motherboard. It is used to create a picture on a display; without a video card, you would not be able to even read this post on your device. to be in short a Graphics card is a piece of silicon that helps to render or process images and visual elements. The more powerful your GPU is, The More quicker you get the processing Done.  Graphics cards are used by gamers instead of integrated graphics due to their extra processing power and dedicated Video RAM. The GPU is a processor inside the video card to process the graphical images.

Wait our processor also does the same it processes data, Why could a CPU be also Our GPU? , Yes this will be everyone's question right, come let's figure it out why.

CPU vs GPU:

Yes, Your CPU process all the data pushed to it and gives output or instructions to other output devices, Why can't it just render an image, Yes they can, To be more theoretical both the CPU and GPU are same, They both are peer to be very similar, they are both silicon-based microprocessors mounted on a PCB, with heatsinks attached. But if you look at their microarchitecture they are a bit different. Yes, our CPU is very good at doing general things, normal excel works, to do a video call or play some normal games, to mention we are speaking about modern CPUs, But a GPU is way more different it is only good at processing visual elements and images. Unlike a CPU your GPU is made of almost identical compute units that only process images. Yes, this also makes the GPU good at doing a single mathematical calculation for a number of times. This is why they are used to mine Bitcoins and used in Research institutes where they use a similar calculation again and again.

To learn more About CPU head to our post here.

History of GPU:

Olden Days Of GPUs:

IBM 8514/A

Till the 1970s there's been a never-ending demand for higher quality smoother graphics in video games but the very earliest GPUs in-game consoles weren't really GPUs at all instead of being general-purpose microprocessors that we see in modern graphics cards earlier video controllers were more or less hard-coded to only output specific visuals for whatever video game it was a part of it. Graphics processing in both consoles and computers was handled by the CPU itself instead of having a separate GPU. Till the mid-1980s that the modern concept of a discrete GPU came into. TMS 3410  in 1986 which was among the first of microprocessor specifically designed to render graphics on its own but,  The IBM 8514/A from 1987 which supported 256 colors and took care of common 2d rendering tasks like drawing lines on screens much faster than a regular CPU could handle thanks to its low cost it spawned a number of clones and paved the way for further advances in 2d graphics.

ATI Cards: 

 It was also around this time that a small Canadian company named ATI started producing its own graphics cards notably the wonder series one of the first consumer product lines to support multiple monitors as well as the ability to switch between a number of different graphics modes and resolutions which was uncommon at the time but these early graphics cards still relied on the main CPU for quite a few tasks. In the mid-90s, the whole industry was moving towards the possibility of bringing 3d graphics to home PCs although the 1995 release of the original PlayStation console one of the first to support true 3d graphics proved wildly successful the PC side got off to a much slower start one of the first 3d cards designed for consumer gaming was the s3 verge also released in 1995, unfortunately, the verge was more of a 2d card with 3d support

 Voodoo Cards:

 3d FX voodoo from 1996 were actually 3d only meaning that you need a separate card for day-to-day computing but at least the Voodoo was notable for being the first-ever card to support multi GPU set up 

Nvidia Enters The Game:

But the game really changed in 1999 when Nvidia previously known for cards like the Riva TNT' Released the GeForce 256 aside from it being the first-ever GeForce card it could process complex visuals that were previously left to the CPU such as lighting effects and transformation, Although the GeForce 256 was a little ahead of its time and many games didn't support the new features it set the stage for the GeForce 2 which came out next year and became very popular that same year however 3dfx disappeared from the consumer GPU market. due to competition from GeForce and ATI's new Radeon line and in 2001 Nvidia and ATI were the only two real players remaining unless of course, you count Intel's integrated graphics although a few smaller companies remained they gradually exited the consumer market over the next several years things continued to heat up in 2001 with the GeForce 3 which included a pixel shader that allowed for much more granular detail since it could produce effects on a per-pixel basis not to be outdone ATI quickly added this feature to its second generation of Radeon cards for a while after subsequent cards offered incremental performance improvements though we did see a transition from the old AGP interface to the faster PCI Express to know more about them Click Here. As well as Nvidia SLI and ATI crossfire in 2004 and 2005 respectively but 2006 brought us a couple huge developments ATI was bought out by AMD and NVIDIA rolled out its famous 8800 GTX an incredibly powerful card that not only had a massive number of transistors but a unified shader that could handle a large number of effects at once and run at a faster clock than the processing core allowed graphical tasks to be parallelized to improve efficiency the switch to stream processing allowed not only for greater performance in games later AMD was also the first to bring us the concept of surround gaming with up to six monitors at once with its Eyefinity brand in 2009 with Nvidia following this up in 2010, of course, 4k came along with both the red and the green team featuring support for it in 2012 we've certainly come a long way  and who knows maybe in 40 years we'll have something so advanced that Crysis 3 won't be noticeably harder to render 

How Does Graphics Card Work?

A graphics card works along with the same principles. The CPU, working in conjunction with software applications, sends information about the image to the graphics card. The graphics card decides how to use the pixels on the screen to create the image we require. It then sends that information to the monitor or any display device through a cable. ­Seems simple right but there is a lot of computing process behind that.

To make a 3-D image, the graphics card first creates a wireframe out of straight lines. Then, it completes the image (fills in the remaining pixels). It also adds lighting, texture, and color. For fast-paced games, the computer has to go through this process about sixty times per second. That's nothing but 60FPS.

Components Of a Graphics Card:

Like a motherboard, a Graphics Card is a printed circuit board that hosts a processor and RAM. It also has an input/output system (BIOS) chip, which stores the card's basic settings and performs diagnosis on the memory, input, and output at startup. A graphics card's processor is called A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which is similar to a computer's CPU. A GPU, however, is designed specifically for performing the complex mathematical and geometric calculations that are necessary for graphics rendering and visuals. Some of the latest GPUs have more transistors than the average CPU. A GPU produces a lot of heat, so it is usually located under a very good heat sink or under cooling fans. 

 Also, the Graphics card needs a much faster RAM (Random Access Memory) to store the frames it rendered usually called Frame Buffer. That's why almost all dedicated Graphics Cards Have their own VRAM (Video RAM) built onto the PCB of the Graphics Card Itself. We often hear those terms while Purchasing a Graphics Card, like 4gb of GDDR5 (Graphical Double Data Rate) they are much faster than our system Memory, Although some integrated Graphical processors the ones that built-in our CPU uses systems shared Memory which you can learn more Here. Not only the Ram size decides the Performance of A Graphics Card. We must have a very good Graphics Processor ie the GPU to Compute more frames Per second and store that in the Buffer. 

The graphics card also has many display output options right from old VGA (Video Graphics Array), DVI (Digital Visual Interface), HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). Even with USB type C display ports.

 The Graphics card is connected to our motherboard via AGP (Advanced Graphical Port), Newer cards can be plugged in on our PCI (peripheral Component Interconnect) ports or PCIe ports.PCI Express is the newest of the three and provides the fastest transfer rates between the graphics card and the motherboard. PCIe also supports the use of two graphics cards in the same computer. Made massive Multi GPU setup possible.

IS Graphics Card a GPU?

We can see many people speaking about the GPU, But calling an RTX 2080 a GPU is wrong. The term GPU refers to the Graphical Processing Unit present inside a Video Card. Which actually does the graphical processing. The entire setup or module is called as a Graphics Card or a Video Card. For example, RTX 2080 is a Graphics Card using Turing TU104 GPU. 

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Here the Graphics Processor is TU104.

So don't call the RTX 2080 a GPU.
     Also, our mobile phones have GPU, they are part of the mobiles Soc. they are integrated. So don't call Adreno 610 a GPU.it is a part of Soc.

 How To Buy A Graphics Card:

Here comes the ultimate question, now we learned all the terms of a Graphics card so how to choose the right card for our needs.

A top-of-the-line graphics card is easy to spot. It has lots of memory and a fast processor. Lots of high-performance video cards are illustrated or have decorative fans or heat sinks.
But a high-end card provides more power than most people really need. People who use their computers primarily for e-mail, word processing, or Web surfing can find all the necessary graphics support on a motherboard with integrated graphics. A mid-range card is sufficient for most casual gamers. People who need the power of a high-end card include gaming enthusiasts and people who do lots of 3-D graphic work editing etc.
A good overall measurement of a card's performance is its frame rate, measured in frames per second (FPS). The frame rate describes how many complete images the card can display per second. This is what matters us most while Gaming. Also, check for the graphics card's benchmark results, Many websites offer those data for free. benchmark scores are very useful while comparing Graphics Cards.
The graphics card's hardware directly affects its speed. Some important Graphics Card Specifications are,

• GPU clock speed (MHz)
• Size of the memory bus (bits)
• Amount of available memory (MB)
• Memory clock rate (MHz)
• Memory bandwidth (GB/s)

 Not only this make your purchase correct always make sure that you buy a matching motherboard with your Graphics card and an equivalent CPU so none of your components will get you bottlenecks, Pairing a massive Graphics card with a Low-end CPU will bottle Neck Your GPU and will underperform. Make sure you first figure out what is your need and choose the right components for your Rig. To know more about other computer Components check our post Here.

To Check and Buy Nvidia Cards Click Here.

To check and Buy Radeon Cards Click Here.

Hope this Graphics Card Explained post helped you to learn more about the Graphics card and how to choose a Right Graphics Card for You. Mention your thoughts in your comments below.