Unit 2 - Hardware Graphics Cards

Why do we need graphics cards? ● The processor executes commands for many different purposes. ● Graphics processing is one of the most computationally expensive demands on the computer. Extra resources are set aside exclusively for optimizing this process. ● Old computers processed graphics using the processor, but as our photo/video demands increased, it was obvious that more resources were required. We needed a dedicated graphics processor.

Evolution of Graphics - Games

On-board Graphics Processing ● One common approach is build an integrated video adaptor. This is a video processor built on to the motherboard and used exclusively for graphics processing. ● Integrated video adaptors are common in laptops and pre- built desktop PCs. ● Benefits: Very cheap to build. ● Drawback: Not the fastest solution! Still not sufficient for heavy graphics processing.

On-board Graphics Processing

Larger View: On-board Adaptors

Graphics Cards ● Best Option: Graphics Card ● Graphics cards have their own: ● GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) – similar to a CPU, for graphics only ● Extra Memory – including cache memory ● Cooling System – the graphics card is busy and gets hot

Graphics Cards - Diagram

Common Variations: Bus Type ● Bus Type: ● Each has its own slot architecture on the motherboard ● Modern types include: ● AGP (Advanced Graphics Port ) ● PCI-e (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) ● PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

Common Variations: Bus Type

Common Variations: Connections ● Connection Types: ● Displays (monitors, TVs, etc.) have changed over the years and so have their plugs! ● Buy the card first and then find a compatible monitor. ● In the worst case, you can usually buy an adaptor to make two connections compatible (look on the back of your school computer right now!).

Common Variations: Connections

Summary ● The CPU is the slowest for graphics processing. ● On-board GPU is better since it frees CPU for other processing. ● Video cards are ideal as the GPU is usually higher quality than on-board and it will include its own high-speed RAM