What is a Graphics Card?

 

The graphics card transmits the data (software or graphical image) in our computer to the graphics card through the processor. The graphics card calculates and processes the incoming data. The calculated data is stored thanks to the internal memory on the graphics card. Geometric information and commands are then stored in the cache. Here, the shading process is applied, thanks to this process, the information in the cache gains reality and dimension. Of course, since this process consumes a lot of energy, most of our computer's electricity (about 200 watts) goes to the video card. Another factor is that if we want quality images, we need a good monitor as well as a high-performance graphics card.

There are four different video cards. These are MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter), CGA (Color Graphic Adapter), Hercules Mono Graphics and VGA. MDA; displays only letters, numbers, special characters and ASCII characters on the screen. CGA; It is the first color graphics card (it can display 16 colors), it can work in three different modes as text, graphics and color. It is not used at the moment. Hercules Moni Graphics; Although it offers a better image than CGA, it is monochrome, shows shades of gray and supports graphics, but this graphics card is not used today. Today, VGA video card is used. This graphics card is compatible with all display modes. The feature that distinguishes it from other graphics cards is that it converts digital signals to analog signals. Color monitors started to be used with this video card.Today, VGA graphics cards have a wide range of 64, 126 and 256 bit bandwidths and at least 64 mbytes to 32 GBytes of ram.

In addition, there is a GPU in the graphics card. GPUs are processors that do graphics processing. In other words, the architect of the magnificent graphics we see on our screens is the GPU. If you think that the video card alone is enough to play games with very good graphics, you are wrong. The GPU is indispensable for those images to be processed and burned to the screen quickly. In fact, the emergence of these processors, that is, the purpose of their design, is exactly in this direction.

Unlike the central processor unit, GPUs are integrated within the graphics cards. In other words, a separate processor comes in the graphics cards you buy. As the technology of these processors improves, video card prices automatically increase. For example, NVIDIA has launched a new generation with RTX graphics cards. With the new generation, graphics card prices have also increased. Recently, GPUs are also used for calculations.