Graphics Processing Unit[]
The video card, otherwise known as the graphics processing unit is the main one part of a complex system. The job of the graphics processing unit is similar to the central processing unit. Like the central processing unit, the video card processes functions on the computer; unlike the central processing unit, it only processes graphics related functions. Without the video card, all the image forming tasks would also be placed on the central processing unit. All computers have chips and processors which push images to monitors. Because of the graphics processing unit, the central processing unit is less limited to processing images which gives it more power to worry about other processes.
The video card is plugged into the motherboard and has video ports on the outside of the case. These ports are used to connect a wire from the computer to a peripheral known as the monitor. Not only is the video card designed specifically for video and animation rendering, it is very programmable. Not only is the video card used to rendering of two dimensional objects, it is very useful in rendering three dimensional objects. The higher quality of the video card, the faster the graphics will be. Games which are intensive on the video card will have faster frames per second if the video card is higher quality.
Not only is the graphics processing unit highly programmable, one may also use more than one in a computer. If one high quality video card is not enough, one could add more depending on the abilities of the motherboard. While running two or three monitors off of one computer, one might want more than one video card due to needing more graphical processing. The higher the resolution on the monitor, the more intensive the processing is on the video card. Using a monitor with 1920x1080p would be easier for the video card to run rather than a monitor with 4k resolution (3840x2160).
The company Nvidia was the first to produce the video card. The first one they created was the GeForce 256 GPU. The video card was a breakthrough and could "process 10 million polygons per second". Every since the first graphics processing unit, Nvidia has been improving they're video cards and still produce them today. The most recent video card they have produced is the GeForce 980. The new video card combines efficient power usage with high performance and is the most advanced video card to this day.
- Tristan Clark
Works Cited:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/GPU.html
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2009/12/16/whats-the-difference-between-a-cpu-and-a-gpu/