A graphics card is composed mainly of a processor, GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) and memory.
The graphics card alone is a small PC, dedicated to graphics applications, independent of the rest of the PC, the only link being the information passing through the port graphic and food.
Choosing a card is based on its needs and its budget:
- For desktop applications, a map called "entry level" is sufficient;
- For 3D video games (and generally all 3D applications), a more powerful card is essential.
Summary:
- General considerations
- How to identify the performance of an nVidia graphics card
- How to identify the performance of an ATI graphics card
- Performance graphics card for playing different video formats
- Some other advice
General considerations
The essential component that will determine the performance graphics card is the GPU:
A modern GPU is based on different units calculation:
- Processors flow,
- Units of texturing,
- Raster Units (ROPs)
Most important are the processors flux: the more processors flow is important, the GPU will be more powerful (for a given architecture). The model number of the card is linked to the GPU, which will be explained later.
Next comes the choice of memory:
Its quantity:
- 256 MB enough for the tickets range;
- 512 MB is required for cards with a powerful GPU;
- 1GB cards are essential high-end GPU or 2.
His type:
DDR2, DDR3 or DDR4: the higher the figure, the higher the memory is fast. His type does not need to be the same as that used for the RAM on your PC: you can have a PC DDR2 and a graphics card DDR3.
Its frequency:
Plus it is high, the card is more powerful.
Finally, there is the width of bus: it may be 64, 128, 256, 384 and 512 bits: plus the bus is large, most trade between the GPU and memory are fast.
It takes at least 256 bits for a powerful card.
The problem is to identify the performance of a map based on the trade name.
Two manufacturers share the market for graphics card: nVidia and ATI (now acquired by AMD)
For the general public range that interests us here, the cards are all called nVidia GeForce and ATI Radeon call and all this for over 8 years.
The ATI HD concern cards capable of playing videos High definition, but the appellation is a little vague, the reading skills of different video formats will be specified in a specific paragraph.
Here are the details of the classification of graphics cards from these 2 manufacturers.
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