GRAPHICS+CARD

GRAPHICS CARD The Graphics Card, also called the Video Card, Graphics Adapter or VGA Adapter, is a miniature computer of its own dedicated to graphics‐related functions on the PC. It is a thin rectangular plastic PCB with a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) ‐ similar to a CPU ‐ and Video RAM (or VRAM) ‐ similar to System RAM ‐ as well as Pipelines for transferring information internally, similar to the FSB.

It plugs into the motherboard through the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) Port or a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot, or more recently a PCI‐E (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) slot. Most graphics cards have one or more heatsinks on the GPU and the VRAM, and often have a fan on the GPU or covering the entire card.

The graphics card undertakes the majority of 2D and 3D graphics calculations and also sends information directly to the Display Device, which is usually a monitor.

Some motherboards have built‐in graphics functionality that works in much the same way as a graphics card, but is referred to as Onboard Graphics or Integrated Graphics. PCs with such graphics functionality (if enabled) typically process graphics‐related information far less quickly than those with plug‐in graphics cards. In human body terms, the graphics card is like the portion of the Brain that relates to visual or artistic expression.  