Graphics Card
A graphics card is a type of display adapter or video card installed within most computing devices to display graphical data with high clarity, color, definition and overall appearance. A graphics card provides high-quality visual display by processing and executing graphical data using advanced graphical techniques, features and functions.
A graphics card is also known as a graphics adapter, graphics controller, graphics accelerator card or graphics board.
A graphics card is primarily designed to remove the graphical processing tasks from the processor or RAM. It includes a dedicated graphical processing unit (GPU) and a dedicated RAM that help it to process graphical data quickly. Like most processors, a graphics card also has a dedicated heat sink to keep the heat out of the GPU. A graphics card enables the display of 3-D images, image rasterization, higher pixel ration, a broader range of colors and more. Moreover, a graphics card includes various expansion ports such as AGP, HDMI, TV and multiple monitor connectivity. A graphics card can be integrated within the motherboard or be added on as an extension card.
Major Components of Graphics Card
Here are the major components that are present in all graphics cards.
GPU
GPU or Graphics Processing Unit is the main component and heart of the graphics card. It is also known as Graphics Processor and does all the processing in your graphics card. Generally, most of the graphics card comes with only one GPU but there are few dual GPU graphics cards also. The working of GPU is governed by its architecture which is known as GPU architecture. Different GPU series have different GPU architecture. Also, different GPU manufacturers have their own GPU architecture and layout.
VRAM
This is the second most important component of a graphics card. VRAM or Video RAM or Video Memory is the place where all the graphics data and game textures are stored for processing by the GPU. Faster memory can really increase the graphics card performance to a certain level. It is to be noted that memory alone cannot increase the performance in games because if your GPU is weak then you will never have greater performance no matter how fast the RAM is.
There are various types of Video RAM available for graphics card depending on the speed and bandwidth they offer. Graphics card memory includes DDR3, GDDR5, GDDR5X, HBM, and HBM2 RAM. DDR3 is the oldest and slowest of all and is used mainly in entry-level graphics cards. GDDR5 is the most popular and commonly used VRAM that is used in the budget, mid-range, and high-end graphics cards. GDDR5X is almost twice as fast as GDDR5 and is used in a few top-end graphics cards from Nvidia. Nvidia Titan X, GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti uses GDDR5X memory. HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and HBM2 are the most advanced graphics card memories for gaming and VR (Virtual Reality) and are used in high-end graphics cards only. Radeon R9 Fury X and Radeon Pro use HBM memory. HBM memory is faster, requires lesser space on PCB and has lower power consumption compared to GDDR5 memory.
VRM
VRM or Voltage Regulator Module is the main circuitry that powers the GPU. VRM converts higher voltage from power supply to lower voltage levels for use in GPU. Generally, it converts 12V to around 1V to 1.5V (approx) which is normally the voltage level at which GPU operates. Along with GPU and VRAM, VRM is also one of the most important components of a graphics card. VRM is also called a Processor Power Module (PPM) or simply Voltage Regulator.
The number of Voltage Regulators on a graphics card varies from card to card. Some graphics cards have a higher number of VRMs compared to others. VRMs can get very hot and sometimes even hotter than GPU and they require good cooling to keep the graphics card from shutting down.
Memory
Memory is the place where all the complex textures and other graphics information are stored. GPU fetches the textures from the memory, processes them, send it back to RAM and then it sends it to the RAMDAC and then to your LCD Screen or monitor. RAMDAC is Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter which converts the image to the analog signal and sends them to your Monitor or LCD screen through display cable.
Graphics Cards have different types of memory depending upon the GPU used in the graphics card. The most common type of memories used in graphics cards are GDDR3 and GDDR5 RAM, where G stands for Graphics and DDR stands for Double Data Rate. Graphics Card RAM or Memory is much faster than the Memory used in your Desktop or Laptop.
DVI / HDMI / VGA Ports
They forms the external interface of the graphics card. They are used to connect your Monitor or LCD Screen to your Graphics Card by means of relevant cable. Low end graphics card have only VGA and DVI (Digital Video Interface) ports while the high-end ones have both DVI and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). Both DVI and HDMI are digital interface but in HDMI the audio signal or sound can be carried by it.
All these components are embedded on the PCB (Printed Circuit Board), which you can say forms the motherboard of a Graphics Card. Besides all these major components, other smaller components like capacitors, diodes, resistors etc. are also present on a graphics card.
Heat Sink and Fan
Heatsink and Fan forms the cooling part of the graphics card, which are used to lower down the temperature of GPU and RAM (in some cards). Heatsink is a passive cooling device that is made up of copper or aluminum and its main purpose is to take the heat away from the GPU and dissipates it in the surroundings. Fan is an active cooling device that blows air onto the heatsink to make heatsink cool down faster so that it can draw away the heat quickly from the components. Some low end graphics cards are equipped with only heatsink but the all the mid and high range ones have both heatsink and fan combination for proper and efficient cooling.
Different Card Types:
Video cards come in three different connector types: PCI, AGP, and PCI Express. The slots all look different and are easily identifiable from each other.
PCI Express often shortened to PCIe is the latest technology and is on the 4.0 version so 4th version of the card formar which was designed to replace the older AGP standard. PCIe or PCI-E is a huge advance in transfer,memory and performance which brings HD/4K multiscreen and huge leaps in Game play to your main board system and system performance.
The PCI-E connector standards when used with compatable versions provide support for 2.5GT/s (PCI-E 1.0), 5.0GT/s (PCI-E 2), 8.0GT/s (PCI-E 3) and recent upgrade to 16GT/s (PCI-E 4.0), and you guessed it when Gen 5 or PCI 5.0 appears it will be 32GT/s.
AGP Often brown connectors were introduced as they allowed four times the bandwidth over PCI. Most AGP video cards if you can find them now are designed to work only with the later AGP 2.0/3.0 standards.
PCI these connect into the often white slots of your Motherboard, they were common on motherboards since the early 1990's (they replaced the ISA standard). They have been replaced by the newer PCI Express since 2005 onwards.
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