RanGer498
16th October 2002, 12:51 AM
video cards are the translators that allow your PC to communicate with your monitor. While every type of video card is a little bit different, they all have the same basic components:
.The video processing unit or VPU acts as the brains of the video card. It's a lot like the main processor in your system, except it's dedicated solely to processing graphic information. As you can probably guess, the best video cards have really fast graphic processors.
.The video memory stores the graphic information that your PC has been accessing most often. Just like your main memory, your video memory is made of RAM. Putting RAM that is dedicated to graphics processing right next to the graphics accelerator really speeds things along. In general, the best video cards have the most RAM and the fastest type of RAM (usually DDR SDRAM).
.The RAMDAC takes the digital information stored in the video RAM and converts it into an analog signal for transmission to your monitor. (RAMDAC stands for randam access memory digital-to-analog converter.)
.The display connector(s) allow you to plug in a monitor, flat-panel display, and/or television.
(info obtained from crucial (http://www.crucial.com))
.The AGP connector plugs into the AGP (accelerated graphics port) slot on your motherboard, connecting the video card with the rest of your system.
.The video processing unit or VPU acts as the brains of the video card. It's a lot like the main processor in your system, except it's dedicated solely to processing graphic information. As you can probably guess, the best video cards have really fast graphic processors.
.The video memory stores the graphic information that your PC has been accessing most often. Just like your main memory, your video memory is made of RAM. Putting RAM that is dedicated to graphics processing right next to the graphics accelerator really speeds things along. In general, the best video cards have the most RAM and the fastest type of RAM (usually DDR SDRAM).
.The RAMDAC takes the digital information stored in the video RAM and converts it into an analog signal for transmission to your monitor. (RAMDAC stands for randam access memory digital-to-analog converter.)
.The display connector(s) allow you to plug in a monitor, flat-panel display, and/or television.
(info obtained from crucial (http://www.crucial.com))
.The AGP connector plugs into the AGP (accelerated graphics port) slot on your motherboard, connecting the video card with the rest of your system.