Anyone who has at least once faced with a computer device or even some mobile devices knows that as one of the most necessary devices they have a video card, often called a graphics accelerator or graphics adapter. Next, it is proposed to understand why a video card is needed in the computer, and also to find out some important points related to the principles of operation of such devices, their installation and the use of a single device at a certain point in time, if there are several.
What is a graphics card in a general sense?
Actually, what kind of device it is, it is easy to guess by its name. The main purpose of such equipment is the processing and transmission of digital video signal to a stationary computer monitor or laptop screen. Roughly speaking, for everything that you see on the screen, just the graphic adapter is responsible. But why then is it sometimes called an accelerator?
The fact is that the central processor and RAM can not cope with the processing of this type of data, and to speed up signal processing and reduce the load on the computing resources of the main components, it is the video card that is involved.
But if you fully understand why a computer needs a video card, you need to clearly understand in which areas such equipment can be used. In addition to its intended purpose, the graphics accelerator can play other roles, as some models of video cards can be described as a kind of computer in a computer. In this case, we are talking exclusively about discrete type adapters.
Why does a computer need a graphics card?
One of the highest priorities for using the described type of equipment, of course, is modern computer games.
It is likely that many users before installing such software read the mandatory or recommended system requirements, which clearly states that the video card must have some specific parameters. In this case, we are talking about performing floating point calculations, which are used in modern games when processing complex textures and drawing graphic details. This is no secret to anyone.
It is quite obvious that a video card is also necessary when connecting, say, television panels to a computer device using special outputs and connectors, since it is the accelerator that transmits the signal to the connected devices.
But a relatively new direction is what today is called blockchain - a kind of “survival” of cryptocurrency (bitcoins) from the Internet.
And here the power and computational capabilities of the graphics chip play a paramount role, while the characteristics of the central processor and RAM are not significant.
The main types of graphics accelerators
Among graphics accelerators today, there are only two main types: integrated and discrete. The first are special microcircuits soldered directly to the motherboard, and the second relate to removable devices that connect to the main board through special slots.
Integrated Adapters
Built-in video cards, as already mentioned, are integrated directly into the main board (if you want, they are “sewn” into it without the possibility of quick replacement).
Such devices are quite low-power and can be used exclusively when working with the simplest applications for which graphics and video processing is not provided at all. Such adapters have some allocated memory (something like RAM), however, in the process they use exclusively computing resources of the central processor and RAM. But to run computer games, video-oriented software products, or complex engineering applications, a discrete adapter is required.
Discrete Graphics Accelerators
Video cards of this type can be classified as mini-computers built into the main ones. The fact is that almost all modern discrete cards are equipped with their own graphic processors and random access memory (GDDR3 or a newer and more expensive modification of GDDR5), which, by and large, are independent of the main CPU and RAM at all.
In addition, video cards of this type are equipped with their own cooling systems (passive or active). Passive cooling consists in the fact that heated air is simply discharged through openings in the case, and active means its own coolers (fans), working on the same principle as the main PC cooling system.
The device of a computer video card of this type, as you might have guessed, is very similar to the basic scheme of a single-piece PC (except that there is no separate "motherboard" in them). As for the installation of such adapters on the main board of the computer, it has special slots of the general PCI standard, into which the accelerator is inserted and can be removed if replacement is necessary. In this regard, installing a video card on a computer becomes easier, because in the case of integrated adapters, you will have to solder the latter, which is not recommended without special knowledge and skills.
But modern PCs and laptops are such that you can find configurations in which several video chips are installed. Why is it necessary and how to switch between them if you need to use one of them or all of them together, then we’ll figure it out.
How can I turn on the right type of video card on my computer if I have two or more adapters?
Now we assume that there are two graphics accelerators in the configuration of the laptop or stationary computer terminal, but one of them is integrated and the other discrete (we do not consider blockchain systems, since in a sense they can be attributed to complex server platforms that use more than two video adapter, and several dozen).
So, why do you need two video cards on a computer? On the one hand, the answer is quite obvious: so that in the event of failure of one device, you can use the second. But this is not always the case. The fact is that if you approach the switching of video cards among themselves for different needs, you can get very great benefit. For example, to work with office programs or other simple applications, you can use the built-in (integrated) adapter, and for the very latest games, activate a discrete card.
As for switching between the chips, in the simplest case, you can use the settings of the primary BIOS / UEFI systems. However, a much more effective method is the use of special control utilities that are installed either together with discrete card drivers, or separately (at the request of the user).
In the same "NVIDIA Control Panel", you can select applications for which a discrete graphics card will automatically turn on, and for the rest, you can leave the integrated chip.
In an equally popular AMD card management program called Catalyst, selecting the power mode in the form of a high-performance circuit automatically turns on the discrete adapter, and setting the power saving mode is equivalent to activating the integrated chip.
One last thing
Why does a computer need a graphics card, I think many have already understood. It remains to add a few words about the occurrence of some conflict situations. Often you can see the appearance of blue screens, the description of which indicates errors of video card drivers when the OS does not start at all, and this usually applies only to discrete type adapters. It is here that, due to the inclusion of an integrated chip in the BIOS, it becomes possible to load the operating system normally and then eliminate the problems that have arisen at the level of control software.
An indirect conclusion can be called a constant check of the relevance of installed drivers. Their update is best done either due to additionally installed "native" programs from video card manufacturers, or using automated applications with narrow focus like (Driver Booster, SlimDrivers, DriverPack Solution, etc.).