Technical description for two different audiences

How a graphic card works

A graphic card refers to the computer component whose purpose is to display an image that is seen by the user.  In regard to computer video computing, a displayed image is usually a combination of numerous individual pixels and the graphic card commands the computer on what color and the amount of time needed to activate every pixel. In the absence of graphics card for necessary display of calculations, the computer would be unable to handle the resulting amount of workload.  The graphic card appearance is similar to a mother board, with circuit board which houses a RAM and a processor. It is therefore an input –out system chip capable of storing the settings and carry out diagnostics on the computer’s memory, output and input at startup (Wilson & Tyson, 2016).

The card consists of various components which includes a GPU (graphic processing unit) which appears like the central processing unit of a computer , a cooling and heatsink fan , a terminal for motherboard connection , A VRAM (video RAM) , wires and capacitors  and connection ports for monitor cable. The fan is necessary for ensuring that the device does not overheat while performing operations and calculations. The terminal for mother board connection acts as the actual link between the mother board and the graphics card itself. The card uses the connection to obtain power where there is no independent port for power connection (Bangia, 2005).  All the other components of the device are connected to this primary piece. The video RAM acts as the physical memory which stores images while the pictures are being processed and generated by the card. The work of the capacitors and wires is to assist in powering and timing of the cards operations and acts as the physical connection for resistance and power for the card.  In the process of image display, the Graphic Processing Unit performs the complex geometric calculations necessary for rendering the graphics given that it has high processing power. For analyzing and using data the GPU makes use of special programming and produce a highly improved image quality, it uses Full Screen Anti Aliasing whose work is to smooth 3D objects edges and Anisotropic Filtering that makes the image to appear crisper(Luebke & Humphreys, 2007).

 For the current 3D graphic card system, it synthesizes an image from a scene description for graphics such as video games that are real-life. This synthesis is normally expressed as a hardware pipeline which follows specialized phases.  Majority of these systems of real-time graphics work under the assumption that, everything is in triangular form, and any other complex shapes like patches of curved surface and quadrilaterals are curved up into triangles (Luebke & Humphreys, 2007).   The GPU first transforms all the objects into a single ordinary coordinate system. The representation of these each vertex of the objects in coordinates that are homogeneous, the whole hierarchy of transformation can be performed by the graphic system at the same time with one multiply of matrix-vector. At this stage the output is a steam of triangles that are expressed in 3D coordinate system whereby the viewer is paced at the origin and the view direction is aligned with Z-axis. Once every triangle is placed in the coordinate system, the GPU can select its color on the basis of   the lights in the relevant scene (Luebke & Humphreys, 2007). This way an image is expressed in accordance to the desired results. Having knowledge on graphic card is important given the changing technology in the development of GPUs of such cards.  

Illustration

Image source : http://www.songho.ca/opengl/gl_pipeline.html

 

 

How a graphic card works

The images seen on your monitor are made of very tiny dots referred to as pixels. At a common setting of a resolution, more than one million pixels are displayed on a screen and the computer has to make a decision on what to do with every single of such pixels so as an image is created. For this to happen, a translator is needed, which is something that can take binary data (commonly referred in description of bits and bytes) from the central processing unit and transform it into a picture that can be seen. Central processing unit can be described as the heart of a computer whether a laptop or a desktop (Arora, n.d.). Unless a computer possesses graphics capability which is built into its motherboard (an equipment where every part of a computer is tied together), the translation happens on a graphic card.  A graphic card is therefore a device that enables the computer to produces images that can be seen by the user (Wilson & Tyson, 2016).

 To have better understating, imagine a computer being a company having its art department. When a piece of work is needed by the employee in the company, a request is sent to this department. The art department then comes up with a way of how the image is to be created which is then put on a paper. What was initially a person’s idea becomes a picture that is actual and viewable.  The same principle can explain how a graphics card works in simple terms or language. The CPU works together with various software application and relays the information about the image or picture to the graphics card. It is the function of the card to decide the manner in which the pixels on the screen will be used in the creation of an image. The card uses a cable to send that information to a monitor. Using binary data to create an image is usually a demanding process (Wilson & Tyson, 2016).

In the creation of a 3-D image, a wire frame is first developed by the card. The graphic card makes the image into a pixel or raster image – by filling in pixels that are remaining. The card also adds color, texture and lighting of the image (Luebke & Humphreys, 2007). If the graphic card is not present in the carrying out the required computations, the computer would not manage the workload which would be too much. The card is able to carry out this task by the use of various components. A mother board provides a connection necessary for power and data in the creation of an image. The other component is a processor which decides what the card is going to do with every pixel on a computer screen. A graphic card memory holds the information about every pixel and also stores completed images temporarily. The monitor component allows the viewer to see the picture as the final result (Wilson & Tyson, 2016).  It is important to be interested in knowing such information about the graphic card because one may needed to buy or replace such a card.  

Illustration

Image source: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm

 

References

Luebke,D., Humphreys,G.(2007). How GPUs Work. Retrieved from: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/kim/courses/cs3330/notes/HowGPUsWork.pdf

 

Wilson, T., Tyson J. (2016). How Graphics Cards Work. Retrieved from: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm

 

Bangia, R. (2005). Multimedia and Web technology. New Delhi: Firewall Media. 541

 

Arora, A. (n.d.). Foundations of computer science.37