Before we move to our main topic “What does a graphics card do”, let’s understand what is a Graphics Card? The Graphic Card is one of the computer hardware which produces the image that you see on the monitor of your computer. It is responsible for the execution of an image to the monitor and converts data into a signal which computer monitor can understand.
The better your graphics card is, the smoother an image will produce. Graphics card is quite compulsory for the computer gamers, video editors and graphic designer who do some kind of graphic designing.
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Types of Graphics Cards
There are two types of Graphics Cards, integrated and dedicated (discrete). Normally, an integrated graphics card is used for standard tasks like web surfing, typing works, listening to music, and watching movies.
Whereas discrete graphic card is used by the people who are into gaming, video editing, and graphic designing, etc. A discrete graphics card is used to speed up the image processing time. In absence of discrete graphics cards, gamers might encounter lagging during live streaming at a crucial point in time.
Integrated Graphics Card
These type of Graphics cards is inbuilt into the motherboard and no add-in card is used. The standard desktops and laptops are already having inbuilt integrated cards. These are cost-effective and cannot be upgraded easily, since it is fixed into the motherboard.
Dedicated Graphics Card
These types of graphics cards are add-in and they can be installed onto the motherboard as an extra component of the system. Discrete cards are ideal for gamers and video editors, and for those as well who want to upgrade their system at a later stage.
One of the biggest advantages of a dedicated graphics card is its performance. A dedicated graphics card not only has a sophisticated computer chip designed for processing video, but it also has a dedicated RAM for specific tasks, which is faster and better than your normal system RAM.
A dedicated graphics card allows users to play video games without lagging during crucial points but it also makes your tasks smoother and easy when processing images in software like Photoshop and Illustrator etc.
What is GPU?
GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit. Most people known GPU as a “Graphic Card”.
Every desktop and laptop needs a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), your system cannot produce output in an image form without a GPU. So, the question is not whether you need a GPU, it is all about whether you need a dedicated GPU for your system.
It is considered the brain of the graphics card and, its main task is to work as a translator; taking data from the CPU and transform it into the image form, and create visuals that you see on the monitor of the computer. There are various models of GPU are available in the market.
The power of the GPU may vary and depends upon the model you select. You need a quicker GPU to accommodate a live stream for complex visuals if you are having a gaming laptop.
When do you need a dedicated graphics card?
A dedicated graphics card is primarily required by the gamers who use to do gaming a lot. You do not need to have a dedicated GPU for email, office works, watching normal or HD videos, and even for the older computer games.
But there are non-gamers as well who require dedicated graphics cards, users who do a lot of photo editing works in photoshop and illustrator, video editing, designing 3D images, etc.
You need a dedicated graphics card for tasks like filter application in photoshop, warping/transforming, and so on.
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