graphicscard

A graphics card, also known as a video card or GPU card, is an expansion card that renders images and video for display on a computer screen. It contains a graphics processing unit (GPU), dedicated memory (video RAM or VRAM), power delivery, and firmware, all mounted on a printed circuit board and connected to the system via a PCI Express bus.

Core functions include not only 2D and 3D rendering, shading, texture mapping, and rasterization, but also hardware-accelerated video decoding and encoding, and in some cases general-purpose computing tasks on the GPU. The card processes graphical data received from the CPU and outputs signals to display devices through connectors such as HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI.

Graphics cards come in discrete and integrated forms. A discrete graphics card is a separate PCIe card installed in a motherboard slot, typically offering higher performance and dedicated VRAM. Integrated graphics are built into the CPU or motherboard chipset and share system memory. Some systems use external graphics enclosures connected via Thunderbolt or similar interfaces for added performance.

Key specifications include GPU architecture, number of processing units or cores, clock speeds, memory size and type (for example GDDR6, GDDR6X, or HBM), memory bandwidth, and power consumption (TDP). Cooling solutions range from air-cooled heatsinks with fans to more elaborate liquid cooling in high-performance setups. Power connectors (such as 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe) supply additional current beyond the motherboard slot.

Software and drivers are produced by vendors such as NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, and graphics APIs include DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan, and Metal. The card’s performance depends on its hardware, drivers, system memory, and cooling, and it is a key component for gaming, professional visualization, and certain compute workloads.