Graphic card is an electronic card that generates the feed of output images to a display. It means that a graphic card helps to generate a better quality of images, animation, and videos which are presenting on your display. Graphic Card is a hardware component of device that comes with a motherboard of a device. There are 2 types of Graphic Cards: dedicated and integrated.
There are millions of pixels on your device’s display. The graphic card decides, how and what to show on these millions of pixels according to the command of operating system. If you open a picture on your device display, then there are millions different/different colors on every pixel. With the combination of all pixels, a complete photo is ready to display. Like this, millions of color combinations are needed to show animation and video on your device. So, we need a high-quality graphic card for a better experience.
While rendering videos, processing images on Photoshop, Gaming there are multiples colors are using in every millisecond. In case of moving contents, every millisecond, every pixel’s colors are changing. So, the graphic card decides which color on which pixel and produces a better result on the screen.
All devices come with an internal or integrated graphic card. If you want to add a dedicated graphic card for animation, Photo editing, presenting high-quality videos, gaming, etc. then you can add a dedicated graphic card on your laptops and computers.
But there is not any slot available on your mobile devices for an additional graphic card. You can get an inbuilt graphic card on your devices but if you need a better graphic for images, animation, videos, etc. then you can add an external graphic card for laptops and computers.
Normally we cannot feel the degradation of quality. But if we put two devices with graphic card and without graphic card. The device with graphic card presenting anything on display is far better than normal device. The device which has graphic card combines all colors and presents actual colors on every pixel and produces better output.
There are multiples brand’s graphics cards are available on market. You can choose any brand’s graphic card. NVIDIA and AMD are the most popular brand for graphic cards.
Types of Graphic Cards
01 Integrated GPU
An integrated graphic card is the inbuilt Graphical unit. It means that it is inbuilt into the processer. It does not separate memory for the graphic because it is attached to the motherboard of any device. Integrated graphic card use system memory for the calculation of graphic processing.
So, If you have an integrated graphic device, it uses high memory while working. Integrated graphic card uses less battery because it is attached to the motherboard. So, integrated graphic card produce less heat. Integrated graphics are less expensive than dedicated graphic card devices.
An integrated graphic card is an internal graphic card that is like free because you should not pay separately for this. Because integrated graphics comes with your device. If you pay for the device then no need to pay any amount for the graphic card. There is no hassle of mixing or fitting because it is already attached to the motherboard.
But integrated graphic card use system memory for graphic processing, if you have less RAM then you can face problems while rendering videos, while playing games, multi-tasking, etc. The performance of an integrated GPU is also lower than dedicated GPU. It can not produce better output or graphics while playing games. So, you can face stucking & lagging problem.
02 Dedicated GPU
Dedicated graphic card is the external graphic card that is not attached to the motherboard or processer of devices. So, it is also called discrete graphic or discrete card. It means that dedicated graphic card use separate memory for the graphic processing. It is separate from the processer and it consumes more battery also.
Dedicated graphic card has its own memory source and power source. So, it produces a higher performance. Due to the higher performance, it also produces heat and consumes more battery.
Dedicatd graphic card is the separate hardware unit that is attached after buying a device. It does not use system memory because it has its own memory for graphical processing. So, it is faster and better optimized than an integrated card.
You can get radical performance with Dedicated graphic cards but these are more expensive than integrated graphic cards. To operate High graphic software Autocat, to operate designing software, video editing, Video rendering, making animation, Photo processing, TO play 3D animated games, etc. you need a dedicated graphic card for optimized performance and speed.
Should I choose Dedicated GPU?
Here we have talked about integrated and dedicated GPU but it is confusing to choose which GPU. Now here we are going to talk about when should we shift to a dedicated GPU.
A dedicated graphic card is not always a better decision for you. You need an additional GPU when you are using your integrated GPU fully. It means that if your integrated GPU is not working properly for your work on the computer then you can go with Dedicated GPU.
Normally, people choose a dedicated graphic card for gaming. It means that you don’t need a dedicated GPU for watching video, email, word processing, browsing, etc. you don’t even need a dedicated GPU for operating older versions of games, software because today’s integrated GPUs are well optimized.
For normal browsing, normal gaming, normal video editing and rendering, photo processing, to operate normal software, etc. your integrated GPU is enough for these tasks. But if you are a Gamer, Video Streamer, graphic designer, editor then these works need optimized performance and speed. So, you should go with a dedicated GPU. Other hands, your graphic card is enough for your other works.
Graphic card compatibility
All computers do not support all graphic cards. You should check your device’s compatibility before buying a dedicated graphic card. It may vary with many things such as slot, version, power supply, BOIS, computer case, cabinet or tower, etc.
The first thing you should check on your computer and laptop for graphic card slot availability. If your company does not provide any slot for additional graphic card on your device then you cannot add any additional graphic card.
Then check the availability of PCI Express X16 slot on your device. If your device has this slot then normally, most of the graphic cards can support on your device. You can check your PCI Express slot with the help of ‘CPU Z’ software. Optionally, check your PCI express slot with the help of your device model number. You can search your model number on google and can check PCI expression slot. You can also check your PCI Express slot manually.
After checking the PCI express slot on your device, you should check your slot’s version. There are different versions of PCI Express slots and most of the recent graphic card does not support the older version of the slot. You can use your graphic card with an older version of the slot but you cannot get optimized performance and speed of new version.
You know that when we use the high graphic card on our devices then it requires and consumes more power. If you are going to set up PCs, then you can fulfill your power requirement but if you want a graphic card for your laptops then you cannot manage a high-power supply. Most of the cases, it consumes more power and your battery life will go down. In other cases, if your graphic card power supply is higher than your device then it will not work on your computer because of the lower power supply on your device.
Nowadays most of graphic cards come with 2 fans, 3 fans, etc. You should check your CPU case size with the graphic card size and thickness. If your graphic card size is bigger then it will not fit on your CPU tower or cabinet.
How to Choose Graphic cards
- Brand: There are two most popular brands available on market for graphic cards: NVIDIA and AMD. Both companies are best for graphic cards. Both company’s graphic cards provide optimized performance and speed for you. You can choose any of these according to your personal preference for your device.
- Memory Type: There are two types of GPU memory available on the market one is GDDR and Another is DDR. GDDR GPU are more faster and well-optimized and expensive than DDR memory type. GDDR memory has also many types, such as GDDR, GDDER 2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR 5, etc. It means that these are the newer versions of GPU memory type. The latest version will be more optimized and faster than older versions. So, choose latest version for optimized performance and speed.
- Cores/Shader cores: Like in a processer when there are more cores, it will perform better than lower cores GPU. There are also cores on the graphic cards, NVIDIA uses the term to represent these cores as CUDA cores, and AMD uses the term Shaders to represent these cores. Both terms represent the same thing, cores available on GPU. When there are more cores on your GPU it will perform better but it may also vary with generation of GPU.
- Power Requirement: GPU power requirement may vary with brand and generation of GPU, memory type, clock speed, etc. So, check your power supply available on your device and select GPU.
- Cost: Old generation and memory type GPU are less expensive than newer ones. So, if you have a limited budget then you can go with the older versions of GPUs and vice versa.
- Performance: If you want higher performance then always co with high cores processer, latest generation, memory type. An old generation or old memory type GPU can not provide better speed even if they have more memory. That means, if you have 2 GB of GDDR5’s GPU and 4 GB of GDDR3’s GUP then 2 GB GPU of GDDR5 will provide better performance and speed than 4GB of GDDR3 GPU.