If you’re like most people, you spend upwards of six hours a day looking at some kind of screen. Be it a phone, television, or a computer screen – our monitors take up a very significant amount of our day to day lives. Especially if you happen to work at an office job, you turn one on regularly, nine to five even, but have you ever wondered how exactly the monitor displays all those pictures?
A Graphics Processing Unit, or more commonly a graphics card or chip is a piece of computer hardware that communicates with the rest of the computer and converts data into signals transmitted to your monitor. It is solely responsible for the images that you see on your screen when you turn your computer on and the better your graphics card is, the better the resolution (how smooth a picture looks) will be.
There are two types of GPUs.
An integrated graphics chip is the most commonplace and is built into the motherboard, it’s cost effective and if you’re using your computer for the casual web surfing then it should work perfectly. However, the integrated graphics chip is difficult to upgrade in comparison to the alternative.
For those looking to branch out into video editing or gaming, you might want to consider the discrete graphics card. It’s installed onto the motherboard as an extra component, particularly ideal for those looking for an upgrade to the graphics quality altogether. It’s crucial in preventing those unwanted jitters and lag during game-play.
There are also two major graphics card manufacturers in the industry. Many pledge their allegiances to one manufacturer, but both brands do their jobs efficiently, with little to no difference in quality. These companies are Nvidia and AMD. As with most inner components of a computer, the design and style of your graphics card can be important. With both brands, you can browse slimmer or shorter graphics cards to meet your specifications.
Of course there’s far more to delve into where graphics are concerned, and if we have your interest piqued but you’re still not certain what you should be investing in, don’t be afraid to swing by No Ware Computer Repair in Grand Junction or give us a call at (970) 433-7454!