Talk:Graphics card/Archive 1

Merger

I am in the process of merging this page into Graphics processing unit please do not attempt to edit any content in this page as changes may be destroyed in the merger. I suspect that Graphics processing unit will be able to benefit from your edit; if you wait until the merger is complete that would probably be best. See Talk: Graphics processing unit for more information. Eberhart 03:33, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Expansions

It seems that this page is extremely generic. I would briefly cover the different components of the video card(GPU, memory, cooling accessories, display adapter, slot adapter, etc.), the different display technologies(vga, dvi, etc.), and the different bus technologies and how they affect the video card specs(pci, agp ?x, pci-express). It might also be noteworthy to cover how driver implementations affect the peformance of the cards.Mixmatch 09:21, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Cards going away

--"Increasingly, however, the graphics card is no longer a "card" in the strictest sense, but is a section of the motherboard dedicated to the same purpose. " I'm not sure that's true: the graphics card industry (nvidia, ati, matrox, etc.) seems to be doing well for itself. Do I just have a skewed view, and the trend really is towards integrated graphics?

Increasingly, 3D graphics capabilities are being integrated into motherboard designs, much as VGA and Super VGA were back in the late DOS/early Windows days. However, these capabilities do not match the capabilities of high-end 3D cards, namely because they cannot be upgraded. Therefore, many motherboards that have 3D support also have AGP slots used for high-end graphics cards.

Case in point: my new PC (a Hewlett-Compaqard) came with "integrated 3D graphics." It worked great for most games (and, in fact, was faster than my old PC's dedicated 3D card). But for the newest games, it didn't work at all. I needed to buy and insert a dedicated 3D AGP card. Even though it was only a mid-line 3D card, it was far superior to the "integrated 3D graphics" of the new machine.

HTH. :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 16:25, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)

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GeForce runs better than Quadro??? really?

I believe that to be correct, actually. Quadro is for graphics professionals where rendering accuracy is favored while the GeForce series is intended for gaming where speed is relatively more important that accuracy.Eberhart 02:11, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Is the link to XFree86 appropriate?

If it is, we should also be linking to every other video implementation (X.org, whatever Longhorn is using with the stupid name, etc.), so as to be neutral. I'd leave the links section as strictly hardware related, as that's what the article is about anyways. Feel free to revert me if you disagree.

Video card

Shouldn't it be called 'video card' instead? This appears to be the more popular term for this. --Gary King 01:01, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree. Video card seems to be more prevalent. Google fight confirms this.[1] I nominate that we move this artilce to the name Video card following the established norm of using the most common name. Themindset 03:55, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

I disagree; I believe "graphics card" is closer to the industry term than video card. I believe the most accurate term to be "graphics processor" as this is the term used by both Nvidia and ATI, the two dominant manufacturers of high end graphics chipsets. The usage of either 'graphics card' or 'video card' may vary regionally; In the southwestern United States, 'graphics card' seems to be the most common usage. As such it is important to keep in mind that all English articles should remain mutually comprehensible to all speakers different dialects of the English language and the professional term should be used. Eberhart 02:30, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Changing the article's title to "graphics processor" would also eliminate the dilema posed by the fact that integrated graphics processors are not actually cards and that this article clearly should cover them. "Graphics Card" and "Video Card" should probably redirect to said page. Eberhart 02:33, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Why oncard memory?

Anyone know why memory on graphic cards is onboard and not expandible like normal memory? --220.233.48.200

It's onboard (i.e. on the card) because it's faster to access on-card memory than to go over the bus to access main memory. If card's didn't do this, processing would be seriously hindered. IIRC, several cards at least used to allow the user to upgrade the memory on the card (i.e. add more to empty slots), but I think this is rarer today.

I wasn't referring to using the main memory but to have oncard upgradible memory thats why I used the word like 220.233.48.200 10:31, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

BTW, sign your posts with 4 tildes (~~~~). The wiki software adds your signature (I added your above, but this is just for future reference). :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 16:15, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

It's a cost/benefit issue.. the extra cost of the connectors will make the whole card more complex(might seem infinitesimal) and thereby more expensive(not very much, but on these scales every extra solderpoint will mean a noticeable amount of dollars in the end ) the lost benefit of adding extra ram at will is equally a very small gain.. graphic cards use very special kinds of ram for each new generation, and the very small demand for add-in chips means unpopular prices to the endcustomer. Compare with the prices of extra laptop ram, versus desk-top-ram. i HAVE seen earlier graphic cards(and sound-cards) with additional slots for more ram, but the logic of this industry imply it's better to save up the extra money to buy the a new graphic card sooner instead of upgrading the existing one.. if it REALLY were demand for this, it would be here.. Likeem 21:40, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

History

History section says:

• "The HGC was a ground-breaking card at the time, becoming the basis for the development of pong"

But Pong was created much earlier than the Hercules Graphics Card!!!

--200.11.242.33 01:24, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

How do you know one card is better than the other?

HOw is the speed calculated?

- Read the new section in the article labeled "what makes it fast?" Xrarey 19:13, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Compatability

how do i know if my pc will work with the graphics card?

This is not a dicussion board, but, if your PC has the correct expansion slot (e.g. AGP, PCI Express, etc.), it should work. — Frecklefoot | Talk 15:42, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

this needs cleanup

i.e. "The 2 current top video cards for Integrated graphics displays have gradually become more common in pre-built computer systems since the mid 1990s as computer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell look for ways to cut costs while still providing basic video support. In terms of office tasks, web-browsing, email and similar computer activities, integrated graphics displays are a more practical solution than high-powered 3D graphics cards. First person shooter games like DOOM relied on high-performance cards at the time the game was introduced."

- which "2" current top "video cards for integrated graphics" - what does that even mean, "integrated card", as far as i know they are somewhat exclusive (either i have a card installed, or onboard graphics, which is integrated) - its quite a jump going from old hercules to the special case of integrated... - DOOM didnt rely on graphics performance as it had software graphics

• The Hercules thing does indeed look like a non-sequitur; it should probably be removed. All the other stuff seems to be fixed, though some clarification on whether we mean GMA950-ish shared memory video only, or any video chip on the motherboard, would be nice. Finally, a historical note: DOOM didn't use hardware 3D features (and the article was changed to note this before I saw it), but it was so fast even on 1994-vintage 486 hardware that many ISA VGA cards couldn't keep up. People liked using fast ISA VGAs like the Tseng ET4000 or Cirrus Logic's 5400 series for DOOM and others FPS games back then, and eventually went to VLB and PCI once they got cheaper. -lee 13:22, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Video card which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 12:32, 22 July 2021 (UTC)