The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is an electronic device designed for the construction and processing of 2D or 3D images and their subsequent display on the screen. GPUs are widely used in desktop computing systems, mobile phones, servers, and game consoles.
GPU Applications
Modern graphics chips are installed on computer graphics cards or integrated into motherboards in order to save space on the computer. GPUs enable efficient processing of computer graphics, making them the most used type of chip for displaying graphics information on the screen.
For the first time, the term GPU was used in 1999 by Nvidia at the presentation of the GeForce 256 video card, which at that time was the most productive board of the company. The model processor could process about 10 million graphics polygons per second.
Functions
The GPU is made up of special transistors, most of which are used for 3D image processing. Initially, graphics processors were created to speed up the construction of textures and the speed of processing graphics polygons by computers, but later graphics cores learned to perform geometric calculations, which also accelerated the speed and quality of displaying images.
Recent developments in the GPU include the activation of support for programmable shaders, a technology to reduce the effects of overlapping image elements on top of each other. Also, new GPUs are able to more accurately reproduce colors on the monitor.
Modern video cards support video streaming from various sources connected through special interfaces.
GPU types
Graphics cards can be divided into three types: discrete, embedded, and hybrid. Discrete video cards are installed in a separate slot on the motherboard of a computer or portable device (laptop) through a special interface (for example, PCI-Express or AGP). This type of GPU has the most powerful performance characteristics due to the special structure of the video module and its power indicators. Also, if necessary, a discrete video card can be easily replaced with a board of another model.
Technologies such as SLI or CrossFire allow multiple video cards to be combined to further improve graphics performance.
Embedded GPUs are used in portable devices and have modest computational performance due to the small board size and the complexity of their cooling systems and structural features. Hybrid graphics cards are a new class of adapters that are intended to replace on-board and discrete modules. The new technology is being created with the aim of increasing the speed of data exchange with the system RAM and the processor to improve graphics performance in general. The hybrid card can be built into the motherboard, but at the same time operate on the basis of the technology of discrete PCI-Express graphics cards.
