A GPU or Graphics processing unit is mainly used for 3D applications. it is a single chip processor that creates lighting effects and changes the objects into a 3D scene, these type of tasks would normally strain the CPU but the GPU helps reduce strain from the CPU which frees up cycles that can be used for other jobs.
The first ever GPU that was created was developed by NVIDIA inc, this GPU was calles tge GeForce 256 GPU and was capable or billions of calculations per second. This GPU could process a minimum of 10 million polygons per second and had over 22 million transistors. The technology of GPUs has changed dramatically since the first one was made, in the present day the best GPU that you're able to buy is the EVGA GeForce Titan X SuperClock which is on the markets for around £1000, It has 12GB of memory which is 6 times the average graphics card which only has 2GB. There are 4 main types of GPU, these are:
Integrated - If you have a computer that you didn't build yourself and it has never been upgraded then you will more than likely have integrated graphics to display images on your screen. When graphics cards are described as integrated, it refers to the cards relationship with the computer's motherboard, integrated graphics are also known as on-board graphics, they're normally the default option that comes with the computer's motherboard. There is a way o upgrade the integrated graphics, this is by plugging a new card into the motherboard and making your computer forget about the old card. Out of all the types of graphics card this is the least powerful option so if you have integrated graphics and you're wanting to play the latest games then you will more than likely need to upgrade your computer.
PCI - PCI Graphics are cards that use the PCI slots that are on your motherboard to connect to the computer. PCI graphics are normally a little outdated, however many of the older motherboards will have PCI slots don't have the newer connections, this means there is still reasons to buy PCI graphics cards for some people. If you have a motherboard that doesn't have PCI slots on it then buying a PCI graphics card will be pointless as you will not be able to connect it to your computer.
AGP - AGP graphics cards are named the same way as the PCI cards, this is because they use the AGP slots on your motherboard. AGP cards have four different speeds with 8x speed being the fastest you can get, if your motherboard only supports the lower speeds and you go and get a faster speed card your motherboard will run the card at the lower speeds. The AGP connections arent quite as fast as the PCI-E slots due to technical limitations and this is the reason why the AGP cards will not be upgraded to higher speeds. AGP cards have a wider compatibility that most of the latest cards.
PCI-Express - PCI-E cards are the most advanced when it comes to graphics cards, these cards connect to the PCI-E slots on your motherboard and can be accelerated to 16x speeds. If you have more than one PCI-E slot on your computer then you will be able to run more than the one card in your computer setup, this will allow you to get the power from both cards which will double your graphical capabilities. This can also cause unwanted compatibility problems if you don't plan it out carefully as certain motherboards will not work with some PCI-E graphics cards.
GPU Speed - This is similar to the speed of your CPU, it is measured using the same kind of clock speed type, it also uses MHz. As most things are the higher the the speed is on your graphics card the more efficient the card will be when it is in use. GPU speeds are normally lower in laptops as there's not as much power as there would be in a larger computer. Computers with larger caches and higher speeds will play games much more efficiently and may also have a boost in visuals as well.
Cache - Like GPU speed this works similar to the CPU. there are 3 levels of cache, these are L1, L2, and L3. To start with is the L1 cache, this is the fastest out of the 3 but is unfortunately also the smallest. L2 is slower that L1 but is much larger. This means it can hold much more data than L1. Finally there is L3 which is the largest but the slowest of the 3, this is shared by all the cores in your computer. Having these different segments makes finding data much more efficient.
Address/Data bus - The GPU uses the same data buses that are used with the CPU, it connects to the GPU and then travels a data path right to the monitor where the CPU and GPU are displayed for the human eye. Between CPU and GPU there's hardly any difference. Address buses are used as its a much more efficient way for the GPU to get data.
2D and 3D Processors - Within the GPU you can find 2 different types of processor, these are the 2D and 3D processors. Both of these processors so as you think they would, information is sent right to these processors so they can process and show up on the screen what we can see with our eyes. The rendering comes right from the end of the pipeline ans whatever is happening on screen depends on the stage it is in. Both 2D and 3D graphics need to be rendered but 3D will need more as it needs to render all the polygons where as with 2D it only has to render a flat plain.
The first ever GPU that was created was developed by NVIDIA inc, this GPU was calles tge GeForce 256 GPU and was capable or billions of calculations per second. This GPU could process a minimum of 10 million polygons per second and had over 22 million transistors. The technology of GPUs has changed dramatically since the first one was made, in the present day the best GPU that you're able to buy is the EVGA GeForce Titan X SuperClock which is on the markets for around £1000, It has 12GB of memory which is 6 times the average graphics card which only has 2GB. There are 4 main types of GPU, these are:
Integrated - If you have a computer that you didn't build yourself and it has never been upgraded then you will more than likely have integrated graphics to display images on your screen. When graphics cards are described as integrated, it refers to the cards relationship with the computer's motherboard, integrated graphics are also known as on-board graphics, they're normally the default option that comes with the computer's motherboard. There is a way o upgrade the integrated graphics, this is by plugging a new card into the motherboard and making your computer forget about the old card. Out of all the types of graphics card this is the least powerful option so if you have integrated graphics and you're wanting to play the latest games then you will more than likely need to upgrade your computer.
PCI - PCI Graphics are cards that use the PCI slots that are on your motherboard to connect to the computer. PCI graphics are normally a little outdated, however many of the older motherboards will have PCI slots don't have the newer connections, this means there is still reasons to buy PCI graphics cards for some people. If you have a motherboard that doesn't have PCI slots on it then buying a PCI graphics card will be pointless as you will not be able to connect it to your computer.
AGP - AGP graphics cards are named the same way as the PCI cards, this is because they use the AGP slots on your motherboard. AGP cards have four different speeds with 8x speed being the fastest you can get, if your motherboard only supports the lower speeds and you go and get a faster speed card your motherboard will run the card at the lower speeds. The AGP connections arent quite as fast as the PCI-E slots due to technical limitations and this is the reason why the AGP cards will not be upgraded to higher speeds. AGP cards have a wider compatibility that most of the latest cards.
PCI-Express - PCI-E cards are the most advanced when it comes to graphics cards, these cards connect to the PCI-E slots on your motherboard and can be accelerated to 16x speeds. If you have more than one PCI-E slot on your computer then you will be able to run more than the one card in your computer setup, this will allow you to get the power from both cards which will double your graphical capabilities. This can also cause unwanted compatibility problems if you don't plan it out carefully as certain motherboards will not work with some PCI-E graphics cards.
GPU Speed - This is similar to the speed of your CPU, it is measured using the same kind of clock speed type, it also uses MHz. As most things are the higher the the speed is on your graphics card the more efficient the card will be when it is in use. GPU speeds are normally lower in laptops as there's not as much power as there would be in a larger computer. Computers with larger caches and higher speeds will play games much more efficiently and may also have a boost in visuals as well.
Cache - Like GPU speed this works similar to the CPU. there are 3 levels of cache, these are L1, L2, and L3. To start with is the L1 cache, this is the fastest out of the 3 but is unfortunately also the smallest. L2 is slower that L1 but is much larger. This means it can hold much more data than L1. Finally there is L3 which is the largest but the slowest of the 3, this is shared by all the cores in your computer. Having these different segments makes finding data much more efficient.
Address/Data bus - The GPU uses the same data buses that are used with the CPU, it connects to the GPU and then travels a data path right to the monitor where the CPU and GPU are displayed for the human eye. Between CPU and GPU there's hardly any difference. Address buses are used as its a much more efficient way for the GPU to get data.
2D and 3D Processors - Within the GPU you can find 2 different types of processor, these are the 2D and 3D processors. Both of these processors so as you think they would, information is sent right to these processors so they can process and show up on the screen what we can see with our eyes. The rendering comes right from the end of the pipeline ans whatever is happening on screen depends on the stage it is in. Both 2D and 3D graphics need to be rendered but 3D will need more as it needs to render all the polygons where as with 2D it only has to render a flat plain.