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Graphics card
Expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a display device such as a monitor. Graphics cards are sometimes called discrete or dedicated graphics cards to emphasize their distinction to an integrated graphics processor on the motherboard or the central processing unit (CPU). A graphics processing unit (GPU) that performs the necessary computations is the main component in a graphics card, but the acronym "GPU" is sometimes also used to erroneously refer to the graphics card as a whole.[1]
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![]() Sapphire Radeon HD 5570, a PCI Express video card with VGA, HDMI, and DVI ports and a small cooling fan | |
Connects to | Motherboard via one of:
Display via one of: |
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![An image of an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/AMD_RX_6900XT_.jpg/640px-AMD_RX_6900XT_.jpg)
Most graphics cards are not limited to simple display output. The graphics processing unit can be used for additional processing, which reduces the load from the central processing unit.[2] Additionally, computing platforms such as OpenCL and CUDA allow using graphics cards for general-purpose computing. Applications of general-purpose computing on graphics cards include AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and molecular simulation.[3][4][5]
Usually, a graphics card comes in the form of a printed circuit board (expansion board) which is to be inserted into an expansion slot.[6] Others may have dedicated enclosures, and they are connected to the computer via a docking station or a cable. These are known as external GPUs (eGPUs).
Graphics cards are often preferred over integrated graphics for increased performance.