Screen Displays

GPU’s

Define what is meant by a Graphics Card :

A graphics card is a device installed in a computer that consists of a graphics processing unit designed to help process and display images, especially 3D graphics. Graphics cards help take the processing strain off the main processor, and can contain their own memory to take the strain off the system RAM.       

What different types of cards are available in the marketplace and what price ranges do they sell at?

Prices are usually between £10 and £10,000 depending o how good they are and whether or not the card is low or high standard.

What speeds do the cards run at and what impact does the speed have on the performance of the card?

The graphics card's hardware directly affects its speed. These are the hardware specifications that most affect the card's speed and the units in which they are measured:

GPU clock speed (MHz)

Size of the memory bus (bits)

Amount of available memory (MB)

Memory clock rate (MHz)

Memory bandwidth (GB/s)

RAMDAC speed (MHz)

What is meant by cache and why does a GPU often have it own cache onboard?

Cache memory is random access memory (RAM) that a computer microprocessor can access more quickly than it can access regular RAM. As the microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the cache memory and if it finds the data there (from a previous reading of data), it does not have to do the more time-consuming reading of data from larger memory.

What is the difference between a 2D card and a 3D card (include in your answer details about address/data bus; two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional

(3D) processors, eg what they can process in terms of pixels, polygons, nurbs)?

2D processors create 2D graphics whereas 3D processors create 3D graphics and work better for 3D games.

What GPU is in the PS4 and XB1?

Xbox one: 12 CU/768 SP AMD GCN GPU

Ps4: AMD next generation radion-based graphics engine


Built-in Displays


Wii U Gamepad:

The GamePad's primary feature is its 6.2 in (16 cm), FWVGA (854x480), touchscreen display, which can be controlled with either fingers or an included stylus.

Ps Vita:

OLED 16:9 display, 5 inches (diagonally), 960x544 resolution, Approx. 16 million colours, Capacitive multi-touch screen

3DS:

The top screen is a 3.53 in (90 mm) 15:9 (5:3) auto stereoscopic (3D) LCD screen with a resolution of 800×240 pixels (400×240 pixels per eye, WQVGA) that is able to produce a three-dimensional effect without 3D glasses using a parallax barrier. There is a 3D Depth Slider next to the 3D screen which allows the user to adjust the intensity of the 3D effect. The bottom screen is a 3.02 in (77 mm) 4:3 resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 320×240 pixels (QVGA).

LED TV:

Three types of LED may be used:

·         Edge-lit LEDs - in which the LEDs are formed around the rim of the screen, using a special diffusion panel to spread the light evenly behind the screen (the most common use)

·         LED backlighting (Full array)- behind the screen, whose brightness is not controlled individually

·         Dynamic “local dimming” backlight - LEDs controlled individually (or in clusters) to control the level of light/colour intensity in a given part of the screen.