What does a video card do for me?
The video card is responsible for delivering all a computer’s hard work and resultant output to a connected display/monitor. When you play 3D video games, the video card is hard at work in the background rendering vivid 3D scenes and effects. In fact, all the text and pictures you see are processed by the video card, including the visualization effects that are provided by media player software. Without the video card, you wouldn’t know what your computer is doing and you most likely won’t be able to enjoy any of the fun that your computer can provide!
The applications that the video card can do are multiplex. In other words, different users will be able to use the video card to do different things. We can categorize the applications into the following types:
General purpose 2D
General-purpose 2D applications include web surfing, word processing, and picture viewing. Such applications are widely used by home and office users and do not have any special requirements for video cards.Web surfing – A general purpose 2D application
3D gaming
3D games have been the driving force behind the video card industry’s phenomenally fast-paced growth. The main difference between each new generation of video card and their predecessors is typically that newer products offer better performance and are equipped with more advanced features to meet the requirements of existing or future 3D games. 3D games are so dazzlingly attractive these days that many users treat their computers as game consoles.Bleeding-edge 3D games are a tough proving ground for video cards
Video playback
The latest video card products add not only new features for a better 3D game experience, but also features that cater to advanced video requirements, which, for example, include hardware acceleration for High-Definition video decoding. Without the help of the video card, the CPU would have a very tough time playing High-Definition video and the result could be heavy frame skipping.HDTV playback is a hot new feature of the latest video cards
