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Graphics Card Terminology
29-05-2009, 05:50 PM (This post was last modified: 29-03-2010 06:14 PM by MrAlex.)
Post: #1
Graphics Card Terminology
Graphics Card Terminology
Does tech talk scare you, especially about graphics cards? Then you’ve come to the right place. Here I’ll post all the info you’ll need to know, the terminology to be exact, which should help you understand graphics cards better.

Refresh Rate
Refresh rate is basically what it sounds like; it is how many times your graphics card re-draws (or ‘refreshes’) the screen. Usually, the higher the refresh rate the better, as the image is clearer and while remove any artefacts or lines. It is measured in Hertz (Hz), so a refresh rate of 75Hz, means the screen is redrawn 75 times.
FPS
FPS is an acronym for Frames Per Second, which is what it means – how many frames (pictures) displayed every second. The higher the better; for optimal frame rates, 60Fps is usually the best as it provides the smoothes possible game play for the least fps. The more properties are enabled like anti-aliasing (the smoothening of edges) and higher details, the lower the FPS because the graphics card has to process more. FPS are also used to show how powerful your graphics card is – especially for graphically intense games such as Crysis. At full settings at 2560x1600 the most powerful single card out there (ATI Radeon HD 5970) can manage a smooth framerate of 60FPS without any AF or AA.
Pixels
Your whole screen is made of pixels – tiny dots that can display up to 3 or 4 different type of colour. Pixels are short for picture element. The 3 or 4 colours are red, green, blue (RGB) or cyan, yellow, magenta and black. When we talk about screen resolution, we talk about how many pixels are shown on the screen. For example, 1280x1024 means that there are 1280 pixels from side to side (left to right or vice versa) and 1024 from top to bottom (vertically).
GDDR
Not to be confused with DDR – GDDR is the memory that graphics cards user, while DDR is what RAM uses. GDDR is the amount of memory that is processed, and usually helps in higher resolutions. There are 5 type of GDDR memory – GDDR, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4 and GDDR5.
Anti-Aliasing
Anti-aliasing is the smoothening of the edges of objects. It makes objects look much better and more realistic, and the more the anti-aliasing the better it looks. One problem with this is that it adds incredible load onto the graphics card, but the most common settings are 2x and 4x.
Anisotropic Filtering
Anisotropic Filtering is a method of making textures appear crisper. When textures get deformed, usually due to distance AF helps to reduce artifacts and image tearing. Here is an image of AF in action.
Vertical Synchronisation
Vertical Synchronisation, often abreviated to VSync is a method that tends to 'lock' the FPS of an application to the Refresh Rate of a monitor. For example, most monitors have a refresh rate of 60Hz and therefore with VSync enabled FPS get locked to 60 FPS. This is usually done for higher image quality and to prevent image tearing.

I'll add more terms later on...

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Graphics Card Terminology - MrAlex - 29-05-2009 05:50 PM

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