Computer Components page

What is it?

The graphics card is an output device in a computer used to make images appear on the computer.  The better the graphics card is the clearer the image will appear.

What does it do?

The graphics card takes tiny dots called pixels and turns them into an image that will appear on your screen.

How does it work?

The images you see on your monitor are made of tiny dots called pixels. At most common resolution settings, a screen displays over a million pixels, and the computer has to decide what to do with every one in order to create an image. To do this, it needs a translator - something to take binary data from the CPU and turn it into a picture you can see.

Where are they manufactured/made/developed?

Graphics cards are made in California, Quebec, China, and Taiwan. 

What is the timeline of its development?

Graphics cards were first developed in the 1960's.  There use was for printers because they needed an image to be printed out from the screen.

How is it controlled?

The graphics card is controlled by the cpu and the motherboard. 

What are the common problems for it?

Some problems for the graphics card are lagging, locking down into safe mode and electrical problems. 

Solutions to the Problems

1. How to prove its lagging : Go to the View menu, and turn on the Statistics bar.  At the bottom there is something called ‘Time, ms’ - click on that to make it bigger.  You’ll see a number of stats.  Watch one called Images, and see the difference between it and the overall Time Dilation stat near the top of Statistics.  You’ll see Images time go way up, from a normal 1ms or so to 10, 30, 100ms, when Time dilation dips from a normal 99% to 75%, 60% or even 30% at times.  So when someone teleports in, you’ll often see Images time spike as the textures load, and sim performance drop for several seconds.   This was fixed, but textures still cause lag, and sim restarts can still clear up a lot of problems with this sort of lag.  Which implies that sims still have trouble with high texture loads, and don’t quite regain their efficiency. 

2. What can I be done about it?  Cut back on unnecessary texture use where possible. One reason that a set of sim themed plants was handed out was a way to load fewer different plant textures. On your builds, use the same textures as much as possible.  Use the smallest size texture you can to provide the detail you need. it is very rare that a texture needs to be larger than 512×512.  In many many instances the exact same clarity and detail can be achieved with even smaller textures.   Furthermore, sims are more limited by textures than by prims - if a sim is full of unique textures, you get to download them all as you move around. This means if every single item you sell is its own vendor board it will effect the overall performance. I’m not saying you can’t or even shouldn’t set up your store this way, but it is something to consider as you move forward.

3. How to get it out of lock mode: If after having installed some gaming software your system crashes, and then will only boot in Safe mode, the chances are that you installed the latest version of the gaming software driver DirectX 9.x, and it is incompatible with your video card's drivers. Installing DirectX 9.x will probably have been required, and hence will have been provided along with the game.

To fix the situation, you will have to find out the make and model of video card that is installed in order to download the latest drivers for it from its manufacturer's website - or from the chipset manufacturer's website.  The problem will probably have been compounded, because Windows will install its standard VGA driver in order to boot in Safe mode, so you will not be able to identify the video card in this mode (in the Windows Device Manager by right clicking My Computer, and clicking Properties).

If the video chipset is built into the motherboard, you will be able to identify it in the motherboard's manual. If you don't have a manual, you should be able to download a manual from its manufacturer's website - using another computer connected to the Internet, since the problematic one is out of action

What are examples for the devices?

There are many different types of graphic cards but some are obviously better than others.  They have Super VGA's, 3-D acceleration cards, Video Graphic Cards, MDA, CGA, HGC, EGA, IBM 8514, MCGA, and XGA.

Where is there more information on this topic?

There is information about the graphics card on the internet or in technological movies.  In book stores they have books relating to certain parts of the computer.  Lastly, some graphics card factories allow visitors where they will tell the people information about the making and the history of the graphics card.   

How do you go about buying choosing or buying this device/system?

When your choosing a graphics card its important to know what type of computer you want to use it for.  If you were using a Penium 3 compared to an alien software, the penium 3 would obviously need a more expensive graphics card because its an older invention.  Plus, an alien software probably even has a graphics card built into the motherboard.  Also, when buying a graphics card, your going to have to take into factor what your going to use your computer for.  If you are using it for video games or photoshop your gonig to want a more expensive kind with a very fast pixel translation.  This would be alot more expensive than if the only thing you were gonig to do on your computer was use word because in that case you wouldnt need much pictures.