Shaking Hands with Your Video Card

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Chapter 1 Shaking Hands with Your Video Card

In This Chapter Identifying the major components of an ATI All-in-Wonder video card Recognizing a GPU and chipset in the wild Understanding the importance of video RAM Considering integrated video cards

f you’ve never performed major surgery on your desktop PC, you’ve proba- Ibly never actually seen a video card (which, I’ve heard tell, is not a crime). Therefore, you might feel a little nervous about shopping for a new card. After all, just what do all those tech terms mean, and what specifications are really important when choosing a video card to upgrade your system? Questions like these can strike fear into the strongest of men and women.

Dear reader, I have good news: Don’t despair because this chapter is your first step in becoming a PC video card expert! I can guarantee you that by the time you finish this short chapter, you’ll know what a high-end computer video card like the ATI All-in-Wonder 800XT or X1900 looks like and what it does. You’ll also become familiar with the specific parts that are most important in determining the graphics performance of your PC whether you’re interested in enjoying today’s latest multimedia (video, music, and images) or the current crop of 3-DCOPYRIGHTED games — or both. I also point MATERIALout the features you should look for when buying a card, including important silicon hoopla such as ports, fans, and connectors.

Are you prepared to dive in to the world of PC video? Come on in, the water’s fine! 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 10

10 Part I: The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship Starting with . . . a Definition, of Course! I owe my high school English teacher, Mrs. Stancil, a big vote of thanks. She used to say, “When confronted with explaining something that is potentially confusing, always begin your description with a definition. What is it made of? What does it look like? Is it edible?” That rule has never led me astray.

In this section, I define your video card and illustrate its major parts as well as talk about the importance of a card’s chipset and the amount of RAM it carries. (Oh, and no video card is edible, just in case you wondered.)

Your video card’s lifelong mission At first glance, the task confronting a computer’s video graphics hardware is very simple: to present the eye candy from your favorite games, DVD movies, and applications. However, your video card does more work than you might imagine. In fact, everything that appears on your computer’s monitor origi- nates from your PC’s video card — from the Windows desktop to your digital photographs to your Excel spreadsheet.

Your video card receives instructions about what to display from a number of sources. For example

Windows sends instructions on what to display within windows on your desktop as well as where those windows appear. Open applications send instructions to the video card as to what data should be shown. A software DVD player sends a stream of digital video from a DVD movie disc to your card, which in turn puts that video onscreen. A 3-D game sends very complex instructions that allow your video card to render (shape) lifelike 3-D graphics on your monitor (which you then hunt down with abandon).

Many PC owners share the common misconception that their video card and PC monitor are somehow tied together as a unit. It’s important to remember that your video card and your monitor are two separate parts of your system. In fact, today’s crop of video cards can handle many different types of monitors, so you’re not tied down to a particular brand or model of monitor. Your “famous brand” PC can use the LCD panel that came with it, a bulky ten-year- old monitor from another manufacturer, or the latest widescreen LCD projec- tor. (Many multimedia cards, including the ATI All-in-Wonder card, can even use multiple monitors. More on this later in the book in Chapter 19.) 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 11

Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with Your Video Card 11 Major stuff sprouting from your video card Ready for the grand tour? It’s time to identify and explain the components that make up every PC video card, including an ATI All-in-Wonder card. Figure 1-1 provides the road map you can use to follow along.

Ports GPU Fan RAM

Figure 1-1: Can a video card be called beautiful? Of course, it can!

Bus connector

The ports of call In days gone by, a video card had only a single connector — a VGA (Video Graphics Array) port. The cable from a traditional analog CRT monitor — those clunky monitors that remind you of an old-style heavy TV set — was plugged into this port (see Figure 1-2).

Today, however, most video cards sprout at least two ports for connecting your monitor(s). For example, the old VGA port still remains on All-in-Wonder cards, but you’ll also see

An S-Video/composite port for connecting a standard TV or VCR A speedy digital DVI-I (Digital Video Interface-Integrated) connector (see Figure 1-3) for use with the latest flat panel LCD monitors and TVs 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 12

12 Part I: The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

Standard VGA monitor connector

Figure 1-2: DVI-I A VGA port connector is the most common connector on a video card.

To secure the cable and keep it from falling out, the cable uses either a snap- in connector or a screw-in connector with thumbscrews.

The RAM modules Your video card’s RAM modules store all sorts of video data, just like the system RAM modules that your PC uses to store applications and operating system data. I discuss the importance of RAM at length later in this chapter. For now, just remember that your card will carry at least 128MB of RAM.

Locating the rows of low-density RAM on older video cards used to be very easy. After all, eight chips of the same type tend to stand out on a circuit board. However, your All-in-Wonder’s RAM modules might prove harder to spot because today a single module can hold 256MB or 512MB of RAM.

The brains of the operation A central processing unit (CPU) is the brains of your computer: It performs the calculations that allow your operating system to run. Your CPU also provides the brainpower that your applications need to crunch numbers, edit pixels, or open Web pages. 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 13

Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with Your Video Card 13

Figure 1-3: A DVI-I connector provides the fastest performance.

Ah, but what if I told you that your video card is powerful enough to warrant its own specialized onboard CPU? Yep, most multimedia cards (including the All-in-Wonder cards) carry a separate graphics processing unit (GPU). Here are two advantages to having a GPU on your video card:

Video card load management: With a GPU onboard, your video card can handle the massive amounts of data and calculations necessary to pro- duce the stunning visuals that you see in both multimedia applications and games. CPU load management: Your card’s GPU handles virtually all the graphics work by itself, leaving your PC CPU to worry about more mundane tasks, like running Windows and handling data from your hard drive and DVD player.

Keep reading for more about your card’s GPU. 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 14

14 Part I: The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

Do I really need to know the technical details about my chipset? I’ll be honest. Most of the time, the mainstream gamers eat, sleep, and dream about the fastest applications that most of us run on our PCs cards, and why video editors spend a whopping simply don’t require the high resolution and amount of money on the fastest cards available. insane speed of the latest video cards from com- These uber-techs really do pay attention to the panies like ATI. Instead, we run applications that small details because they get a couple of extra rely on human input, such as Microsoft Word and points on a video card benchmark — and their Internet Explorer. These applications wait in idle favorite applications run just a little faster. mode for eons of computer time just waiting for The moral of the tale? Consider these technical you (and me) to type the next keystroke or click details as performance-enhancing details when the mouse. Even with all the eye candy and reading the specifications on a box, and pay special visual effects turned all the way up, them heed if you wish. Otherwise, just skip them Windows XP requires only a fraction of your and enjoy your multimedia video card because GPU’s attention. There just aren’t enough fancy it’s likely to provide more horsepower than you’ll visuals to require a monster GPU. need for the immediate future. You don’t need to However, for demanding graphics tasks — know all the technical details surrounding your cutting-edge games, high-definition DVD viewing, card to install it and use it. ’Nuff said. video editing, and 3-D design and rendering — your GPU is working at full throttle. That’s why

The fan of cooling justice That GPU does a lot of work — and it gets pretty doggone hot. (Go figure.) Therefore, your GPU gets its own fan on your video card, in much the same way your PC CPU gets a separate fan on your computer’s motherboard.

The fan, which usually sits directly on top of the GPU chip, is typically pow- ered from your PC motherboard (via your video card’s bus connector).

The connection to your PC Your card’s bus connector is the row of gold “teeth” at the bottom of the card where your video card plugs into your PC’s motherboard. You’ll notice that your video card gets better treatment than any other card you can add to your system because today’s PC motherboards feature a dedicated slot designed to speed up the transfer of data between your computer’s hard drive, CPU, and your video card’s GPU.

The two popular types of video card bus slots are the older Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) slot and the newer (and faster) Peripheral Component 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 15

Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with Your Video Card 15

Interconnect (PCI) Express slot. Your card’s bus connector must match the dedicated video card bus slot on your PC’s motherboard — an AGP card will fit only on a motherboard with an AGP video card slot.

The importance of your video card chipset Is one GPU is pretty much like another? Not at all. In fact, your video card’s GPU (typically called a chipset by techno-types) is largely responsible for the overall performance of your PC while you’re taking care of the most demanding tasks.

Like your PC CPU, a faster clock rate — the speed at which the GPU performs its calculations — is the main determining factor for the overall performance of your card, but there are others:

Pipelines: Sometimes called pixel pipelines, these are the internal cir- cuits (or pathways) that carry instructions and data within your GPU. That’s grossly oversimplified because it’s very easy to leap directly into computer programming and hardware engineering. Suffice it to say that the more pipelines a chipset offers, the faster it can run and the better performance it can deliver. For example, the All-in-Wonder cards available at the time of this writing offer 16 pipelines, which is double that of a typical low-end video card. Shaders: Your card’s shader technology colors individual pixels and entire surfaces within 3-D images. With the proper shading, light sources are realistically modeled; effects such as water, fire, and smoke look like the real McCoy. Generally, if a video card supports the current Microsoft DirectX video standard (DirectX 9 at the time of this writing), it delivers acceptable shading, but comparisons between benchmark results on different cards can help you in choosing which card has the better shading support. (I talk about the benefits of a fine benchmark utility in Chapter 16.) Anti-aliasing: Remember the video games of the early 1980s? In those days, you saw jagged edges around every character’s outline — often called jaggies by normal folks — that looked somewhat like an Aztec pyramid when viewed from the side. Well, today’s high-resolution multimedia addict isn’t satisfied with jaggies around the characters in a 3-D game! To cut down on the jaggies, a card can use a trick called anti- aliasing, which makes everything (even including onscreen text) look smoother onscreen. (For example, the Microsoft ClearType technology uses anti-aliasing.) If 3-D realism at high resolutions is your goal, a card that offers at least 4X anti-aliasing should be in your future. 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 16

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At the time of this writing, the two major GPU/video chipset manufacturers are

ATI Technologies, which makes the ATI Radeon series of chips like the one in the All-in-Wonder card nVIDIA, which makes the GeForce series of chips

Even if your video card is made by another company altogether, it uses one of these two different chipsets.

RAM is really, really important Oh, yes, indeedy, RAM is muy importante. In fact, I can’t overemphasize just what a critical part your video RAM plays in demanding graphics applications. Having said that, here’s a bold Mark’s Maxim that you should always remember:

The more memory on your video card, the better.™

Without exception, more is better, period. Cards with larger amounts of RAM cost significantly more than the same model of card with a lower amount of RAM. You can stop reading right here and jump to the next section.

Still here? Well, that’s because you’re curious. Why should you demand a video card with a minimum of 256MB of onboard RAM? For those who want a more technical explanation, allow me to elucidate:

More space to store textures: With more memory on board, your video card can store more of the highly detailed images called textures, which are quite literally wrapped around solid items within 3-D video games and 3-D modeling applications. The more memory, the more textures your card can easily handle — and the more detailed they are. More space to store image data: In this case, the data could be complex 3-D maps, a streaming high-definition video signal, or a truly huge 30MB RAW format digital image you loaded in Photoshop. With less memory, the application that you’re running has to load that data in chunks from your hard drive, taking far longer to get the job done. Speedier loading times: The more RAM your video card carries, the less graphics data your computer has to load during that all-important loading process (you know, the boring time between levels, stuck watching a progress bar inch forward)! As a hard-core PC gamer, I can confess the following: We are not a patient group of people. Therefore, if you play graphic-intensive games like World of Warcraft, Doom 3, or FEAR, you’ll find yourself waiting less and playing more. 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 17

Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with Your Video Card 17 All Video Cards Are Not Created Equal I’d like to clear up a common misconception still shared by many PC owners. To wit: “I’m not a big fan of games, so I can get by with just any video card. They all do essentially the same things. No big whoop.”

Ah, but a multimedia card like the ATI All-in-Wonder is a perfect example of A Big Whoop! If your current PC video card simply provides the basics, you’re missing out on the features that make a card a true multimedia component — and can put your PC squarely in the middle of your entertainment center, right next to that expensive TV or widescreen monitor.

Why pay a little extra for a multimedia card? For example, no run-of-the-mill standard video card can do things like

Tune in to (and record) broadcast, cable, and (with a converter box) satellite TV Tune in to (and record) FM stereo Connect multiple monitors to the same card Allow you to edit digital video and create your own movie masterpieces Track and schedule upcoming shows for automatic recording Let you control your PC and your media viewing with a remote control Allow you to play the latest 3-D games with all the settings turned on High

In upcoming chapters, I show you how to take full advantage of all of these features (and many more). After you experience a true multimedia PC, I doubt you’ll ever be satisfied with a standard video card again!

My PC Already Has a Video Card, Right? If you’ve followed this chapter to this point, you know more about your PC’s video card, so here’s what might sound like a rather silly question: Does your PC actually have a separate video card? You might find yourself saying, “Of course, it does, or I wouldn’t see anything on the screen when I turn on my computer!” And you’re right — your PC does definitely have video hardware.

Note, however, that I said a separate video card — and therein lies the rub. You see, many PCs built today don’t have a separate video card that’s con- nected through an AGP or PCI Express card slot; instead, they use an integrated video card, meaning that the actual video hardware is built in to the 05_055235 ch01.qxp 10/13/06 12:42 AM Page 18

18 Part I: The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

motherboard itself. An integrated card does the same job as a removable separate video card — you’ll see the same ports sticking out the back of your computer — but you might not have an AGP or PCI Express slot on your motherboard at all.

Unfortunately, an integrated card is usually far less of a performer than a separate, standalone video card. Integrated video hardware is often used to cut down the cost of a PC that’s not likely to see intensive gaming or graphics use. Integrated cards might even share your computer’s system RAM (instead of including dedicated video RAM on the motherboard), and shared RAM is slower by far than dedicated video memory.

Even if your motherboard does provide an integrated video card, you should still be able to add a super-fast ATI All-in-Wonder card to your system. First check whether your PC’s motherboard has an AGP or PCI Express video card slot available. If so, you can plug in your All-in-Wonder card.

If you install a new All-in-Wonder video card in a system that also includes an integrated video card, you might need to configure your PC’s BIOS settings to choose your All-in-Wonder card instead of the built-in video hardware you were originally using. Refer to your motherboard or PC manual for instructions on changing the default video card BIOS setting.