Texture blocks of the map. The number of computational (shader) units or processors. Mention of drivers

Rasterization Operation Units (ROPs)

Rasterization units carry out the operations of writing pixels calculated by the video card into buffers and the operations of mixing them (blending). As noted above, the performance of ROP blocks affects the fill rate and this is one of the main characteristics of video cards. And although its importance has decreased somewhat recently, there are still cases where application performance is highly dependent on the speed and number of ROP blocks. Most often this is due to the active use of post-processing filters and anti-aliasing enabled at high image settings.

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Devices included in the computer

Basic components of a video card:

exits;
interfaces;
cooling system;
GPU;
video memory.

Graphics technologies:

dictionary;
GPU architecture: features
vertex/pixel units, shaders, fill rate, texture/raster units, pipelines;
GPU architecture: technology
technical process, GPU frequency, local video memory (volume, bus, type, frequency), solutions with multiple video cards;
visual functions
DirectX high dynamic range(HDR), full-screen anti-aliasing, texture filtering, high-resolution textures.

Glossary of basic graphic terms

Refresh Rate

Just like in a movie theater or TV, your computer simulates motion on the monitor by displaying a sequence of frames. The monitor's refresh rate indicates how many times per second the image on the screen will be updated. For example, a frequency of 75 Hz corresponds to 75 updates per second.

If the computer processes frames faster than the monitor can output, then problems may occur in games. For example, if the computer renders 100 frames per second, and the monitor's refresh rate is 75 Hz, then due to overlaps, the monitor can only display part of the image during its refresh period. As a result, visual artifacts appear.

As a solution, you can enable V-Sync (vertical sync). It limits the number of frames the computer can output to the monitor's refresh rate, preventing artifacts. If you enable V-Sync, the number of frames calculated in the game will never exceed the refresh rate. That is, at 75 Hz the computer will output no more than 75 frames per second.

Pixel

The word "Pixel" stands for " pic ture el ement" - image element. It is a tiny dot on the display that can glow in a certain color (in most cases, the hue is displayed by a combination of three basic colors: red, green and blue). If the screen resolution is 1024x768, then you can see a matrix of 1024 pixels in width and 768 pixels in height. All the pixels together make up the image. The image on the screen is updated from 60 to 120 times per second, depending on the type of display and the data output from the video card. CRT monitors refresh the display line by line, while flat panel LCD monitors can refresh each pixel individually.

Vertex

All objects in a 3D scene are made up of vertices. A vertex is a point in three-dimensional space with coordinates X, Y and Z. Several vertices can be grouped into a polygon: most often it is a triangle, but more complex shapes are possible. A texture is then applied to the polygon, which makes the object look realistic. The 3D cube shown in the illustration above consists of eight vertices. More complex objects have curved surfaces that are actually made up of a very large number of vertices.

Texture

A texture is simply a 2D image of an arbitrary size that is mapped onto a 3D object to simulate its surface. For example, our 3D cube consists of eight vertices. Before applying the texture, it looks like a simple box. But when we apply the texture, the box becomes colored.

Shader

Pixel shader programs allow the video card to produce impressive effects, for example, like this water in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Today there are two types of shaders: vertex and pixel. Vertex shader programs can modify or transform 3D objects. Pixel shader programs allow you to change the colors of pixels based on some data. Imagine a light source in a 3D scene that causes illuminated objects to glow brighter, while at the same time causing shadows to be cast on other objects. All this is achieved by changing the color information of the pixels.

Pixel shaders are used to create complex effects in your favorite games. For example, shader code can make the pixels surrounding a 3D sword glow brighter. Another shader can process all the vertices of a complex 3D object and simulate an explosion. Game developers are increasingly turning to sophisticated shader programs to create realistic graphics. Almost every modern game with rich graphics uses shaders.

With the release of the next Application Programming Interface (API) Microsoft DirectX 10, a third type of shader will be released called geometry shaders. With their help, it will be possible to break objects, modify and even destroy them, depending on the desired result. The third type of shaders can be programmed in exactly the same way as the first two, but its role will be different.

Fill Rate

Very often on the box with a video card you can find the fill rate value. Basically, fill rate indicates how fast the GPU can output pixels. Older video cards had a triangle fill rate. But today there are two types of fill rates: pixel fill rate and texture fill rate. As already mentioned, the pixel fill rate corresponds to the pixel output rate. It is calculated as the number of raster operations (ROP) multiplied by the clock frequency.

Texture fill rate is calculated differently by ATi and nVidia. Nvidia believes that speed is obtained by multiplying the number of pixel pipelines by the clock frequency. And ATi multiplies the number of texture units by the clock speed. In principle, both methods are correct, since nVidia uses one texture unit per pixel shader unit (that is, one per pixel pipeline).

With these definitions in mind, let us move on and discuss the most important functions of the GPU, what they do and why they are so important.

GPU Architecture: Features

The realism of 3D graphics greatly depends on the performance of the video card. The more pixel shader blocks the processor contains and the higher the frequency, the more effects can be applied to the 3D scene to improve its visual perception.

The GPU contains many different functional blocks. By the number of some components, you can estimate how powerful the GPU is. Before moving further, let us review the most important functional blocks.

Vertex processors (vertex shader units)

Like pixel shader units, vertex processors execute shader code that touches vertices. Since a larger vertex budget allows for the creation of more complex 3D objects, the performance of vertex processors is very important in 3D scenes with complex objects or with a large number of them. However, vertex shader units still do not have such an obvious impact on performance as pixel processors.

Pixel processors (pixel shader units)

A pixel processor is a component of a graphics chip dedicated to processing pixel shader programs. These processors perform calculations that concern only pixels. Because pixels contain color information, pixel shaders allow you to achieve impressive graphical effects. For example, most of the water effects you see in games are created using pixel shaders. Typically, the number of pixel processors is used to compare the pixel performance of video cards. If one card has eight pixel shader units and another has 16 units, then it is logical to assume that a video card with 16 units will be faster at processing complex pixel shader programs. Clock speed should also be taken into account, but today doubling the number of pixel processors is more energy efficient than doubling the frequency of the graphics chip.

Unified shaders

Unified shaders have not yet arrived in the PC world, but the upcoming DirectX 10 standard is based on a similar architecture. That is, the code structure of vertex, geometry and pixel programs will be the same, although shaders will perform different work. The new specification can be seen in the Xbox 360, where the GPU was specially designed by ATi for Microsoft. It will be very interesting to see what potential the new DirectX 10 brings.

Texture Mapping Units (TMU)

Textures should be selected and filtered. This work is done by texture mapping units, which work in conjunction with pixel and vertex shader units. The TMU's job is to apply texture operations to pixels. The number of texture units in a GPU is often used to compare the texture performance of video cards. It's reasonable to assume that a graphics card with more TMUs will give better texture performance.

Raster Operator Units (ROP)

Raster processors are responsible for writing pixel data to memory. The speed at which this operation is performed is the fill rate. In the early days of 3D accelerators, ROP and fill rate were very important characteristics of video cards. Today, ROP work is still important, but video card performance is no longer limited by these blocks as it once was. Therefore, the performance (and number) of ROPs is rarely used to evaluate the speed of a video card.

Conveyors

Pipelines are used to describe the architecture of video cards and give a very clear idea of the performance of the GPU.

Conveyor cannot be considered a strict technical term. The GPU uses different pipelines that perform different functions. Historically, a pipeline meant a pixel processor that was connected to its texture mapping unit (TMU). For example, the Radeon 9700 video card uses eight pixel processors, each of which is connected to its own TMU, so the card is considered to have eight pipelines.

But modern processors are very difficult to describe by the number of pipelines. Compared to previous designs, the new processors use a modular, fragmented structure. ATi can be considered an innovator in this area, which, with the X1000 line of video cards, switched to a modular structure, which made it possible to achieve performance gains through internal optimization. Some CPU blocks are used more than others, and to improve GPU performance, ATi has tried to find a compromise between the number of blocks needed and the die area (which can't be increased very much). In this architecture, the term “pixel pipeline” has already lost its meaning, since the pixel processors are no longer connected to their own TMUs. For example, the ATi Radeon X1600 GPU has 12 pixel shader units and only four TMU texture mapping units. Therefore, it is impossible to say that the architecture of this processor has 12 pixel pipelines, just as it is impossible to say that there are only four of them. However, by tradition, pixel pipelines are still mentioned.

Taking into account the above assumptions, the number of pixel pipelines in a GPU is often used to compare video cards (with the exception of the ATi X1x00 line). For example, if you take video cards with 24 and 16 pipelines, then it is quite reasonable to assume that the card with 24 pipelines will be faster.

GPU Architecture: Technology

Technical process

This term refers to the size of one element (transistor) of the chip and the accuracy of the manufacturing process. Improvements in technical processes make it possible to obtain smaller sized elements. For example, the 0.18 micron process produces larger features than the 0.13 micron process, so it is not as efficient. Smaller transistors operate at lower voltage. In turn, a decrease in voltage leads to a decrease in thermal resistance, which results in a decrease in the amount of heat generated. Improvements in the technical process make it possible to reduce the distance between the functional blocks of the chip, and data transfer takes less time. Shorter distances, lower voltages, and other improvements allow higher clock speeds to be achieved.

What complicates the understanding somewhat is that today both micrometers (μm) and nanometers (nm) are used to designate a technical process. In fact, everything is very simple: 1 nanometer is equal to 0.001 micrometer, so 0.09-μm and 90-nm processes are the same thing. As noted above, a smaller process technology allows for higher clock speeds. For example, if we compare video cards with 0.18 micron and 0.09 micron (90 nm) chips, then it is quite reasonable to expect a higher frequency from a 90 nm card.

GPU clock speed

GPU clock speed is measured in megahertz (MHz), which is millions of clock cycles per second.

Clock speed directly affects GPU performance. The higher it is, the more work can be completed in a second. For the first example, let's take nVidia video cards GeForce 6600 and 6600 GT: The 6600 GT GPU runs at 500 MHz, while the regular 6600 card runs at 400 MHz. Since the processors are technically identical, the 6600 GT's 20% increase in clock speed results in higher performance.

But clock speed is not everything. Keep in mind that performance is greatly influenced by architecture. For the second example, let's take GeForce video cards 6600 GT and GeForce 6800 GT. The 6600 GT GPU clocks at 500 MHz, but the 6800 GT runs at just 350 MHz. Now let's take into account that the 6800 GT uses 16 pixel pipelines, while the 6600 GT uses only eight. Therefore, a 6800 GT with 16 pipelines at 350 MHz will give approximately the same performance as a processor with eight pipelines and double the clock speed (700 MHz). With that said, clock speed can easily be used to compare performance.

Local video memory

Video card memory greatly affects performance. But different memory parameters have different effects.

Video memory size

The amount of video memory can probably be called the most overestimated parameter of a video card. Inexperienced consumers often use video memory capacity to compare different cards with each other, but in reality, capacity has little effect on performance compared to parameters such as memory bus frequency and interface (bus width).

In most cases, a card with 128 MB of video memory will perform almost the same as a card with 256 MB. Of course, there are situations where more memory will improve performance, but keep in mind that more memory will not automatically lead to faster gaming speeds.

Where volume can be useful is in games with high-resolution textures. Game developers provide several sets of textures for the game. And the more memory there is on the video card, the higher resolution the loaded textures can have. High resolution textures provide greater clarity and detail in the game. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to take a card with a large amount of memory, if all other criteria match. Let us remind you once again that the width of the memory bus and its frequency have a much stronger impact on performance than the amount of physical memory on the card.

Memory bus width

Memory bus width is one of the most important aspects of memory performance. Modern buses range from 64 to 256 bits wide, and in some cases even 512 bits. The wider the memory bus, the more information it can transfer per clock cycle. And this directly affects productivity. For example, if you take two buses with equal frequencies, then theoretically a 128-bit bus will transfer twice as much data per clock cycle as a 64-bit bus. And the 256-bit bus is twice as big.

Higher bus bandwidth (expressed in bits or bytes per second, 1 byte = 8 bits) gives higher memory performance. This is why the memory bus is much more important than its size. At equal frequencies, the 64-bit memory bus operates at a speed of only 25% of the 256-bit one!

Let's take the following example. A video card with 128 MB of video memory, but with a 256-bit bus, gives much higher memory performance than a 512 MB model with a 64-bit bus. It is important to note that for some cards from the ATi X1x00 line, manufacturers indicate the specifications of the internal memory bus, but we are interested in the parameters of the external bus. For example, the X1600 has an internal ring bus that is 256 bits wide, but an external one that is only 128 bits wide. And in reality, the memory bus operates at 128-bit performance.

Memory types

Memory can be divided into two main categories: SDR (single data transfer) and DDR (double data transfer), in which data is transferred twice as fast per clock cycle. Today, single transmission SDR technology is obsolete. Since DDR memory transfers data twice as fast as SDR, it is important to remember that video cards with DDR memory most often indicate double the frequency, not the physical one. For example, if DDR memory is specified at 1000 MHz, then this is the effective frequency at which regular SDR memory must operate to give the same throughput. But in fact, the physical frequency is 500 MHz.

For this reason, many are surprised when the frequency of 1200 MHz DDR is indicated for the memory of their video card, and utilities report 600 MHz. So you'll have to get used to it. DDR2 and GDDR3/GDDR4 memory works on the same principle, that is, with double data transfer. The difference between DDR, DDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory lies in production technology and some details. DDR2 can run at more high frequencies, how DDR memory, and DDR3 - even higher than DDR2.

Memory bus frequency

Like a processor, memory (or more precisely, the memory bus) operates at specific clock speeds, measured in megahertz. Here, increasing clock speeds directly affects memory performance. And the memory bus frequency is one of the parameters that is used to compare the performance of video cards. For example, if all other characteristics (memory bus width, etc.) are the same, then it is quite logical to say that a video card with 700 MHz memory is faster than one with 500 MHz memory.

Again, clock speed isn't everything. 700 MHz memory with a 64-bit bus will be slower than 400 MHz memory with a 128-bit bus. The performance of 400 MHz memory on a 128-bit bus is approximately equivalent to 800 MHz memory on a 64-bit bus. You should also remember that GPU and memory frequencies are completely different parameters, and they usually differ.

Video card interface

All data transferred between the video card and the processor passes through the video card interface. Today, three types of interfaces are used for video cards: PCI, AGP and PCI Express. They differ in bandwidth and other characteristics. It is clear that the higher the throughput, the higher the exchange speed. However, only the most modern cards can use high bandwidth, and even then only partially. At some point, interface speed ceased to be a bottleneck; today it is simply sufficient.

The slowest bus for which video cards were produced is PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect). Without going into history, of course. PCI really degraded the performance of video cards, so they switched to the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) interface. But even the AGP 1.0 and 2x specifications limited performance. When the standard increased speeds to AGP 4x levels, we began to approach the practical limit of the bandwidth that video cards can handle. The AGP 8x specification once again doubled the throughput compared to AGP 4x (2.16 GB/s), but there was no noticeable increase graphics performance we haven't received it yet.

The newest and fastest bus is PCI Express. New graphics cards typically use the PCI Express x16 interface, which combines 16 PCI Express lanes for a total throughput of 4 GB/s (one direction). This is twice the throughput of AGP 8x. The PCI Express bus provides the mentioned bandwidth in both directions (data transfer to and from the video card). But the speed AGP standard 8x was already enough, so we have not yet encountered a situation where switching to PCI Express gave a performance increase compared to AGP 8x (if other hardware parameters are the same). For example, the AGP version of the GeForce 6800 Ultra will work identically to the 6800 Ultra for PCI Express.

Today it is best to buy a card with a PCI Express interface; it will remain on the market for several more years. The most powerful cards are no longer available with the AGP 8x interface, and PCI solutions Express, as a rule, is easier to find than AGP analogues, and they are cheaper.

Solutions on multiple video cards

Using multiple video cards to increase graphics performance is not a new idea. In the early days of 3D graphics, 3dfx entered the market with two graphics cards running in parallel. But with the disappearance of 3dfx, the technology for joint operation of several consumer video cards was consigned to oblivion, although ATi had been producing similar systems for professional simulators since the release of the Radeon 9700. A couple of years ago, the technology returned to the market: with the advent of nVidia SLI solutions and, a little later, ATi Crossfire.

Sharing multiple video cards provides enough performance to run the game at high quality settings. high resolution. But choosing one solution or another is not so simple.

Let's start with the fact that solutions based on multiple video cards require a large amount of energy, so the power supply must be powerful enough. All this heat will have to be removed from the video card, so you need to pay attention to the PC case and cooling so that the system does not overheat.

Also, remember that SLI/CrossFire requires an appropriate motherboard (either for one technology or another), which usually costs more than standard models. The nVidia SLI configuration will only work on certain nForce4 cards, and ATi CrossFire cards will only work on motherboards with CrossFire chipset or on some Intel models. To complicate matters, some CrossFire configurations require one of the cards to be a special one: CrossFire Edition. After the release of CrossFire for some models of video cards, ATi allowed the inclusion of technology for working together PCI bus Express, and with the release of new driver versions, the number of possible combinations increases. But still, hardware CrossFire with the corresponding CrossFire Edition card provides higher performance. But CrossFire Edition cards are also more expensive than regular models. Currently, you can enable software CrossFire mode (without a CrossFire Edition card) on Radeon X1300, X1600 and X1800 GTO graphics cards.

There are other factors to consider as well. Although two graphics cards working together provide a performance boost, it is far from double. But you will pay twice as much money. Most often, the productivity increase is 20-60%. And in some cases, due to additional computational costs for matching, there is no increase at all. For this reason, multi-card configurations are unlikely to be worthwhile with cheaper models, since the more expensive graphics card will usually always outperform a couple of cheaper cards. In general, for most consumers, purchasing an SLI/CrossFire solution does not make sense. But if you want to enable all the quality enhancement options or play at extreme resolutions, for example, 2560x1600, when you need to calculate more than 4 million pixels per frame, then you can’t do without two or four paired video cards.

Visual features

In addition to purely hardware specifications, different generations and models of GPUs may differ in the set of functions. For example, it is often said that the ATi Radeon X800 XT generation cards are compatible with Shader Model 2.0b (SM), while the nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra is compatible with SM 3.0, although their hardware specifications are close to each other (16 pipelines). Therefore, many consumers make a choice in favor of one solution or another without even knowing what the difference means.

Microsoft DirectX and Shader Model versions

These names are most often used in disputes, but few people know what they really mean. To understand, let's start with the history of graphics APIs. DirectX and OpenGL are graphics APIs, that is, Application Programming Interfaces - open code standards available to everyone.

Before the advent of graphics APIs, each GPU manufacturer used its own mechanism to communicate with games. Developers had to write separate code for each GPU they wanted to support. A very expensive and ineffective approach. To solve this problem, APIs for 3D graphics were developed so that developers write code for a specific API, and not for a particular video card. After that, compatibility problems fell on the shoulders of video card manufacturers, who had to ensure that the drivers would be compatible with the API.

The only difficulty remains that today two different APIs are used, namely Microsoft DirectX and OpenGL, where GL stands for Graphics Library. Since the DirectX API is more popular in games today, we will focus on it. And this standard had a stronger influence on the development of games.

DirectX is creation of Microsoft. In fact, DirectX includes several APIs, only one of which is used for 3D graphics. DirectX includes APIs for sound, music, input devices, etc. The Direct3D API is responsible for 3D graphics in DirectX. When they talk about video cards, this is what they mean, so in this regard the concepts DirectX and Direct3D are interchangeable.

DirectX is updated periodically as graphics technology advances and game developers implement new game programming techniques. As DirectX quickly grew in popularity, GPU manufacturers began tailoring new product releases to accommodate DirectX capabilities. For this reason, video cards are often tied to hardware support for one or another generation of DirectX (DirectX 8, 9.0 or 9.0c).

To complicate matters, parts of the Direct3D API can change over time without changing DirectX generations. For example, the DirectX 9.0 specification specifies support for Pixel Shader 2.0. But the DirectX 9.0c update includes Pixel Shader 3.0. So, although the cards are DirectX 9-class, they can support different feature sets. For example, the Radeon 9700 supports Shader Model 2.0, and the Radeon X1800 supports Shader Model 3.0, although both cards can be classified as DirectX 9 generation.

Remember that when creating new games, developers take into account the owners of old machines and video cards, since if you ignore this segment of users, the level of sales will be lower. For this reason, multiple code paths are built into games. A DirectX 9 class game probably has a DirectX 8 path and even a DirectX 7 path for compatibility. Usually, if the old path is selected, then some of the virtual effects that are present on new video cards disappear from the game. But at least you can play even on old hardware.

Many new games require the latest version of DirectX to be installed, even if the video card is from a previous generation. That is, a new game that will use the DirectX 8 path will still require installing the latest version of DirectX 9 for a DirectX 8 class video card.

What are the differences between different versions Direct3D API in DirectX? Early versions of DirectX - 3, 5, 6 and 7 - were relatively simple in the capabilities of the Direct3D API. Developers could select visual effects from a list and then test how they worked in the game. The next major step in graphics programming was DirectX 8. It introduced the ability to program the video card using shaders, so developers for the first time had the freedom to program effects the way they needed. DirectX 8 supported versions of Pixel Shader 1.0 to 1.3 and Vertex Shader 1.0. DirectX 8.1, an updated version of DirectX 8, received Pixel Shader 1.4 and Vertex Shader 1.1.

In DirectX 9 you can create even more complex shader programs. DirectX 9 supports Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0. DirectX 9c, an updated version of DirectX 9, included the Pixel Shader 3.0 specification.

DirectX 10, the upcoming API version, will accompany the new Windows version Vista. You cannot install DirectX 10 on Windows XP.

HDR lighting and OpenEXR HDR

HDR stands for “High Dynamic Range”. A game with HDR lighting can produce a much more realistic image than a game without it, and not all video cards support HDR lighting.

Before the advent of DirectX 9 video cards GPUs were seriously limited by the accuracy of lighting calculations. Until now, lighting could only be calculated with 256 (8 bits) internal levels.

When DirectX 9 video cards appeared, they were able to produce lighting with high precision - full 24 bits or 16.7 million levels.

With 16.7 million levels and after it was made next step Based on the performance of DirectX 9/Shader Model 2.0 video cards, HDR lighting has also become possible on computers. This is a rather complex technology, and you need to watch it in dynamics. If we talk in simple words, then HDR lighting increases contrast (dark shades appear darker, light shades appear lighter), while increasing the amount of lighting detail in dark and light areas. The game with HDR lighting seems more vibrant and realistic than without it.

GPUs compliant with the latest Pixel Shader 3.0 specification enable higher 32-bit precision lighting calculations and floating point blending. Thus, SM 3.0 class video cards can support special method OpenEXR HDR lighting, specially designed for the film industry.

Some games that only support OpenEXR HDR lighting will not run with HDR lighting on Shader Model 2.0 graphics cards. However, games that do not rely on the OpenEXR method will run on any DirectX 9 graphics card. For example, Oblivion uses the OpenEXR HDR method and only allows HDR lighting on the latest graphics cards that support the Shader Model 3.0 specification. For example, nVidia GeForce 6800 or ATi Radeon X1800. Games that use Half-Life 2's 3D engine, including Counter-Strike: Source and the upcoming Half-Life 2: Aftermath, allow HDR rendering to be enabled on older DirectX 9 graphics cards that only support Pixel Shader 2.0. Examples include the GeForce 5 or ATi Radeon 9500 line.

Finally, keep in mind that all forms of HDR rendering require serious processing power and can bring even the most powerful GPUs to their knees. If you want to play the latest games with HDR lighting, high-performance graphics are a must.

Full screen anti-aliasing

Full screen anti-aliasing (AA for short) allows you to eliminate the characteristic “ladders” at the boundaries of polygons. But it should be taken into account that full-screen anti-aliasing consumes a lot of computing resources, which leads to a drop in frame rates.

Anti-aliasing is very dependent on video memory performance, so a high-speed video card with fast memory will be able to calculate full-screen anti-aliasing with less impact on performance than an inexpensive video card. Antialiasing can be enabled in various modes. For example, 4x antialiasing will give more high-quality picture than 2x antialiasing, but this will be a big performance hit. While 2x antialiasing doubles horizontal and vertical resolution, 4x mode quadruples it.

Texture filtering

Textures are applied to all 3D objects in the game, and the larger the angle of the displayed surface, the more distorted the texture will look. To eliminate this effect, GPUs use texture filtering.

The first filtering method was called bilinear and produced characteristic stripes that were not very pleasing to the eye. The situation improved with the introduction of trilinear filtering. Both options work on modern video cards with virtually no performance penalty.

Today's most the best way Texture filtering is anisotropic filtering (AF). Like full-screen antialiasing, anisotropic filtering can be enabled at different levels. For example, 8x AF gives better filtering quality than 4x AF. Like full screen antialiasing, anisotropic filtering requires a certain amount of processing power, which increases as the AF level increases.

High resolution textures

All 3D games are created with specific specifications in mind, and one of those requirements determines the texture memory that the game will need. All necessary textures must fit into the video card memory during the game, otherwise performance will drop significantly, since accessing the texture in RAM gives a considerable delay, not to mention the paging file on the hard drive. Therefore, if a game developer is counting on 128 MB of video memory as minimum requirement, then the set of active textures should not exceed 128 MB at any time.

Modern games have several sets of textures, so the game will run without problems on older video cards with less video memory, as well as on new cards with more video memory. For example, a game may contain three sets of textures: for 128 MB, 256 MB and 512 MB. There are very few games today that support 512 MB of video memory, but they are still the most objective reason to buy a video card with this amount of memory. While the increase in memory has little to no impact on performance, you will benefit from improved visual quality if the game supports the appropriate set of textures.

What you need to know about video cards?

In contact with

What will this short article cover?

This article is a set of basic knowledge for those who want to choose a balanced video card without paying extra money to marketers. It will help beginners, and also serve as a source useful information and for more advanced PC users. However, the mini article is still focused precisely for beginners.

The purpose of the video card.

It's no secret that in our time, the main field of activity for a productive video card is - 3 Dgames, smooth playback video( HD ), work in professional 3D2D and video editors. Other everyday tasks can be performed without problems on video cards built into the processor or chipset. Recently, the field of activity for video cards has expanded, in the form of multi-threaded computing, which run much faster on the parallel architecture of video cards than on processors.

NVidiapromotes its software and hardware platformCUDAlanguage-based Si (by the way, it was successful, and this is not surprising, given the investment of such and such funds).AMDhowever, mainly relies on open sourceOpenCL.

By using you can encode video in 3-4 times faster. Accelerate the company's products using hardware and video cardsAdobe- in particular Photoshop, Flash, and this is apparently just the beginning. True, those people who constantly use the computing power of video cards are theoretically very few. And it seemed too early to think about it, especially since they are stepping on the toes a lot ofnuclear processors, which, although slower in multi-threaded operations, have an undeniable advantage in that they simply do their job without complex software optimizations. And simplicity and ease of implementation, as history showsWindows(for example) – the main thing for people and the key to success in Software market. And it’s still worth paying tribute to the computing power of video cards, which has not yet been curbed by the “correct” software.

So. NVidiaorAMD?

*The most “interesting” question

The main players in the graphics accelerator market are corporationsAMD And NVidia.

Everything is clear here, as in many market sectors, duopoly. How Pepsi And Coca-Cola, as well as Xbox 360 , How Intel And AMD in the end. Recently, companies have been releasing their products one by one. Then, so that one feels good and the other feels good too. At first AMD releases the flagship of the line, then two or three months later, more powerful flagship issues NVidia. First, cards are purchased from AMD, as the most powerful, then after the cards are released NVidia Those who bought them go back to the store for an even better product. Almost the same thing happens with the middle and budget markets. Only the spread in increased productivity relative to the competitor is higher here, since in order to interest a more economical consumer, something more is required than the chance to have best video card, as it happens in the flagship sector.

It’s better not to be a fan, because this is business and nothing personal. The main thing is that the video cards are productive, and the prices do not bite. And which manufacturer is not important. With this approach, you can always win in terms of price and performance.

Chip architecture.

Quantitypixel processors (for AMD ), universal conveyors (For NVidia).

Yes. These are completely different things. What AMD has Radeon HD 5870 – 1600 execution units does not mean at all that it will be 3 times more powerful thanNVidia GTX 480 which has on board 480 executive blocks.

NVidiaIt has scalar architecture, andAMD– super scalar .

AMD architecture.

Let's consider the architecture PP (*pixel processors),using the example of the basic super scalar architecture of video cardsRadeon HD 5 episodes ( 5-way VLIW).

Every 5 pp constitute one execution unit, which can execute a maximum at a time - 1 scalar surgery and 1 vector or sometimes 5 scalar(however, conditions are not always suitable for this). Each vector operation requires 4 PP, each scalar 1 PP. And then, how it goes. UNVidia same, every Cuda Core, performs strictly according to 1 vector And 1 scalar operations per clock cycle.

With the release of episode 6, under the code name ( Northern Islands ), namely Cayman chips, decided to abandon the additional, fifthALU(T-unit), who was responsible for performing complex tasks.

Now three of the four remaining blocks can play this role. This made it possible to relieve the thread manager ( Ultra-Threaded Dispatch Processor), which in addition were doubled to improve work with geometry and tessellation, which were weak side 5 episodes. Plus, it allows you to save on core area and transistor budget with the same efficiency.

After the sixth episode, work towards development VLIW ended due to its poor flexibility and large downtime due to the dependencies of internal blocks on each other (especially vector operations). A completely new architecture has come to the fore Graphics Core Next .

Engine SIMD, is replaced by a computing unit Compute Unit (C.U.), which can significantly increase the level of efficiency and performance of the architecture. Each PP can now independently perform vector and scalar operations, since separate control blocks have been introduced for them, which more efficiently distribute resources between free blocks. In general, architecture begins to acquire some of the premises of scalar architecture from NVidia, which is simple and effective.

The first chip with the new architecture was GPU Tahiti, on which they are built AMD Radeon HD 7970/7950 . The company plans to release middle class on a new architecture.

Now let's look at the basic one, scalar architecture NVidia .

As we see, every universal processor ( ), performs per bar 1 scalar operation and 1 vector This allows for maximum smoothness. Where there are a lot of vector and scalar operations, video cardsAMD with architecture VLIWinferior because they are not able to load their blocks with work like video cardsNVidia.

Let's say the choice is betweenRadeon HD 5870 And GeForce GTX 480 .

At the first 1600pp, the second 480 unified blocks.

We calculate: 16005=320 superscalar blocks, y Radeon HD 5870.

That is, per clock cycle the video card fromAMD, executes from 320 to 1600 scalar operations and from 0 to 320 floating vector, depending on the nature of the task.

And with double the frequency of the shader domain, the card on the architectureFermi, theoretically should fulfill 960 vector and 960 scalar operations per clock cycle.

However Radeon , has a more favorable frequency than the card from the “green camp” (700 versus 850). So, these are the indicatorsNVidia, theoretically should be the same as when the shader domain operates at 1700 MHz (850 x 2=1700), but this is not so. At a frequency of 1401 MHz, GTX 480 gives ~ 700 vector and ~ 700 scalar operations per clock cycle.

* You should not rely on the reliability of these calculations, they are only theoretical. In addition, this statement does not apply from the 6th series Radeon starting with chips Cayman.

Due to the fact that the maximum number of vector and scalar operations is performed in the same amount, the architectureNVidiahas the best smoothness in difficult scenes than AMD VLIW (<5 series).

Price categories and what we get if we buy a video card of a lower series.

Engineers AMD, without hesitation they cut half of the pixel processors, the memory bus and partROP's generation of cards, from a segment one class lower. EgRadeon HD5870 It has 1600pp, tire 256 bit, and in 577 0, exactly half of all this remains - 800 , and memory bus 128 bit. The same situation continues to the most budget video cards. So, it will always be preferable to purchase a weaker video card from the 58** series than the highest from the 57** series.

From engineers NVidia, not a much different approach. Smoothly, memory bus, universal pipelines are trimmed,ROP's , pixel pipelines. But the frequencies also decrease, which, with a proper cooling system, can be slightly compensated for by overclocking. It's a little strange that it's not the other way around, like it doesAMD, increasing frequencies on cards with a reduced number of actuators.

An approach AMD more beneficial to the manufacturer, approach NVidia- to the buyer.

Mention of drivers.

It is precisely because of the features of the superscalar architecture VLIW, drivers from AMD, you have to constantly optimize so that the video card understands when it needs to use vectors or scalars as efficiently as possible.

Unified drivers fromNVidiamore immune to different game engines, thanks to the fact that engineersNVidiaOften, already when developing a game, they optimize it for the architecture of their video chips and drivers. It is also worth noting that when installing and removing them, practically no problems arise that are inherent in drivers fromAMD.

Drivers NVidia You can install directly on old ones, without uninstalling or cleaning the registry. We hope that programmersAMDwill move in the same direction. Now you can download “fixes” for driversCatalyst, which are released shortly before the game goes on sale or a little later. Already something. And with the release of the new architecture Graphics Core Next, the work of optimizing drivers will be much easier.

Pixel conveyors, TMU, ROP.

Also, the number is very important pixel pipelines And TMU (texture mapping block), their number is especially important at high resolutions and when using anisotropic texture filtering ( pixel pipelines are important), using high quality textures and high anisotropic filtering settings (TMUs are important).

Number of blocksROP (raster operation blocks ), mainly affect anti-aliasing performance, but if they are deficient, there may be a loss of overall performance. The more there are, the more unnoticeably the anti-aliasing will affect the number of frames per second. Also, the amount of video memory significantly affects the anti-aliasing performance.

Volume, frequency and bit depth of the memory bus.

The more video memory a video card has, the better. However, it's not worth it buy in large quantities.

As often happens, relatively weak video cards are equipped with incredible amounts of video memory, and even slow ones (for example, onGeForce 8500 GT, some OEMmanufacturers set 2 GB DDR2 video memory). This will not make the video card take off and will not improve performance.

* compared to 8500 GT 512 mb

A much better option would be to take a video card with faster memory, but less capacity. For example, if the choice is: take 9800 GTWith 512 or 1024 MB memory, with frequency 1000MHz And 900MHz Accordingly, it would be preferable to take 9800 GT With 512 MB memory. Moreover, a video card of this level does not need video memory more than 512 MB.

Memory Bandwidth – this is the main thing in the performance of the video memory subsystem, which most importantly affects the performance of the video card as a whole. Measured in Gb/s (gigabytes per second).

For example, now video memory likeGDDR5 , which has a much higher frequency potential thanGDDR3 , and accordingly whiter high throughput.

However, frequency is not everything. The second important factor is memory bus width. The higher the bit depth, the faster the memory.

For example, memory with a frequency 1000MHz and tire 256 bit, will be exactly 2 times faster memory 1000MHz and tire 128 bit. The higher the bit depth, the faster the memory. The widest memory bus in existence is a monstrous 896 bit(448 x2 ) on the video card GeForce GTX295 . However, it uses memoryGDDR3 , which significantly degrades the throughput (lower effective frequency) compared toGDDR5 . Therefore, its throughput is even slightly lower than that ofRadeon HD 5970 With 512 bit(256 x 2), but with GDDR5 .

Cooling system.

The more efficient the cooling system, the less chance your video card will fail. The card will overheat less, which will improve overall system stability and significantly increase life time, and will also increase overclocking potential.

Produced, readyWithsystems O There are two variations of video card cooling.

Reference (from the manufacturer) and alternative (from the manufacturer’s partners). As a rule, reference cards have a turbine (blower) design, and are usually very reliable. Relatively noisy, not always as effective as alternative CO from the manufacturer’s partners and become more clogged with dust. Although when used, blower cooling systems for video cards are very efficient and quiet. If a little noise under load doesn’t bother you and you won’t set any overclocking records, reference cooling systems are preferable. Usually, manufacturers' partners cover them with stickers with their logos; changes are only possible in the BIOS of the video card (fan speed adjustment), so some cards are identical in design, but from different manufacturers, noisier or hotter than their counterparts and vice versa. Each manufacturer has its own preferences and warranty conditions. Therefore, some sacrifice silence for greater stability and durability.

If it's important to you silence, then you should pay attention to alternative systems increased cooling efficiency, with less noise (for exampleVapor - x, IceQ, , DirectCu), or choose a video card with a passive cooling system, of which there are more and more now.

* Advice: do not forget to change the thermal interface once every year or two, especially to CO with direct heat pipe contact technology. The thermal paste hardens, forming a layer that does not conduct heat well, which leads to overheating of the video card.

Power consumption of the video card.

A very important characteristic when choosing, since the video card is a very power-hungry component of the computer, if not the most power-hungry one. Top video cards sometimes approach the mark 300W. Therefore, when choosing, you should consider whether your power supply is capable of providing stable power to the video card. Otherwise, the system may either not start due to a voltage mismatch when passing through POST, instability in operation and unexpected shutdowns, reboots or overheating of computer components may occur, or the power supply may simply burn out.

On the manufacturer's website or the box of the video card, the minimum characteristics are written, including the minimum power of the power supply. These values are written for any blocks, including Chinese ones. If you are sure that you have a high-quality power supply, you can subtract from this value 50-100W.

You can indirectly determine power consumption by the number of additional power connectors on the video card.

None - less 75W, one 6-pin before 150W, two 6-pin before 225W, 8-pin + 6-pin - before 300W. Make sure that your unit has the necessary connectors or that the kit includes adapters for 4-pin molex-s. Or buy them, they are freely sold in computer stores.

Insufficient power supply to the video card can lead to its overheating, the appearance of artifacts and the failure of its power system. Video cards NVidia, if there is a lack of power, they may begin to warn with messages like: “the video driver has stopped responding and has been restored” or “connect additional power to the video card.”

High power consumption = high heat dissipation. If your video card consumes a lot of power, take care of additional intake and exhaust fans on the case. Or, as a temporary measure, open the side cover. Constantly high temperature in the case has a detrimental effect on the service life of all components, from the motherboard to the motherboard.

Connectors.

When you have already decided on a video card, you should pay attention to the connectors.

If you have a monitor with a matrix P- or with support 30 bit color (1.07 billion), then you will definitely need DisplayPort on the video card to unlock its potential. Only DisplayPort supports transmission 30 bit depth of color.

* It is not known for certain whether gaming video cards support 30-bit transmission, but the presence DisplayPort talks about possible support. In the specifications, support is stated only for professional video cards AMD FirePro And NVidia Quadro.

It's very good if you have it . You never know what might come in handy and it’s better to be prepared for it. Suddenly you need to output a signal from the receiver. By the way, HDMI And DVI compatible via a simple adapter and practically without problems.

Conclusions.

That's all. We haven’t even started yet, we’re already finishing it. Since the article describes the main, general concepts, it was not too long.

However, all the most important points for choosing a high-quality and productive video card are described.

1. A matter of faith.

3. Number of execution units (TMU, ROP, etc.).

4. Volume, frequency and bit depth of the memory bus.

5. Find out if the card is suitable for the level of energy consumption.

5. Cooling system.

6. Connectors.

We hope that with this knowledge, you will be able to choose a video card according to your requirements.

Good luck with your choice!

In the first part of our guide to video cards for beginners, we looked at the key components: interfaces, outputs, cooling system, GPU and video memory. In the second part we will talk about the functions and technologies of video cards.

Basic components of a video card:

exits;
interfaces;
cooling system;
GPU;
video memory.

Part 2 (this article): graphics technologies:

dictionary;
GPU architecture: features
vertex/pixel units, shaders, fill rate, texture/raster units, pipelines;
GPU architecture: technology
technical process, GPU frequency, local video memory (volume, bus, type, frequency), solutions with multiple video cards;
visual functions
DirectX, high dynamic range (HDR), full-screen anti-aliasing, texture filtering, high-resolution textures.

Glossary of basic graphic terms

Refresh Rate

The word "Pixel" stands for " pic ture el ement" is an image element. It is a tiny dot on the display that can glow in a certain color (in most cases, the shade is displayed by a combination of three basic colors: red, green and blue). If the screen resolution is 1024x768, then you can see a matrix of 1024 pixels in width and 768 pixels in height. All pixels together make up the image. The picture on the screen is updated from 60 to 120 times per second, depending on the type of display and the data output of the video card. CRT monitors update the display line by line, and flat-panel LCD monitors can refresh each pixel individually.

Pixel shader programs allow the video card to produce impressive effects, for example, like this water in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

With the release of the next Application Programming Interface (API), Microsoft DirectX 10, a third type of shader will be released, called geometry shaders. With their help, it will be possible to break objects, modify and even destroy them, depending on the desired result. The third type of shaders can be programmed in exactly the same way as the first two, but its role will be different.

Fill Rate

With these definitions in mind, let us move on and discuss the most important functions of the GPU, what they do and why they are so important.

GPU Architecture: Features

Vertex processors (vertex shader units)

Like pixel shader units, vertex processors execute shader code that touches vertices. Because a larger vertex budget allows for more complex 3D objects to be created, the performance of vertex processors is very important in 3D scenes with complex or large numbers of objects. However, vertex shader units still do not have such an obvious impact on performance as pixel processors.

Pixel processors (pixel shader units)

Unified shaders

Texture Mapping Units (TMU)

Raster Operator Units (ROP)

Conveyors

Pipelines are used to describe the architecture of video cards and give a very clear idea of the performance of the GPU.

But modern processors are very difficult to describe by the number of pipelines. Compared to previous designs, the new processors use a modular, fragmented structure. ATi can be considered an innovator in this area, which, with the X1000 line of video cards, switched to a modular structure, which made it possible to achieve performance gains through internal optimization. Some CPU blocks are used more than others, and to improve GPU performance, ATi has tried to find a compromise between the number of blocks needed and the die area (which can't be increased very much). In this architecture, the term "pixel pipeline" has already lost its meaning, since the pixel processors are no longer connected to their own TMUs. For example, the ATi Radeon X1600 GPU has 12 pixel shader units and only four TMU texture mapping units. Therefore, it is impossible to say that the architecture of this processor has 12 pixel pipelines, just as it is impossible to say that there are only four of them. However, by tradition, pixel pipelines are still mentioned.

GPU Architecture: Technology

Technical process

GPU clock speed

GPU clock speed is measured in megahertz (MHz), which is millions of clock cycles per second.

Clock speed directly affects GPU performance. The higher it is, the more work can be done in a second. For the first example, let's take the nVidia GeForce 6600 and 6600 GT video cards: the 6600 GT graphics processor runs at 500 MHz, while the regular 6600 card runs at 400 MHz. Since the processors are technically identical, the 6600 GT's 20% increase in clock speed results in higher performance.

But clock speed is not everything. Keep in mind that performance is greatly influenced by architecture. For the second example, let's take the GeForce 6600 GT and GeForce 6800 GT video cards. The 6600 GT GPU clocks at 500 MHz, but the 6800 GT runs at just 350 MHz. Now let's take into account that the 6800 GT uses 16 pixel pipelines, while the 6600 GT uses only eight. Therefore, a 6800 GT with 16 pipelines at 350 MHz will give approximately the same performance as a processor with eight pipelines and double the clock speed (700 MHz). With that said, clock speed can easily be used to compare performance.

Local video memory

Video card memory greatly affects performance. But different memory parameters have different effects.

Video memory size

Memory bus width

Memory types

For this reason, many are surprised when the frequency of 1200 MHz DDR is indicated for the memory of their video card, and utilities report 600 MHz. So you'll have to get used to it. DDR2 and GDDR3/GDDR4 memory works on the same principle, that is, with double data transfer. The difference between DDR, DDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory lies in production technology and some details. DDR2 can operate at higher frequencies than DDR memory, and DDR3 can operate at even higher frequencies than DDR2.

Memory bus frequency

Video card interface

The slowest bus for which video cards were produced is PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect). Without going into history, of course. PCI really degraded the performance of video cards, so they switched to the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) interface. But even the AGP 1.0 and 2x specifications limited performance. When the standard increased speeds to AGP 4x levels, we began to approach the practical limit of the bandwidth that video cards can handle. The AGP 8x specification once again doubled the throughput compared to AGP 4x (2.16 GB/s), but we no longer received a noticeable increase in graphics performance.

The newest and fastest bus is PCI Express. New graphics cards typically use the PCI Express x16 interface, which combines 16 PCI Express lanes for a total throughput of 4 GB/s (one direction). This is twice the throughput of AGP 8x. The PCI Express bus provides the mentioned bandwidth in both directions (data transfer to and from the video card). But the speed of the AGP 8x standard was already sufficient, so we have not yet encountered a situation where switching to PCI Express gave a performance increase compared to AGP 8x (if other hardware parameters are the same). For example, the AGP version of the GeForce 6800 Ultra will work identically to the 6800 Ultra for PCI Express.

Today it is best to buy a card with a PCI Express interface; it will remain on the market for several more years. The most powerful cards are no longer produced with the AGP 8x interface, and PCI Express solutions, as a rule, are easier to find than AGP analogues, and they are cheaper.

Solutions on multiple video cards

Using multiple video cards to increase graphics performance is not a new idea. In the early days of 3D graphics, 3dfx entered the market with two graphics cards running in parallel. But with the disappearance of 3dfx, the technology for multiple consumer video cards to work together was consigned to oblivion, although ATI had been producing similar systems for professional simulators since the release of the Radeon 9700. A couple of years ago, the technology returned to the market: with the advent of solutions nVidia SLI and, a little later, ATi Crossfire .

Using multiple graphics cards together provides enough performance to run the game at high quality settings in high resolution. But choosing one solution or another is not so simple.

Also, remember that SLI/CrossFire requires an appropriate motherboard (either for one technology or another), which usually costs more than standard models. The nVidia SLI configuration will only work on certain nForce4 boards, and ATi CrossFire cards will only work on motherboards with the CrossFire chipset or on certain Intel models. To complicate matters, some CrossFire configurations require one of the cards to be a special one: CrossFire Edition. After the release of CrossFire, for some models of video cards, ATi allowed the inclusion of collaboration technology via the PCI Express bus, and with the release of new driver versions, the number of possible combinations increases. But still, hardware CrossFire with the corresponding CrossFire Edition card provides higher performance. But CrossFire Edition cards are also more expensive than regular models. Currently, you can enable software CrossFire mode (without a CrossFire Edition card) on Radeon X1300, X1600 and X1800 GTO graphics cards.

Visual features

DirectX is a Microsoft creation. In fact, DirectX includes several APIs, only one of which is used for 3D graphics. DirectX includes APIs for sound, music, input devices, etc. The Direct3D API is responsible for 3D graphics in DirectX. When they talk about video cards, this is what they mean, so in this regard the concepts DirectX and Direct3D are interchangeable.

What are the differences between different versions of the Direct3D API in DirectX? Early versions of DirectX - 3, 5, 6 and 7 - were relatively simple in the capabilities of the Direct3D API. Developers could select visual effects from a list and then test how they worked in the game. The next major step in graphics programming was DirectX 8. It introduced the ability to program the video card using shaders, so developers for the first time had the freedom to program effects the way they needed. DirectX 8 supported versions of Pixel Shader 1.0 to 1.3 and Vertex Shader 1.0. DirectX 8.1, an updated version of DirectX 8, received Pixel Shader 1.4 and Vertex Shader 1.1.

DirectX 10, the upcoming API version, will accompany new version Windows Vista. You cannot install DirectX 10 on Windows XP.

HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range". A game with HDR lighting can produce a much more realistic image than a game without it, and not all video cards support HDR lighting.

Before the advent of DirectX 9 graphics cards, GPUs were severely limited by the accuracy of their lighting calculations. Until now, lighting could only be calculated with 256 (8 bits) internal levels.

When DirectX 9 video cards appeared, they were able to produce lighting with high precision - full 24 bits or 16.7 million levels.

With 16.7 million levels and the next step in the performance of DirectX 9/Shader Model 2.0 video cards, HDR lighting became possible on computers. This is a rather complex technology, and you need to watch it in dynamics. In simple terms, HDR lighting increases contrast (dark shades appear darker, light shades appear lighter), while increasing the amount of lighting detail in dark and light areas. The game with HDR lighting seems more vibrant and realistic than without it.

GPUs compliant with the latest Pixel Shader 3.0 specification enable higher 32-bit precision lighting calculations and floating point blending. Thus, SM 3.0 class video cards can support a special OpenEXR HDR lighting method specifically designed for the film industry.

Full screen anti-aliasing (abbreviated AA) allows you to eliminate the characteristic “ladders” at the boundaries of polygons. But it should be taken into account that full-screen anti-aliasing consumes a lot of computing resources, which leads to a drop in frame rates.

Anti-aliasing is very dependent on video memory performance, so a high-speed video card with fast memory will be able to calculate full-screen anti-aliasing with less impact on performance than an inexpensive video card. Antialiasing can be enabled in various modes. For example, 4x antialiasing will produce a better image than 2x antialiasing, but it will be a big hit to performance. While 2x antialiasing doubles horizontal and vertical resolution, 4x mode quadruples it.

Textures are applied to all 3D objects in the game, and the larger the angle of the displayed surface, the more distorted the texture will look. To eliminate this effect, GPUs use texture filtering.

Today, the best way to filter textures is anisotropic filtering (AF). Like full-screen antialiasing, anisotropic filtering can be enabled at different levels. For example, 8x AF gives better filtering quality than 4x AF. Like full screen antialiasing, anisotropic filtering requires a certain amount of processing power, which increases as the AF level increases.

All 3D games are created with specific specifications in mind, and one of those requirements determines the texture memory that the game will need. All the necessary textures must fit into the video card's memory during the game, otherwise performance will drop significantly, since accessing the texture to the RAM causes a considerable delay, not to mention the paging file on the hard drive. Therefore, if a game developer is counting on 128 MB of video memory as a minimum requirement, then the set of active textures should not exceed 128 MB at any time.

On our forum every day, dozens of people ask for advice on modernizing their machines, with which we willingly help them. Every day, “evaluating the assembly” and checking the components chosen by our clients for compatibility, we began to notice that users mainly pay attention to other, undoubtedly important components. And rarely does anyone remember that when upgrading a computer, it is necessary to update an equally important part -. And today we will tell and show why you should not forget about this.

“...I want to upgrade my computer so that everything is flying, I bought an i7-3970X and an ASRock X79 Extreme6 motherboard, plus a RADEON HD 7990 6GB video card. What else is nan????777"
- this is how about half of all messages regarding updating a desktop computer begin. Based on their or family budget, users try to choose the fastest, fastest and most beautiful memory modules. At the same time, naively believing that their old 450W one will cope with both a power-hungry video card and a “hot” processor during overclocking at the same time.

We, for our part, have already written more than once about the importance of the power supply - but, we confess, it was probably not clear enough. Therefore, today we have corrected ourselves and have prepared for you a reminder about what will happen if you forget about it when upgrading your PC - with pictures and detailed descriptions.

So, we decided to update the configuration...

For our experiment, we decided to take a completely new average computer and upgrade it to the “gaming machine” level. There is no need to change the configuration much - it will be enough to change the memory and video card so that we have the opportunity to play more or less modern games with decent detail settings. The initial configuration of our computer is as follows:

Power unit: ATX 12V 400W

It is clear that for games this configuration is, to put it mildly, rather weak. So it's time to change something! We’ll start with the same thing where most of those hungry for an “upgrade” start - with. We will not change the motherboard - as long as it suits us.

Since we decided not to touch the motherboard, we will select one that is compatible with the FM2 socket (fortunately, there is a special button for this on the NICS website on the motherboard description page). Let's not be greedy - let's take an affordable, but fast and powerful processor with a frequency of 4.1 GHz (up to 4.4 GHz in Turbo CORE mode) and an unlocked multiplier - we also love to overclock, nothing human is alien to us. Here are the characteristics of the processor we chose:

Characteristics

CPU bus frequency

5000 MHz

Power dissipation

100 W

Processor frequency

4.1 GHz or up to 4.4 GHz in Turbo CORE mode

Core

Richland

L1 cache

96 KB x2

L2 cache

2048 KB x2, running at processor speed

64 bit support

Yes

Number of Cores

Multiplication

41, unlocked multiplier

Processor video core

AMD Radeon HD 8670D with a frequency of 844 MHz; Shader Model 5 support

Max RAM capacity

64 GB

Max. number of connected monitors

3 directly connected or up to 4 monitors using DisplayPort splitters

One 4GB stick is not our choice. Firstly, we want 16GB, and secondly, we need to use dual-channel operating mode, for which we will install two memory modules of 8GB each in our computer. High throughput, lack of radiators and a decent price make these the most “delicious” choice for us. In addition, from the AMD website you can download the Radeon RAMDisk program, which will allow us to create a super-fast virtual drive up to 6GB absolutely free of charge - and everyone loves free useful things.

Characteristics
Memory	8 GB
Number of modules	2
Memory standard	PC3-10600 (DDR3 1333 MHz)
Operating frequency	up to 1333 MHz
Timings	9-9-9-24
Supply voltage	1.5 V
Bandwidth	10667 Mb/sec

You can play comfortably on the built-in video only in “minesweeper”. Therefore, in order to upgrade your computer to a gaming level, we chose a modern and powerful, but not the most expensive, .

It came with 2GB of video memory, support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.x. and an excellent Twin Frozr IV cooling system. Its performance should be more than enough for us to enjoy the latest installments of the most popular gaming franchises, such as Tomb Raider, Crysis, Hitman and Far Cry. The characteristics of the one we have chosen are as follows:

Characteristics
GPU	GeForce GTX 770
GPU frequency	1098 MHz or up to 1150 MHz in GPU Boost mode
Number of shader processors	1536
Video memory	2 GB
Video memory type	GDDR5
Video memory bus width	256 bit
Video memory frequency	1753 MHz (7.010 GHz QDR)
Number of pixel pipelines	128, 32 texture sampling units
Interface	PCI Express 3.0 16x (compatible with PCI Express 2.x/1.x) with the ability to combine cards using SLI.
Ports	DisplayPort, DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, D-Sub adapter included
Cooling the video card	Active (heatsink + 2 Twin Frozr IV fans on the front side of the board)
Power connector	8 pin+8 pin
API support	DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.x
Video card length (measured in NICS)	263 mm
Support for general purpose GPU computing	DirectCompute 11, NVIDIA PhysX, CUDA, CUDA C++, OpenCL 1.0
Maximum power consumption FurMark+WinRar	255 W
Performance Rating	61.5

Unexpected difficulties

Now we have everything we need to upgrade our computer. We will install new components into our existing case.

We launch it and it doesn’t work. And why? But because budget power supplies are physically not capable of running a computer with any power. The fact is that in our case, power supply requires two 8-pin connectors, and the power supply has only one 6-pin video card power connector in its base. Considering that many people need even more connectors than in our case, it becomes clear that the power supply needs to be changed.

But that's not so bad. Just think, there is no power connector! In our test laboratory we found quite rare adapters from 6-pin to 8-pin and from molex to 6-pin. Like these ones:

It is worth noting that even on budget modern power supplies, with each new release of Molex connectors there are fewer and fewer Molex connectors - so we can say that we are lucky.

At first glance, everything is fine, and with some tricks we were able to update the system unit to a “gaming” configuration. Now let's simulate the load by running the Furmark test and the 7Zip archiver in Xtreme Burning mode simultaneously on our new gaming computer. We could start the computer - already good. The system also survived the launch of Furmark. We launch the archiver - and what is it?! The computer turned off, delighting us with the roar of a fan turned up to maximum. The “modest” standard 400W was unable, no matter how hard he tried, to feed the video card and powerful processor. And due to the mediocre cooling system, ours got very hot, and even the maximum fan speed did not allow it to produce at least the declared 400W.

There is an exit!

We've arrived. We bought expensive components to assemble a gaming computer, but it turns out we can’t play on it. It's a shame. The conclusion is clear to everyone: the old one is not suitable for our gaming computer, and it urgently needs to be replaced with a new one. But which one exactly?

For our upgraded computer, we chose according to four main criteria:

The first is, of course, power. We preferred to choose with a reserve - we would want to overclock the processor and gain points in synthetic tests. Taking into account everything that we may need in the future, we decided to choose a power of at least 800W.

The second criterion is reliability. We really want the one taken “with reserve” to survive the next generation of video cards and processors, not burn out on its own, and at the same time not burn expensive components (along with the test platform). Therefore, our choice is only Japanese capacitors, only short circuit protection and reliable overload protection of any of the outputs.

The third point of our requirements is convenience and functionality.. To begin with, we need - the computer will work often, and especially noisy power supplies, coupled with a video card and processor cooler, will drive any user crazy. In addition, we are not alien to the sense of beauty, so the new power supply for our gaming computer should be modular and have detachable cables and connectors. So that there is nothing superfluous.

And last on the list, but not least, the criterion is energy efficiency. Yes, we care about both the environment and electricity bills. Therefore, the power supply we choose must meet at least the 80+ Bronze energy efficiency standard.

Having compared and analyzed all the requirements, we chose, among the few applicants, the one that most fully satisfied all our requirements. It became a power of 850W. Note that in a number of parameters it even exceeded our requirements. Let's see its specification:

Power supply characteristics
Type of equipment	Power supply with active PFC (Power Factor Correction) module.
Properties	Loop braiding, Japanese capacitors, Short circuit protection (SCP), Overvoltage protection (OVP), Overload protection of any of the unit outputs individually (OCP)
+3.3V - 24A, +5V - 24A, +12V - 70A, +5VSB - 3.0A, -12V - 0.5 A
Detachable power cables	Yes
Efficiency	90%, 80 PLUS Gold certified
Power supply power	850 W
Motherboard power connector	24+8+8 pin, 24+8+4 pin, 24+8 pin, 24+4 pin, 20+4 pin (detachable 24-pin connector. 4-pin can be detached if necessary, detachable 8-pin connector)
Video card power connector	6x 6/8-pin connectors (dismountable 8-pin connector - 2 pins detachable)
MTBF	100 thousand hours
Cooling the power supply	1 fan: 140 x 140 mm (on the bottom wall). Passive cooling system at load up to 50%.
Fan speed control	From the temperature sensor. Changing the fan speed depending on the temperature inside the power supply. Manual selection of fan operating mode. In Normal mode, the fan rotates constantly, and in Silent mode it stops completely at low load.

, one of the best for the money. Let's install it in our case:

Then something happened that confused us a little. It would seem that everything was assembled correctly, everything was connected, everything worked - but the power supply is silent! That is, in general: the fan has been standing still and is still standing, and the system has started up properly and is functioning. The fact is that at a load of up to 50%, the power supply operates in the so-called quiet mode - without spinning up the cooling system fan. The fan will hum only under heavy load - simultaneous launch of archivers and Furmark still made the cooler rotate.

The power supply has as many as six 8-pin6-pin video card power connectors, each of which is a collapsible 8-pin connector, from which 2 pins can be unfastened if necessary. Thus, it is able to feed any video card without any hassle or difficulty. And not even one.

The modular power supply system allows you to unfasten excess and unnecessary power cables, which improves the ventilation of the case, the stability of the system and, of course, aesthetically improves the appearance of the internal space, which can be safely recommended to modders and fans of cases with windows.
buy a reliable and powerful power supply. In our review it became. - and as you can see, it’s no coincidence. By purchasing one from NICS, you can be sure that all components of your high-performance system will be provided with sufficient and uninterrupted power, even under extreme overclocking.

In addition, the power supply will have enough power for several years to come - it is better with a reserve in case you are going to update the system with high-level components in the future.

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