Display Adapters

 

PCI Display Adapter
AGP Display Adapter
An AGP Slot on the Motherboard

 




PCI Display Adapter

- A PCI video card.
- Notice that its data bus is a typical PCI setup, with a single ridge to orient the card.
- This particular card has a fan over it GPU (graphics processing unit).
- The four chips over the GPU and to its right are the video RAM.
- The large chip to the left of the GPU is the video BIOS.
- Good for everyday computing (ie Word processing, internet, etc).



AGP Display Adapter

- An AGP video card
- The AGP data bus consists of up to 3 ridges and more connectors than a PCI card, allowing more data to flow.
- AGP processes most video data in its GPU. It ises main system RAM to render 3D.
- This GPU also has a fan.
- Notice the video ram on top of and to the right of the GPU.




The AGP slot on the motherboard

- The AGP slot is a proprietary slot that only an AGP card will fit into.
- An AGP video card uses direct memory access for video.
- The CPU is not used, freeing it up for other functions.