Some of you may be confused with computer GPU, graphics card, and video card. This post explains the differences between GPU, graphics card, and video card. MiniTool Software, a top software provider, offers you some free computer software you might need. You can find MiniTool Power Data Recovery, MiniTool Partition Wizard, MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool Video Converter, etc. on its website.
GPU, graphics card, and video card are often used interchangeably. Are GPU, graphics card, and video card the same? Are there any differences between them? This post helps you dig out the subtle differences between GPU and graphics card (or video card) in a PC.
Difference Between GPU and Graphics Card
The key difference between GPU and graphics card is that the GPU is a built-in unit in the graphics card that mainly controls the actual graphics and image processing. Much the same as that the computer motherboard contains the CPU, the graphics card contains the GPU.
Difference Between Graphics Card and Video Card
The graphics card and video card are often used interchangeably. Graphics card is an expansion card that is dedicated to processing videos, images, or other visual data and transmitting the output to the monitor/display.
A video card is a separate piece of hardware that can be plugged into the motherboard’s expansion slot on your computer while the integrated graphics card is a component on the motherboard. The performance of the integrated graphics card is inferior to the video card (dedicated graphics card).
GPU vs Graphics Card vs Video Card – Definition
What Is GPU?
GPU is short for Graphics Processing Unit. It is an integral part of a graphics card. GPU is a specialized electronic circuit that can quickly alter memory to manipulate and accelerate computer graphics and image processing. The Graphics Processing Unit actually creates what we see on the monitor screen.
Many modern GPUs support hardware accelerated video decoding and video post-processing, which is useful for 4K or HD video decoding and processing.
What Is Graphics Card?
Graphics Card is a hardware component that is dedicated to video processing and is responsible for producing the output to the display device. It has two connectors. One is connected to computer monitor, the other is connected to computer motherboard.
What Is Video Card?
Video Card is also called graphics card, display card, graphics adapter. It processes and generates output videos and images to a display device. The difference between graphics card and video card is: video cards that are integrated into the motherboard are called integrated or onboard cards.
GPU vs Graphics Card – Differences Explanation
The main difference between GPU and graphic card is that the GPU is the specific unit in the graphics card that conducts the actual processing of the images and graphics. GPU can consist of multiple cores to handle high-resolution graphics processing tasks and reduce the workload of computer main processor (CPU). On the other hand, the graphics card is mainly in charge of generating images and videos to display them on the output device.
Graphics Card vs Video Card – Differences Explanation
Both graphics card and video card control the generation and quality of videos and pictures, speed of rendering, gaming experience, etc.
Generally, graphics card has two types: integrated graphics card and dedicated graphics card.
The onboard video card is also called integrated graphics card that can be integrated into the motherboard. Whereas the dedicated graphics card has its own RAM, cooling system, and dedicated power regulators. It is specially designed for processing video images. By upgrading to a dedicated graphics card, it can offload work from CPU and system RAM. This can make graphics processing faster and largely improve the computer’s overall performance. This is very helpful if you need to frequently play games, edit 4K/3D videos, etc.
The integrated graphics card is cheaper and more compact while video card (dedicated graphics card) costs more than integrated graphics card.
