The core of the graphics card refers to the GPU of the graphics card
The 2D display chip mainly relies on the processing power of the CPU when processing 3D images and special effects, which is called "soft acceleration". The 3D display chip concentrates the three-dimensional image and special effects processing functions in the display chip, which is the so-called "hardware acceleration" function. The display chip is usually the largest chip on the display card (also the one with the most pins).
Generally, the core chip of the graphics card cannot be directly seen from the appearance of the graphics card, because the core of the graphics card is almost covered with heat sinks or cooling fans.
Generally, there are codes on the display core, and the model of the graphics chip can be directly seen on many chips. For example, for the graphics card core of the Radeon 9550 core, the first row of the core has the words Radeon 9550, and we can see the core model intuitively. However, there are also cores that only indicate R&D codes, such as NVIDIA’s NV18, NV31, ATI’s R340, R420, etc. These R&D codes represent different types of chips (Figure 2, Figure 3). Generally speaking, the chips are located in the center of the entire graphics card. Depending on the package, such as TPBGA, FC-BGA, etc., there are not small differences in appearance.
From the surface of the graphics card core (GPU), we can see that its complexity is comparable to that of the CPU. The graphics card core also has tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of transistors. Different functional areas are divided inside it, and there is a clearer division of labor for different applications.
The R&D vendors of the graphics card core are not only ATI (acquired by AMD in 2006) and NVIDIA. The third power represented by S3 and XGI has also recovered in the past two years, but after all R&D efforts and product cycles cannot compete with the two giants. It is undeniable that among these "alternative" graphics card cores, there are still many cost-effective products worthy of our attention.
Compared with the types of motherboard chipsets or CPUs, there are more types of graphics chips. Over the years, NVIDIA and NVIDIA have definitely allowed the majority of players to experience Smith’s terrible replication ability in The Matrix. The two major display core manufacturers released many new products within one year, such as X1300, X1600, X1900, and NVIDIA's GeForce 7 series... Pushing the time forward a bit, it is also blooming: FX 5200/5600 /5700/5800/5900, ATI has Radeon 9100/9200/9600/9700/9800... Each number with LE, GT, Ultra, XT, SE, PRO has become a new product, which is even more impressive What is confusing is that the numbers themselves are "fine-tuned" (like the previous 5900 and 5950). Although there are many types of graphics cards, there are not so many corresponding core models. Several graphics cards of different models may use the same display core. Generally speaking, as long as the manufacturer develops a core, it can "clone" multiple versions of graphics cards.