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| Graphics card software to install instruction drivers |
How do graphics drivers work & what to they do?
Graphics card drivers work the same way as audio drivers with them being installed so that the CPU can understand the instructions being sent from the hardware and through the system to display a image on screen or to run a game. The drivers again would be installed through the operating system, where the instruction set would then be linked to CPU so that it can be loaded into the hardware routine and the interrupt routine for the CPU to run graphics on screen when they are needed. Each time a new piece of graphic needs to be loaded it is put into the interrupt handling part of the CPU so it can then be loaded in real time onto the screen. The faster the CPU the faster the interrupt stage is meaning that graphics can be seamlessly outputted onto a screen for someone to view.
Once the CPU has the instructions from the drivers it can then go on to configure settings more advanced than they could before, normally the pre-loaded operating system drivers only allow for small resolution and minimal graphical operating, such as running very basic games. However onces the drivers have been loaded and installed, the resolution can then be changed to its max setting which is normally either 1024x768 pixels or on most HD monitors 1920x1080 pixels. The drivers also allow for more powerful output from the card allowing to play more advanced and power extensive games such as battlefield 3, modern warfare or crisis 2 all of which needs very powerful graphics cards to run and play.
Depending on the types of graphics card being used will depend on what drivers are needed, each card has different instruction sets which work with the CPU however different companies make different drivers for their set of cards, meaning you need to install the correct ones to ensure maximum efficiency from your graphics card. The two companies who create graphics cards are AMD (formally ATI) and Nvidia, each company would design different drivers and instructions for the different types of cards. The drivers cannot be mixed and matched between graphics card companies and the type of card, they are specific per card.
Types of cards created by Nvidia:
- Nvidia GTX 690 3GB
- Nvidia GTX 580 1GB
- Nvidia GT 8800 512MB
- Nvidia GT 240 1GB
- Nvidia GTX 560 ti 1GB
Types of cards created by ATI/AMD:
- ATI Radeon HD 6950 2GB
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
- AMD HD 7990 3GB
- AMD 7970 2GB
