GV-R585D5-1GD-B - 1GB Gigabyte HD 5850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, 1440 Cores, DP/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI

All personal computers (PCs) use some form of graphics to output the display on to a monitor or screen. Looking back over the last 15 years, there has seen significant development in what are termed 3D accelerators - dedicated graphics boards designed to render life-like images in real-time - and the market has been dominated by two companies: NVIDIA and ATI.

Explaining how a modern GPU works in completeness would take a book. Or two. Per class of chip. Per vendor. They’re extraordinarily complex pieces of engineering and production, and the end result contains more transistors than multiple modern x86 processors.

This TekSpek will assume you know the affects of applying a level of anti-aliasing (AA) on your 3D accelerator, be it via the driver control panel or via a control in your game. We assume you know the effect it has on image quality, so you can think about a before and after scenario. So this TekSpek isn’t about explaining what it does as such, although it will, it’s about explaining the how and why.

If you’re the least bit interested in graphics cards, we’re sure that you’ve heard the terms SLI and CrossFire bandied about recently. Touted as a means of achieving maximum 3D performance by, effectively, using two or more graphics cards in tandem, multi-GPU technology is here to stay. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look SLI and CrossFire; the two competing multi-GPU solutions from NVIDIA and ATI Technologies, respectively.

This TekSpek explains why you’d want to overclock your graphics board, the risks in doing so and how you can go about doing it.

A motherboard’s main job is to act as a conduit between the various hardware elements that make up a PC. It needs to be able to link the desired CPU(s), system memory, graphics card, hard drive(s), and add-in cards and enable them to work in harmony.

There’s a lot more to High Definition than just having the ability to run your screen at the right resolution. With more than one type of connection available, and the thorny subject of signal encryption to contend with, just because your monitor and graphics are capable of 1,920 x 1,080 or better does not necessarily mean they will be able to display HDTV in all its glory.