What Is the Difference Between Gaming and Professional Graphics Cards?
Essentially three types of graphic cards are available for use with desktop or laptop computers, the standard graphics card, the professional graphics card and the gaming card. While not substantially different, professional graphics cards typically cost more than a gaming card because of the card’s intended use. Even though these cards are usually manufactured by the same manufacturer and might even be the same card, the professional graphics cards come with add-ons blocked on the gaming cards.
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Gaming Cards
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Gaming cards are structurally the same as a professional graphics card. What changes between the two cards has to do with the software applications with which the card interfaces, the display needs of the program, the drivers and accelerators used with the cards. Gaming cards, while needing the ability to display 3-D graphics – the graphics are only for display – not design or modeling. Gaming cards interact with the computer game’s program software through an application program interface, such as OpenGL, an open-source graphics library interface or DirectX, used primarily for Windows-based games. Many professional graphics card may be too slow for the gamer's needs.
Professional Graphics Cards
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Professional graphic cards are for use in content creation, video editing, computer-aided drawing and 3-D design modeling. While the professional graphics card may be built on the same platform as the gaming card, it requires special drivers and accelerators for the 3-D functions and modeling to work. Though the two cards can even be the exact same card, the gaming card will come with the special accelerators and drivers blocked on it and a much lower price tag. Professional graphics cards typically have a graphics processing unit, or GPU with higher clock speeds and more accessible memory on the card.
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Other Distinguishing Characteristics
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Each graphics card contains its own GPU – optimized by the manufacturer for “accelerating” graphics. The GPU clock frequency ranges from approximately 250 MHz to 4 GHz, depending on the characteristics of the graphics card. Most graphic card GPUs typically contain more computing power in magnitudes higher than those found in the motherboard’s central processing unit or CPU. Memory capacities are different as well, ranging from 128MB to 8GB.
Choosing Right Card
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Unless you plan on using your computer for computer-aided drawing, you won’t need the much more expensive professional graphics card – intended for use in high-end 3-D modeling, graphics or animation design. If you don’t plan to do any hard-core gaming on your computer that requires advanced 3-D graphics, the video card your computer comes standard with usually provides more than enough of the graphics elements needed for standard everyday computer use. Graphic cards start as low as $6, at the time of publication, and go all the way up to $3,000 plus for high-end professional graphics cards. The average cost runs between $30 and $100 for most home computer users.
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