Since graphics card uses a lot of energy, it is expected that some of this will be converted to heat. If the heat generated is not dissipated into the atmosphere then the graphics card will overheat and in the process be damaged.

To answer this problem, developers have incorporated cooling devices that allows heat to be transfer elsewhere. There are three types of cooling devices employed on a card. These are by using a passive heat sink cooling device, a computer fan, and installing a water block.

Currently there are two type of cards that are available in the market. These are the Integrated type cards and the Expansion type cards.

The Integrated idia geforce gtx 580 graphics cards are components that are already built-in to the system motherboard. It uses the system's processor (CPU) and memory to create the actual graphics.

While Integrated cards can process some complex graphics such as 3D images, they have to share the CPU and memory with other programs. If in some instances both the CPU and memory are overloaded, the graphics card is greatly affected in speed. Thus this type of card is useful for applications like word processing and Internet surfing but not much on gaming or other graphic-intensive programs.

The Expansion type card on the other hand operates autonomously and does not depend much on the computer CPU and memory. It is because of this that expansion type graphics card are considered to be the most powerful graphics hardware capable of delivering high-quality 3D graphics. The Expansion type card is further subdivided into two: Discrete video card and Dual video card.

Since the 3D cards for model rendering in art and animation is different from those intended for gaming, specific type of expansion card are used. Despite having similar hardware, their drivers and firmware are optimized for specific tasks. Discrete graphics card are geared towards achieving high performing 3D graphics quality and thus are suitable for gaming, while the Dual graphics card are used for displaying immense files at top speed usually used for high precision rendering.

The graph below sums up all of the different graphics card characteristic and the different application that they can perform. It is a good guideline in selecting a good graphics card for your needs.