AMD 3GB Computer Graphics & Video Cards

Expand the Graphical Capabilities of Your Computer with the AMD 3GB Graphics Card

AMD is an American technology company that specializes in graphics cards and other computer components. Graphics cards can simulate complex physics and render granular visual details in gaming programs or graphical rendering software. These particular AMD graphics cards contain 3GB of memory.

The graphics card is the part of the computer that renders all the graphical effects. It contains the graphics processing unit or GPU, which performs the bulk of the computational work. The card also includes a discrete amount of memory, separate from the main system RAM, which stores all types of large graphical assets. The following AMD video cards have 3GB of memory:

• The Radeon HD 7950, the Radeon HD 7970, and the Radeon HD 7990, released in 2012
• The Radeon HD 8950, the Radeon HD 8970, and the Radeon R9 280, released in 2013
• The Radeon R9 280X, released in 2014

All these video cards are based on AMD's GCN or Graphics Core Next architecture. This architecture is fabricated on a 28-nanometer or 14-nanometer chip, which measures the size of the individual components on the chip.

The main type of memory used since around 2000 is called graphics double data rate or GDDR for short. GDDR memory essentially doubles the rate of data bandwidth or the data transfer rate compared to previous types of memory standards. This is accomplished through a process called double pumping, in which data is transferred on both the rising and falling edge of the clock signal. Each updated generation of GDDR memory improves upon the data bandwidth speeds of the one before it. If two otherwise similar video cards have two different generations of GDDR memory, then the more updated generation will generally have faster data bandwidth speeds. Most AMD video cards released since around 2012 contain GDDR5 memory.

The overall performance of the GPU is measured by something called FLOPS or floating-point operations per second, which is a method of handling complex numbers. The performance can range between a few billion FLOPS to multiple trillions of FLOPS. There are a few other ways to gauge the performance of the video card as well. The clock speed measures the overall speed of the GPU. The fillrate measures the number of pixels or texture maps the GPU can render at once. The graphics memory has its own attributes, including clock frequency, bus width, and bandwidth. You will also want to consider the type of video output of your monitor, including HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort. Regarding heat generation, the thermal design power is a measure of the amount of heat that the card can safely dissipate without suffering from any damage. Lastly, there is the issue of motherboard compatibility. Most AMD video cards use a PCI Express bus interface to connect with the computer's motherboard. There are three generations of PCI Express interfaces. Each updated generation is backward compatible with the one before it.