Sound Cards: A sound card is an expansion card or integrated circuit that provides a computer with the ability to produce sounds that can be heard from the computer speakers, external speakers, and headphones. Sound Cards can also be referred to as sound board or an audio cord. A sound card allows you to have a better quality of sound, so that the sound coming out of the computer is clear. the point of the sound card or its function is so that you are able to listen to music, watch movies, audio conferencing, using it for presentations and many other things that we use sound for. There are two main ypes of sound cards, PCI and ISA.
Graphic cards:A graphics card is a major component of a PC and it generally consumes more power compared to other components. Entry-level graphics cards draw their power from the PCI Express x16 slot only but high-end graphics cards require external power from the PSU for their working. The external power for these high-end graphics cards come from the 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors from the power supply.
Video cards: A video card is sometimes called a graphics card, graphics adapter, display card, or video controller. It is a piece of hardware responsible for processing any graphics generated by the motherboard and transmitting them to the display unit. It is like a circuit board that fits in a slot on a computer’s motherboard. The monitor plugs into the socket on the video card and on the backside of the computer. The board consists of a special electronic circuit consisting of a graphics processing unit and a visual processing unit as well as a heat sink to spread out the heat produced. Other components of a video card are video BIOS, video memory, RAMDAC, video graphics array, digital visual interface, HDMI and display port. The video card controls display factors such as resolution, colors displayed, and the speed of the images displayed. However, sometimes video cards are integrated directly into the motherboard or CPU, which are called integrated or on-board cards.
PCI Express x16 connector: Every modern-day graphics card comes with a PCI Express x16 connector that goes in the PCI Express x16 slot of your motherboard. PCI Express x16 connector connects your graphics to the motherboard and is the only interface through which communication happens.
Network Cards: The figure shows a typical network card with RJ45 is a type of connector (not visible, though), commonly used for Ethernet networking. Network cards come in two main categories, 1) wired and 2) wireless.
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