XFX GeForce 8800 GTX Video Card Review :: Graphics Architecture 101

11-08-2006 · Category: Hardware - Video Cards

By Doc Overclock

The traditional graphics card architecture starts with the CPU which feeds the graphics chip in the vertex stage. Early video cards (pre-DX7) had the CPU handle the transformation and lighting of the vertices. DX 7 cards had fixed-function T+L hardware that did limited shading operations, with the advent of the GeForce 3 and programmable pixel shaders this part of the graphics pipeline became much more flexible. The RADEON 9700 from ATI brought programmable pixel shaders 2.0 and the GeForce 6800 brought dynamic flow control in SM version 3.0

The next step in the pipeline is the Setup stage, where vertices are made into shapes like triangles, lines, or points called primitives. These primitives are then converted in the rasterization stage into pixel fragments. The next step of the classic graphics pipeline is the ROP stage. In this stage the fragments are subjected to shading, Z-Culling, frame-buffering and anti-aliasing. Here's where the term fragment shading is more accurate than pixel shading, because they are not called pixels until the fragments are written into the frame-buffer but pixel shaders are used most commonly in terminology. The next step of the classic graphics pipeline is the memory stage where the final outputted pixel is sent to be displayed.

