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Just like any other computer component, graphics cards can become outdated over time. This extra utility comes at the expense of higher power usage, more heat, and more space in your computer, which is why you'll rarely find dedicated graphics cards in ultra-thin laptops. These expansion cards-often called "discrete" or "dedicated" graphics cards-can usually perform more powerful tasks than integrated graphics, like better 3D gaming, accelerated video rendering, or even certain non-graphical jobs like mining bitcoin. These chips can range from simple "integrated graphics," which are part of the motherboard or processor, to larger, more powerful expansion cards. When you turn on your computer, the images that appear on screen-whether it's a simple Word document or a complex 4K gaming experience-are generated by a graphics processing unit (or GPU).
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