44 Thermal GreaseThermal GreaseThermal grease, also called thermal gel, thermal compound, and so on, isused to create a heat inductive layer between a processor and heat sink.Applying thermal grease between the processor and heat sink increasesthe heat transfer from the processor to the heat sink, as the thermalgrease has better conductivity than air.Video CardsVideo card is a component that sends video signals or information to adisplay device such as a monitor or projector.Video cards can be of two types:• Integrated video – Often referred to as an on-board video card, it isa chip that is part of the system board. Integrated video cards do nothave dedicated memory, and share the system memory and processorto output video. Integrated video cards are suitable for users who donot require high video performance.• Discrete video – Discrete video cards are installed separately onthe system board. Discrete video cards have dedicated memory onthe cards and generally provide higher performance than integratedvideo cards. These video cards are generally installed in a PCI-E x16expansion slots on the system board. Legacy connectors forvideo cards include PCI and AGP. These cards are best suited forgraphic-intensive applications, playing high-definition video games,and so on.NOTE: When a discrete video card is installed on a computer that alsohas an integrated video card, the integrated video card is disabled.Use the system setup program to manually enable the integratedvideo card.• Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) – APUs are formed by etching agraphics processing unit (GPU), or any other processing system onthe same chip as the CPU. Hence, APUs provide higher data transferrates while reducing the power consumption which improves theperformance of the computer when compared to Integrated video.
