Why does a computer need a dedicated graphics card for high-graphics video games, but can play 4K quality video without one?
In: Technology
There are some great ELI5 answers here already – ill add that for video the ‘rendering’ has already been done. When you export a video in an editor, it takes a long time for the renderer to draw what will be in each frame of the “flip book”.
Many video editors use the video card to make that video rendering process faster. Complicated videos like fancy 3D animations take just as long if not more to ‘render’ to video as complicated video games take to render each frame. But once that work is done, the information is stored in a ‘flip book’ format so its quick to play it back. Since a video is always the same each time its played, you can do all of the “drawing” work ahead of time.
You can’t do the work ahead of time in a video game, because a video game is different every time its played – you the player decide what will happen next. So the ‘next’ frame is unknown until you turn, shoot, jump, or the game changes weather, lighting, etc.
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