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A graphics card or video card is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image
stored in memory to a signal that can be used
as input for a display medium, most often a monitor utilising a
variety of display standards. Typically, it also
provides functionality to manipulate the logical image in memory.
As was in the past, many graphics cards are standalone devices, attached to a motherboard via the ISA, PCI, VESA, or AGP buses, with PCI-Express expected to be prominent in the future. Increasingly, however, the graphics card is no longer
a "card" in the strictest sense, but is an integrated section of the motherboard dedicated to the same purpose.
Since integrated-graphics-displays usually produce inferior performance compared with standalone graphics cards (due to using
cheaper chipsets and sharing system memory rather than using dedicated memory), those who require high performance still prefer non-integrated
solutions. These more-advanced graphics cards, usually geared toward displaying 3D graphics for games are still card-based. Their
processing engines are sometimes called GPUs
(graphics processing units). Conversely, sometimes 3D-graphics capibilities are not relevant to the choice of high-performance
graphics card; 2D graphics and fine visual-quality fill specialised niches in
areas such as medical imaging.
Analog computer monitors are usually connected to the graphics card via a VGA connector. Digital computer monitors are connected to the graphics card via a DVI connector.
See also
- framebuffer
graphics
- MTRR
Manufacturers
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