VIDEO
CARD
Video
Cards Manufacturers: ATI, STB, Diamond, Intel, GeoForce
Video
cards (video boards / video display boards / graphics cards / graphics
adapter) is a physical hardware circuit board(s) which connects to
the Motherboard. When the video card is connected to a monitor it
serves as the visual link between you and your computer, allowing
you to view and manage your computers software data.
Typical
Video Card Connectors
VGA (Video Graphics Adapter) use to connect older monitors
DVI
(Digital Video Interface) use to connect newer monitors
Video Cards are usually
Built-in
to the motherboard (Integrated Video Card)
PCI-e (The fastest and the most expensive)
AGP (Extremely Fast)
PCI (Fast)
ISA (Cheap and Slow)
Expansion
Bus Chart:
| Type
of Bus |
Bits
Wide |
Transfer
Speed |
| |
|
|
| ISA |
8 bit |
2.38MB/s |
| ISA |
16 bit |
8MB/s |
| PCI (Client) |
32 bit |
133MB/s |
| PCI (Server) |
64 bit |
266MB/s |
| AGP 1x |
32 bit |
266MB/s |
| AGP 2x |
32 bit |
533MB/s |
| AGP 4x |
32 bit |
1,066MB/s |
| AGP 8x |
32 bit |
2,133MB/s |
AGP 8x
(high-end) |
64 bit |
4,266MB/s |
| PCI-e |
|
|
| Lane
Widths |
Peak
unidirectional bandwidth |
Peak
full duplex bandwidth |
| x1 |
250MB/s |
500MB/s |
| x2 |
500MB/s |
1GB/s |
| x4 |
1GB/s |
2GB/s |
| x8 |
2GB/s |
4GB/s |
| x16 |
4GB/s |
8GB/s |
| x32 (new) |
8GB/s |
16GB/s |
Video
Memory
32MB is a typical Video Memory if you are into gaming you will need
more or you’re going to run the new Vista OS you are going to
need at least 128MB
High End Video Card sometimes contain their own BIOS, memory, cooling
mechanism, processor, S Video connector and a TV Tuner connector for
connecting your video card to your television.
Typical nVidia PCI-e Card
Direct
X - is a collection of API’s for handling tasks related
to Multimedia and Microsoft Platforms.
| Types
of Video Memory |
Speed |
| VRAM |
Fast (Obsolete) |
| WRAM |
Fast (Obsolete) |
| SDRAM |
Fast (Low
End PCI/AGP) |
| SGRAM |
Very Fast
(PCI/AGP) |
| DDR-SDRAM |
Very Fast
(High End PCI/AGP) |
| DDR2-SDRAM |
Extremely
Fast (High End AGP/PCI-e) |
| G-DDR3-SDRAM |
Extremely
Fast (High End AGP/PCI-e) |
| G-DDR4-SDRAM |
Extremely
Fast (High End AGP/PCI-e) |
VGA vs.
SVGA vs. XGA
All video cards use VGA routines to generate basic display to interact
with a PCs system BIOS. Then, any advancement on these routines with
no universal standard to speak about, to generate display and color
above 640x480 with 16 colors is considered SVGA or XGA. I believe
I can state without exception all video cards sold in nearly a decade
would be considered SVGA or XGA (LCD and Laptops), capable of displaying
a larger realm of color and resolution than basic VGA or 640x480 -
16 colors.
Video Memory vs. Video Speed
One of the most misunderstood components of a video card is the Video
Memory. Video memory does not equate to Video speed. Video speed is
determined by two major factors: the chipset on the video card and
the I/O slot holding the video card, (ISA. PCI, AGP, PCI-e). Video
memory only determines the ability to display a certain color depth
and resolution, such as 800x600-16million colors. There exists a mathematical
formula to determine the required amount of memory on a video card
to display varying degrees of color and resolutions, but let us suffice
to say that a four (4MB) video card can display 1024x768-16million
colors all that is required to work with photographic 2D images. Since
it is rare today to find any video cards with less than 4MB/s of memory,
this is not really much of an issue.
Video Card Default Resolution and Color support
VGA
video graphics adapter
Resolution and Color Support
640x480 16
320x200 256
SVGA
Super VGA
Resolution and Color Support
800x600 65,536
1024x768 256
XGA
extensive Graphics Adapter (LCD and Laptops)
Resolution and Color Support
800x600 65,536
1024x768 256
SXGA
Super XGA
Resolution and Color Support
1280x1024
65,536
WSXGA Wide Super XGA
Resolution and Color Support
1680x1050 65, 536
UXGA
Ultra XGA
1600x1200 65,536
WUXGA
Wide Ultra XGA
1920x1200 16,777,216
Color Support in Bits/Pixel Measurement
16 colors = 4-bit color
256 colors = 8-bit
65,536 colors =16-bit (high color mode)
16,777,216 = 24-bit (true color mode)
True colors = 32-bit (usually reserved for scanning)
special
thanks to ATI and nVidia
Hello 
