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VIDEO CARD ABCs
Video cards (video boards /
video display boards / graphics cards / graphics
adapter) are physical hardware circuit boards
that connect to the Motherboard. Video cards are
also now being placed onto the computer motherboard
to help bring the cost down on computers. 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 computer's
software data.
Video Cards must specify its
video standards, allowing end users to know what
video cards may or may not be capable of doing. With
new computers, you will most likely find SVGA
standard video cards, allowing you to run the
majority of software applications as well as run at
high resolutions.
Generally, most video cards
shipped today are included with video memory. Video
memory is built onto the video board and/or
motherboard, allowing the video card to run at
higher resolutions and run at more efficient speeds.
Video cards are most commonly
found in the PCI slots; however, with the release of
the Pentium II came the AGP (Advanced Graphics Port)
support. This new type of slot was released on
August 26, 1996. This new technology allows the card
to run at 66 MHz, 32-bit bus.
With the increasing popularity
of advanced gaming came a new breed of video cards
known as the 3D accelerators. When originally
released, these cards only had support for 3D and
not 2D and commonly required an additional 2D card
to fully work. Today, 3D accelerators support both
3D and 2D, contains several MB of memory and
processor on the video card.
RESOLUTION INFORMATION
The below information applies to
a desktop CRT monitor's resolution. If you would
like more information about LCD display resolutions,
please see our LCD page.
The below image is an example of
a screen running at 640 x 480 which means 640 pixels
are going horizontally by 480 pixels going
vertically. When increasing the resolution, the
image will become smaller due to the screen
displaying more pixels per inch.
When setting the resolution
higher you must have the needed Video Ram to support
that resolution. If by chance you set your
resolution higher than supported by your computer's
hardware, you will need to follow the below steps to
change the resolution depending upon operating
system. |
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REFRESH RATE INFORMATION
The monitor refresh rate is
measured in Hz, which can also be called frame rate,
horizontal scan rate, refresh rate, vertical
frequency, or vertical scan rate. When setting a
monitor's Hz, for example, 75 Hz, which is the Hz
rate specified by VESA for any video resolution
above or equal to 640x480, means that the computer
is going to redraw the screen 75 times per second.
Refresh rates below 75 Hz can
produce an often-imperceptible flicker that can
cause eyestrain after long viewing. While some cards
can support as high as 120 Hz, sometimes even
higher, it is recommended you run 85-90 Hz; rates
beyond 90 Hz add an unnecessary processing burden.
DIRECTX INFO
First released in 1996, DirectX
is a set of APIs (Application Program Interface)
developed by Microsoft to allow all programs to
write instructions for hardware without knowing
exactly what hardware is within the computer. Games
which include DirectX will have the capability of
utilizing multimedia and graphics accelerator
features more efficiently. See our DirectX page for
complete information and help with DirectX.
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS
The above picture illustrates a
15 Pin Video Port connector pin assignments as well
as size dimension. Below is a chart explaining each
function of a Video Port connector.
|
PIN |
FUNCTION |
|
1 |
Red Video |
|
2 |
Green Video |
|
3 |
Blue Video |
|
4 |
Monitor ID 2 |
|
5 |
TTL Ground
(monitor
self-test) |
|
6 |
Red Analog Ground |
|
7 |
Green Analog Ground |
|
8 |
Blue Analog Ground |
|
9 |
Key (Plugged Hole) |
|
10 |
Sync Ground |
|
11 |
Monitor ID 0 |
|
12 |
Monitor ID 1 |
|
13 |
Horizontal Sync |
|
14 |
Vertical Sync |
|
15 |
Monitor ID 3 |
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