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Video Card

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A video card, also referred to as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, graphics card, and numerous other terms, is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display. Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) was a Computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers Micro Channel Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to MCA) was a proprietary 16- or 32-bit parallel Computer bus The VESA Local Bus (usually abbreviated to VL-Bus or VLB) was mostly used in personal computers The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (commonly PCI) specifies a Computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a Computer PCI-X ( Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended) is a Computer bus and Expansion card standard designed to supersede PCI. Not to be confused with PCI-X, a different bus architecture Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to A VGA connector as it is commonly known (other names include RGB connector D-sub 15 mini sub D15 and mini D15 is a three-row 15 pin DE-15. The Digital Visual Interface ( DVI) is a Video interface standard designed to maximize the visual quality of digital Display devices such as Flat panel Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF Super Video or Separated Video abbreviated S-Video and also known as Y/C is an analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate This article is about analog component video for the processing of color components in digital video see Digital video, Chroma subsampling and YCbCr The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams DMS-59 is a 59-pin Electrical connector generally used for computer Video cards It provides two DVI outputs on a single connector DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1 A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of Electrical equipment which displays images generated from the Video It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices. A sound card (also known as an audio card is a Computer Expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to/from a computer under

The term is usually used to refer to a separate, dedicated expansion card that is plugged into a slot on the computer's motherboard, as opposed to a graphics controller integrated into the motherboard chipset. An expansion card (also expansion board, adapter card or accessory card) in Computing is a Printed circuit board that can be inserted A motherboard is the central or primary Printed circuit board (PCB making up a complex electronic system such as a modern Computer or Laptop A chipset is a group of Integrated circuits or chips that are designed to work together and are usually marketed as a single product An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an "integrated graphics processor" (IGP).

Some video cards offer added functions, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding or even FireWire, mouse, light pen, joystick connectors, or even the ability to connect multiple monitors. Video capture is the process of converting an Analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital form MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information" MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data The IEEE 1394 interface is a serial bus Interface standard for high-speed communications and Isochronous real-time data transfer frequently In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) A light pen is a Computer Input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a the computer's CRT TV set or monitor A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling Multi-monitor, also known as Multi-display, Multi-head and Dual-Monitor are synonymous terms referring to the use of multiple physical display

Video cards are not used exclusively in IBM type PCs; they have been used in devices such as Commodore Amiga (connected by the slots Zorro II and Zorro III), Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari Mega ST/TT (attached to the MegaBus or VME interface), Spectravideo SVI-328, MSX and in video game consoles. The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Zorro II is the name of the general purpose expansion bus used by the Amiga 2000 computer Released as the expansion bus of the Commodore Amiga 3000 in 1990, the Zorro III Computer bus was used to attach peripheral devices Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s

Contents

History

Video card history starts in the 1960s, when printers were replaced with screens as visualization element. Video cards were needed to create the first images.

Year Text Mode Graphics Mode Colors Memory
MDA 1981 80*25 - 1 4 KB
CGA 1981 80*25 640*200 16 16 KB
HGC 1982 80*25 720*348 1 64 KB
EGA 1984 80*25 640*350 16 256 KB
IBM 8514 1987 80*25 1024*768 256 -
MCGA 1987 80*25 320*200 256 -
VGA 1987 720*400 640*480 256 256 KB
SVGA 1989 80*25 800*600 256 1 MB
XGA 1990 80*25 1024*768 65,536 2 MB

The first IBM PC video card, which was released with the first IBM PC, was developed by IBM in 1981. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter) could only work in text mode representing 25x80 lines in the screen. The Monochrome Display Adapter ( MDA, also MDA card, Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter, MDPA) introduced in 1981 was IBM It had a 4KB video memory and just one color. [1]

Starting with the MDA in 1981, several video cards were released, which are summarized in the attached table. [2][3][4][5]

VGA was widely accepted, which lead some corporations such as ATI, Cirrus Logic and S3 to work with that video card, improving its resolution and the number of colours it used. The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread Cirrus Logic ( is a fabless semiconductor supplier specializing in analog mixed-signal and DSP chips S3 Graphics Ltd is a company specializing in graphics chipsets And so was born the SVGA (Super VGA) standard, which reached 2 MB of video memory and a resolution of 1024x768 at 256 color mode. Super Video Graphics Array or Ultra Video Graphics Array, almost always abbreviated to Super VGA, Ultra VGA or just SVGA or UVGA is

In 1995 the first consumer 2D/3D cards were released, developed by Matrox, Creative, S3 and ATI, and others. Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd is a Canadian company based in Dorval Quebec, which produces video card components and equipment for Personal computers Creative Technology Limited ( is a listed manufacturer of computer Multimedia products based in Singapore, where the firm was founded and now under the executive Those video cards followed the SVGA standard, but incorporated 3D functions. In 1997, 3dfx released the graphics chip Voodoo, which was very powerful and included new 3D effects (Mip Mapping, Z-buffering, Anti-aliasing. 3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D Graphics processing units and later Graphics cards After dominating the field In 3D computer graphics Texture filtering, MIP maps (also mipmaps) are pre-calculated optimized collections of bitmap images that In Computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional (3-D graphics usually done in Hardware, sometimes in In Digital signal processing, anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as Aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal . . ). From this point, a series of 3D video cards were released, like Voodoo2 from 3dfx, TNT and TNT2 from NVIDIA. The multinational NVIDIA Corporation ( (ɪnˈvɪdiə specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for Workstations The bandwidth required by these cards was approaching the limits of the PCI bus capacity. The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (commonly PCI) specifies a Computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a Computer Intel developed the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) which solved the bottleneck between the microprocessor and the video card. From 1999 until 2002, NVIDIA controlled the video card market (taking over 3dfx)[6] with the GeForce family. GeForce is a Brand of PC graphics processor units (GPUs designed by Nvidia. The improvements carried out in these years were focused in 3D algorithms and graphics processor clock rate. Nevertheless, video memory also needed to improve their data rate, and DDR technology was incorporated. In Computing, a Computer bus operating with double data rate transfers data on both the rising and falling edges of the Clock signal. The capacity of video memory goes in this period from 32 MB with GeForce to 128 MB with GeForce 4.

In 2006, the leadership of the video cards market[7] was contested between NVIDIA and ATI with their biggest graphics models GeForce and Radeon respectively. GeForce is a Brand of PC graphics processor units (GPUs designed by Nvidia. ATI Radeon is a brand of Graphics processing units (GPU that since 2000 has been manufactured by ATI Technologies and subsequently AMD and is

Components

A video card consists of a printed circuit board on which the components are mounted. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces These include:

Graphics processing unit (GPU)

Main article: Graphics processing unit

A GPU is a dedicated graphics microprocessor optimized for floating point calculations which are fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated In Computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a string of digits (or Bits represents a Real number. The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock rate, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 850 MHz, and the number of pipelines (vertex and fragment shaders), which translate a 3D image characterized by vertices and lines into a 2D image formed by pixels. The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second (measured in Hertz) at which a Computer performs its most basic operations such as adding two A shader in the field of Computer graphics is a set of software instructions which is used by the graphic resources primarily to perform rendering effects In Digital imaging, a pixel ( pict ure el ement is the smallest piece of information in an image

Video BIOS

The video BIOS or firmware contains the basic program that governs the video card's operations and provides the instructions that allow the computer and software to interface with the card. Video BIOS is the BIOS of a Graphics card in a computer Much the way the system BIOS provides a set of functions that are used by software programs to access In Computing, firmware is a computer program that is Embedded in a hardware device for example a Microcontroller. It may contain information on the memory timing, operating speeds and voltages of the graphics processor and RAM and other information. It is sometimes possible to change the BIOS (e. g. , to enable factory-locked settings for higher performance) although this is typically only done by video card overclockers, and has the potential to irreversibly damage the card.

Video memory

Type Memory clock rate (MHz) Bandwidth (GB/s)
DDR 166 - 950 1. 2 - 30. 4
DDR2 533 - 1000 8. 5 - 16
GDDR3 700 - 1800 5. 6 - 54. 4
GDDR4 1600 - 2400 64 - 156. 6

If the video card is integrated in the motherboard, it may use the computer RAM (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video card will have its own video memory, called Video RAM. The memory capacity of most modern video cards range from 128 MB to 2. 0 GB[8]. Since video memory needs to be accessed by the GPU and the display circuitry, it often uses special high speed or multi-port memory, such as VRAM, WRAM, SGRAM, etc. Around 2003, the video memory was typically based on DDR technology. In Computing, a Computer bus operating with double data rate transfers data on both the rising and falling edges of the Clock signal. During and after that year, manufacturers moved towards DDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR4. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard The memory clock rate in modern cards are generally between 400 MHz and 2. 4 GHz.

Video memory may be used for storing other data as well as the screen image, such as the Z-buffer, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D graphics. In Computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional (3-D graphics usually done in Hardware, sometimes in 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer

RAMDAC

Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter. The term digital signal is used to refer to more than one concept An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature (variable of the signal is a representation of some other RAMDAC takes responsibility for turning the digital signals produced by the computer processor into an analog signal which can be understood by the computer display. Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter (RAMDAC is a combination of three fast DACs with a small SRAM used in computer graphics Display adapters Depending on the number of bits used and the RAMDAC data transfer rate, the converter will be able to support different computer display refresh rates. With CRT displays, it is best to work over 75 Hz and never under 60 Hz, in order to minimise flicker. [9] (With LCD displays, flicker is not a problem. ) Due to the growing popularity of digital computer displays and the migration of some of its functions to the motherboard, the RAMDAC is slowly disappearing. All current LCD and plasma displays and TVs work in the digital domain and do not require a RAMDAC. There are few remaining legacy LCD and plasma displays which feature analog inputs (VGA, component, SCART etc. The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread SCART (from Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) ) only; these do require a RAMDAC but they reconvert the analog signal back to digital before they can display it, with the unavoidable loss of quality stemming from this digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion.

Outputs

The most common connection systems between the video card and the computer display are:

HD-15 Analog-based standard adopted in the late 1980s designed for CRT displays, also called VGA connector. A VGA connector as it is commonly known (other names include RGB connector D-sub 15 mini sub D15 and mini D15 is a three-row 15 pin DE-15. The cathode ray tube (CRT is a Vacuum tube containing an Electron gun (a source of electrons and a Fluorescent screen with internal or A VGA connector as it is commonly known (other names include RGB connector D-sub 15 mini sub D15 and mini D15 is a three-row 15 pin DE-15. Some problems of this standard are electrical noise, image distortion and sampling error evaluating pixels. In Statistics, sampling error or estimation error is the error caused by observing a sample instead of the whole population
DVI Digital-based standard designed for displays such as flat-panel displays (LCDs, plasma screens, wide High-definition television displays) and video projectors. The Digital Visual Interface ( DVI) is a Video interface standard designed to maximize the visual quality of digital Display devices such as Flat panel High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition It avoids image distortion and electrical noise, corresponding each pixel from the computer to a display pixel, using its native resolution. The native resolution of a LCD, LCoS or other flat panel display refers to its single fixed resolution.
Video In Video Out (VIVO) for S-Video, Composite video and Component video Included to allow the connection with televisions, DVD players, video recorders and video game consoles. Video In Video Out, usually seen as the Acronym VIVO (commonly pronounced vee-voh is a graphics card port which enables some Video cards Super Video or Separated Video abbreviated S-Video and also known as Y/C is an analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF This article is about analog component video for the processing of color components in digital video see Digital video, Chroma subsampling and YCbCr Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic This page relates to a Hardware device used to play DVDs For the Apple Software program, see DVD Player (Apple. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT VCRs/VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS They often come in two 9-pin Mini-DIN connector variations, and the VIVO splitter cable generally comes with either 4 connectors (S-Video in and out + composite video in and out) or 6 connectors (S-Video in and out + component PB out + component PR out + component Y out (also composite out) + composite in). The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin Electrical connectors used in a variety of applications
Image:Pseudo miniDIN-9 Diagram.png
9-pin VIVO for S-Video (TV-out), DVI for HDTV and HD-15 for VGA outputs.
9-pin VIVO for S-Video (TV-out), DVI for HDTV and HD-15 for VGA outputs. Video In Video Out, usually seen as the Acronym VIVO (commonly pronounced vee-voh is a graphics card port which enables some Video cards Super Video or Separated Video abbreviated S-Video and also known as Y/C is an analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition A VGA connector as it is commonly known (other names include RGB connector D-sub 15 mini sub D15 and mini D15 is a three-row 15 pin DE-15. The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread


Other Types of Connection Systems

Composite video Analog system, with lower resolution. Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF It uses RCA connector. An RCA jack, also referred to as a phono connector or CINCH/AV connector, is a type of Electrical connector that is commonly used in the audio/video
Component video It has three cables, each with RCA connector (YCBCR); it is used in projectors, DVD players and some televisions. This article is about analog component video for the processing of color components in digital video see Digital video, Chroma subsampling and YCbCr YCbCr or Y'CbCr is a family of Color spaces used as a part of the Color image pipeline in Video and Digital photography systems
DB13W3 an analogue standard once used by Sun Microsystems, SGI and IBM. DB13W3 (also known simply as 13W3) is a particular style of D-subminiature connector commonly used as an analog video interface connector that was Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services Silicon Graphics Inc (commonly initialised to SGI, historically sometimes referred to as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) is a company International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology
HDMI digital technology released in 2003, whose goal is to replace all the others. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams
DisplayPort An advanced license and royalty-free digital audio/video interconnect released in 2007. DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1

Motherboard interface

Main articles: bus (computing) and Expansion card
Bus Width (bits) Clock rate (MHz) Bandwidth (MB/s) Style
ISA XT 8 4,77 8 Parallel
ISA AT 16 8,33 16 Parallel
MCA 32 10 20 Parallel
EISA 32 8,33 32 Parallel
VESA 32 40 160 Parallel
PCI 32 - 64 33 - 100 132 - 800 Parallel
AGP 1x 32 66 264 Parallel
AGP 2x 32 133 528 Parallel
AGP 4x 32 266 1000 Parallel
AGP 8x 32 533 2000 Parallel
PCIe x1 1 2500 / 5000 250 / 500 Serial
PCIe x4 1*4 2500 / 5000 1000 /2000 Serial
PCIe x8 1*8 2500 / 5000 2000 / 4000 Serial
PCIe x16 1*16 2500 / 5000 4000 / 8000 Serial

Chronologically, connection systems between video card and motherboard were, mainly:

In the attached table[10] is a comparison between a selection of the features of some of those interfaces.

Cooling devices

Main article: Computer cooling
Heat sink with fan attached.
Heat sink with fan attached. Computer cooling is the process of removing heat from computer components

Video cards may use a lot of electricity, which is converted into heat. If the heat isn't dissipated, the video card could overheat and be damaged. Cooling devices are incorporated to transfer the heat elsewhere. Three types of cooling devices are commonly used on video cards:

Power demand

As the processing power of video cards has increased, so has their demand for electrical power. Present fast video cards tend to consume a great deal of power. While CPU and power supply makers have recently moved toward higher efficiency, power demands of GPUs have continued to rise, so the video card may be the biggest electricity user in a computer. [11] Although power supplies are increasing their power too, the bottleneck is due to the PCI-Express connection, which is limited to supplying 75 W. Not to be confused with PCI-X, a different bus architecture Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E [12] Nowadays, video cards with a power consumption over 75 watts usually include a combination of six pin (75W) or eight pin (150W) sockets that connect directly to the power supply to supplement power.

Manufacturers

Two types of manufacturers must be distinguished:

GPU and IGP Manufacturers

Video Card Manufacturers

See also:

List of defunct graphics chips and card companies

Graphics APIs

Main article: List of 3D graphics APIs

Due to the difficulties working with video cards at a programming level, interfaces which abstract the complexity and diversity of the graphic card primitives appeared. This is a list of defunct graphics chips and card vendors During the 1980s and 1990s a relatively large number of companies appeared selling primarily 2D Graphics cards but later 3D graphics have become so popular particularly in Computer games that specialized APIs (application programming interfaces have been created to ease the processes in all stages Some major ones include:

Graphics techniques

Some of the most frequently used effects for enhancing the perceived quality of the output of graphics cards include the following:

See also

References

  1. ^ MDA in IBM PC. Cases / Chassis List of Computer case manufacturers Akasa Antec AOpen AplusCase Free and open source software (FOSS can be used with a variety of Graphics hardware, largely via the X Scalable Link Interface ( SLI) is a brand name for a multi- GPU solution developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce The multinational NVIDIA Corporation ( (ɪnˈvɪdiə specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for Workstations The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin Electrical connectors used in a variety of applications Video In Video Out, usually seen as the Acronym VIVO (commonly pronounced vee-voh is a graphics card port which enables some Video cards
  2. ^ History Table Reference (1).
  3. ^ History Table Reference (2).
  4. ^ History Table Reference (3).
  5. ^ History Table Reference (4).
  6. ^ NVIDIA takes over 3dfx.
  7. ^ NVIDIA vs ATI.
  8. ^ ATI FireGL V8650
  9. ^ Refresh rate recommended.
  10. ^ Buses features.
  11. ^ http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/power-noise.html X-bit labs: Faster, Quieter, Lower: Power Consumption and Noise Level of Contemporary Graphics Cards
  12. ^ Power supply solution.

External links

Manufacturers

Dictionary

video card

-noun

  1. (computing) a piece of hardware installed into a personal computer to allow it to send video signals to an external output device such as a monitor or projector
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