Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Graphics Card shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Graphics Card offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Graphics Card at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Graphics Card? Wrong! If the Graphics Card is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Graphics Card then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Graphics Card? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Graphics Card and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Graphics Card wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Graphics Card then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Graphics Card site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Graphics Card, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Graphics Card, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Computer Hardware Generic| name = Video Card

| image = Gpu-connections.png| caption =| invent-date =| invent-name =| conn1 = Motherboard| via1_1 = Peripheral Component Interconnect| via1_2 = Accelerated Graphics Port| via1_3 = PCI Express| via2_2 = [Digital Visual Interface| via2_4|via2_5 = [Component video| via2_7 = [DMS-59| class-name =| class1 =-->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 computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a computer display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.

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 Graphics processing unit#Integrated Graphics Solutions into the motherboard chipset. An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an "integrated graphics processor" (IGP).

Some video cards offer added functionalities, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding or even FireWire, Mouse (computing), light pen, joystick connectors, or even the ability to connect multi-monitor.

Video cards are not used exclusively in IBM type PCs; they have been used in devices such as Amiga (connected by the slots Zorro II and Zorro III), Apple II, Macintosh, Atari Mega ST/TT (attached to the MegaBus or VME interface), Spectravideo SVI-328, MSX and in video game consoles.

History Video cards’ history starts in the 1960s, when printers were replaced with screens as visualization element. Video cards were needed to create the first images.{], was developed by IBM in 1981. The IBM Monochrome Display Adapter (Monochrome Display Adapter) could only work in text mode representing 25x80 lines in the screen. It had a 4KB video memory and just one color.{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/timeline-of-computing-1980-1989|title=MDA in IBM PC-->

Starting with the MDA in 1981, several video cards were released, which are summarized in the attached table.{{cite web] was widely accepted, which lead some corporations such as ATI Technologies, Cirrus Logic and S3 Graphics to work with that video card, improving its resolution and the number of colours it used. And so was born the Super Video Graphics Array (Super VGA) standard, which reached 2MB of video memory and 1024 x 768 dots of resolution at 256 color mode.

The evolution of video cards took a turn for the better in 1995 with the release of the first 2D/3D cards, developed by Matrox, Creative Technology, S3 and ATI, among others. 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...). From this point, a series of 3D video card releases happened, like Voodoo2 from 3dfx, TNT and TNT2 from NVIDIA. The power reached with these cards exceeded the Peripheral Component Interconnect port capacity. Intel Corporation developed the Accelerated Graphics Port (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){{cite web] family. 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 Double data rate technology was incorporated. 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{{cite web] and Radeon respectively.

Components A video card consists of a printed circuit board on which the components are mounted. These include:

Graphics processing unit (GPU) A GPU is a dedicated graphics microprocessor optimized for floating point calculations which are fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock rate, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 650 MHz in modern cards, 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.{| class="wikitable" align="right"|-! Type! Clock rate (MHz)! Bandwidth (GB/s)|- align="center"| DDR| 166 - 950| 1.2 - 30.4|- align="center"| DDR2| 533 - 1000| 8.5 - 16|- align="center"| GDDR3| 700 - 1800| 5.6 - 54.4|- align="center"| GDDR4| 1600 - 2400| 64 - 156.6|}

Video memory If the video card is integrated in the motherboard, it will use the computer Random access memory memory (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video card will have its own video memory which is called Video RAM or Video RAM#Video DRAM .28VRAM.29. The VRAM capacity of most modern video cards range from 128 to 1024 MB (workstation graphics cards). In 2006, the VRAM was based on Double data rate technology, standing out DDR2 SDRAM, GDDR3 and GDDR4. The memory clock rate is between 400 MHz and 1.6 GHz.A very important element of the video memory is the Z-buffering, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D computer graphics.

Video BIOS The video BIOS or firmware chip is a chip that 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. It contains information on the memory timing, operating speeds and voltages of the processor and ram and other information. It is possible to re-flash a BIOS (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.

RAMDAC Random Access Memory Digital signal-to-Analog signal Converter. 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. 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.{{cite web], component, SCART etc) 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: Other connection systems are: {| class="wikitable" align="right"|-! Bus! Width (bits)! Clock rate (MHz)! Bandwidth (MB/s)! Style|- align="center"| ISA XT| 8| 4,77| 8| Parallel|- align="center"| ISA AT| 16| 8,33| 16| Parallel|- align="center"| MCA| 32| 10| 20| Parallel|- align="center"| EISA| 32| 8,33| 32| Parallel|- align="center"| VESA| 32| 40| 160| Parallel|- align="center"| PCI| 32 - 64| 33 - 100| 132 - 800| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 1x| 32| 66| 264| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 2x| 32| 133| 528| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 4x| 32| 266| 1000| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 8x| 32| 533| 2000| Parallel|- align="center"| PCIe x1| 1*32| 25 / 50| 100 / 200| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x4| 1*32| 25 / 50| 400 / 800| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x8| 1*32| 25 / 50| 800 / 1600| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x16| 1*32| 25 / 50| 1600 / 3200| Serial|}

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

In the attached table{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths#Computer_buses|title=Buses features--> is a comparison between a selection of the features of some of those interfaces.


Cooling devices Due to video card work charge, high temperatures are reached, which can cause a breakdown. Cooling devices are incorporated to avoid excessive heat. There are two types of cooling devices, and both can be used at the same time:

Power supply Until 2006, video card power consumption had not been a big problem; nevertheless, present video card tendency is to consume even more power. Although power supplies are increasing their power too, the bottleneck is due to the PCI-Express connection, which is limited to supplying 150W.{{cite web|url=http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/3605|title=Power supply solution-->Nowadays, video cards with a power consumption over 150W usually include a six-pin power socket that connects directly to the power supply,{{cite web|url=http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=37039|title=PCIe power connector--> which allows a direct connection between the computer power supply and the card, avoiding motherboard connection and, therefore, the PCIe port.

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 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. The most important are:

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

External links Manufacturers

{{Infobox Computer Hardware Generic| name = Video Card

| image = Gpu-connections.png| caption =| invent-date =| invent-name =| conn1 = Motherboard| via1_1 = Peripheral Component Interconnect| via1_2 = Accelerated Graphics Port| via1_3 = PCI Express| via2_2 = [Digital Visual Interface| via2_4|via2_5 = [Component video| via2_7 = [DMS-59| class-name =| class1 =-->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 computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a computer display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.

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 Graphics processing unit#Integrated Graphics Solutions into the motherboard chipset. An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an "integrated graphics processor" (IGP).

Some video cards offer added functionalities, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding or even FireWire, Mouse (computing), light pen, joystick connectors, or even the ability to connect multi-monitor.

Video cards are not used exclusively in IBM type PCs; they have been used in devices such as Amiga (connected by the slots Zorro II and Zorro III), Apple II, Macintosh, Atari Mega ST/TT (attached to the MegaBus or VME interface), Spectravideo SVI-328, MSX and in video game consoles.

History Video cards’ history starts in the 1960s, when printers were replaced with screens as visualization element. Video cards were needed to create the first images.{], was developed by IBM in 1981. The IBM Monochrome Display Adapter (Monochrome Display Adapter) could only work in text mode representing 25x80 lines in the screen. It had a 4KB video memory and just one color.{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/timeline-of-computing-1980-1989|title=MDA in IBM PC-->

Starting with the MDA in 1981, several video cards were released, which are summarized in the attached table.{{cite web] was widely accepted, which lead some corporations such as ATI Technologies, Cirrus Logic and S3 Graphics to work with that video card, improving its resolution and the number of colours it used. And so was born the Super Video Graphics Array (Super VGA) standard, which reached 2MB of video memory and 1024 x 768 dots of resolution at 256 color mode.

The evolution of video cards took a turn for the better in 1995 with the release of the first 2D/3D cards, developed by Matrox, Creative Technology, S3 and ATI, among others. 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...). From this point, a series of 3D video card releases happened, like Voodoo2 from 3dfx, TNT and TNT2 from NVIDIA. The power reached with these cards exceeded the Peripheral Component Interconnect port capacity. Intel Corporation developed the Accelerated Graphics Port (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){{cite web] family. 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 Double data rate technology was incorporated. 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{{cite web] and Radeon respectively.

Components A video card consists of a printed circuit board on which the components are mounted. These include:

Graphics processing unit (GPU) A GPU is a dedicated graphics microprocessor optimized for floating point calculations which are fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock rate, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 650 MHz in modern cards, 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.{| class="wikitable" align="right"|-! Type! Clock rate (MHz)! Bandwidth (GB/s)|- align="center"| DDR| 166 - 950| 1.2 - 30.4|- align="center"| DDR2| 533 - 1000| 8.5 - 16|- align="center"| GDDR3| 700 - 1800| 5.6 - 54.4|- align="center"| GDDR4| 1600 - 2400| 64 - 156.6|}

Video memory If the video card is integrated in the motherboard, it will use the computer Random access memory memory (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video card will have its own video memory which is called Video RAM or Video RAM#Video DRAM .28VRAM.29. The VRAM capacity of most modern video cards range from 128 to 1024 MB (workstation graphics cards). In 2006, the VRAM was based on Double data rate technology, standing out DDR2 SDRAM, GDDR3 and GDDR4. The memory clock rate is between 400 MHz and 1.6 GHz.A very important element of the video memory is the Z-buffering, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D computer graphics.

Video BIOS The video BIOS or firmware chip is a chip that 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. It contains information on the memory timing, operating speeds and voltages of the processor and ram and other information. It is possible to re-flash a BIOS (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.

RAMDAC Random Access Memory Digital signal-to-Analog signal Converter. 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. 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.{{cite web], component, SCART etc) 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: Other connection systems are: {| class="wikitable" align="right"|-! Bus! Width (bits)! Clock rate (MHz)! Bandwidth (MB/s)! Style|- align="center"| ISA XT| 8| 4,77| 8| Parallel|- align="center"| ISA AT| 16| 8,33| 16| Parallel|- align="center"| MCA| 32| 10| 20| Parallel|- align="center"| EISA| 32| 8,33| 32| Parallel|- align="center"| VESA| 32| 40| 160| Parallel|- align="center"| PCI| 32 - 64| 33 - 100| 132 - 800| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 1x| 32| 66| 264| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 2x| 32| 133| 528| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 4x| 32| 266| 1000| Parallel|- align="center"| AGP 8x| 32| 533| 2000| Parallel|- align="center"| PCIe x1| 1*32| 25 / 50| 100 / 200| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x4| 1*32| 25 / 50| 400 / 800| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x8| 1*32| 25 / 50| 800 / 1600| Serial|- align="center"| PCIe x16| 1*32| 25 / 50| 1600 / 3200| Serial|}

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

In the attached table{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths#Computer_buses|title=Buses features--> is a comparison between a selection of the features of some of those interfaces.


Cooling devices Due to video card work charge, high temperatures are reached, which can cause a breakdown. Cooling devices are incorporated to avoid excessive heat. There are two types of cooling devices, and both can be used at the same time:

Power supply Until 2006, video card power consumption had not been a big problem; nevertheless, present video card tendency is to consume even more power. Although power supplies are increasing their power too, the bottleneck is due to the PCI-Express connection, which is limited to supplying 150W.{{cite web|url=http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/3605|title=Power supply solution-->Nowadays, video cards with a power consumption over 150W usually include a six-pin power socket that connects directly to the power supply,{{cite web|url=http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=37039|title=PCIe power connector--> which allows a direct connection between the computer power supply and the card, avoiding motherboard connection and, therefore, the PCIe port.

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 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. The most important are:

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

External links Manufacturers



graphics card? ...
you need first to establish if your PC has PCI Express graphics cards slot or AGP graphics card slot or neither of the above, in which case you need a PCI slot card

graphics card? ...
Reply to this Thread Search Forum Watch this Thread Back to Thread List Replies: 3 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 08-Jun-2008 22:32 by: need help Threads: [ Previous | Next

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