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Video Card ABCs
Resolution information
Refresh rate information
DirectX Info
Video specifications
Video Card standards
Video memory specifications
Troubleshooting
Video definitions

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.

For help in setting the video resolution on your computer, please see our troubleshooting video card section.

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.