The Evolution of Graphics Cards

Graphics cards have come a long way since IBM introduced the first one in 1981. Called a Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA), the card provided text-only displays of green or white text on a black screen. Now, the minimum standard for new video cards is Video Graphics Array (VGA), which allows 256 colors. With high-performance standards like Quantum Extended Graphics Array (QXGA), video cards can display millions of colors at resolutions of up to 2040 x 1536 pixels.

Creating an image out of binary data is a demanding process. To make a 3-D image, the graphics card first creates a wire frame out of straight lines. Then, it rasterizes the image (fills in the remaining pixels). It also adds lighting, texture and color. For fast-paced games, the computer has to go through this process about sixty times per second. Without a graphics card to perform the necessary calculations, the workload would be too much for the computer to handle. 

The graphics card accomplishes this task using four main components:

• A motherboard connection for data and power
• A processor to decide what to do with each pixel on the screen
• Memory to hold information about each pixel and to temporarily store completed pictures
• A monitor connection so you can see the final result