A video card is also known as a video adapter. The function of a video card is too generate images that we can see on a screen. A lot of video cards have additional features such as accelerating 3D scenes. Others can be connected to different screens at the same time. The most important thing that a video card is made for is games.

When we buy a computer we want the best video card there is. If we use the computer only for music, pictures or talk to people online we don’t need a very advanced video card. If the main board has one incorporated it is as good as it gets. But, if we want to play a new game, an upgraded version of a game that we played before we definitely need an advanced video card.

The first video card ever made was back in 1981. It worked only in text mode but back then there weren’t movies made like today will all kind of special effects or 3D movies or too advanced computer games. It had 80 columns and 25 rows on the screen. The first video card was a MDA, meaning Monochrome Display Adapter. Trough the years the companies developed more and more advanced video cards. The VGA video cards were very quickly accepted on the market. This way, the others companies that made video cards were forced to make improvements to their video cards too.


In 1995 the number of people that bought a 2D/3D video card exploded. Everyone was impressed with what it can offer. Movies were like in the cinema and the games were very real. Today, the battle for dominancy is between ATI and NVIDIA and they control 90% of all the market. Smaller producers are forced to sell their products on a smaller scale.

A modern video card is made of circuits on which are mounted the components. These components are: the GPU, meaning the graphic processing unit, used for graphic acceleration required for the 3D pictures; the BIOS, which is the main program of the video card and it is usually hidden; this BIOS is the key component of the video card because it makes the connection between all the other components and between the video card and the computer. It offers instructions like information about the memory calendar, operation speed, RAM memory and other types of information.



The video memory is another component of the video card. Capacity of this component may vary between 128MB and 4GB but there are few video cards that have over 1 GB. The video memory can be used for other things like the picture on the screen or the Z-buffer that is connected to the 3D technology.

The bottom line is that technology evolves. Companies try to make better and better products for us to buy. Video cards are for those who love movies in 3D and games. Nowadays, there is technology that makes you believe that you are a part of the movie you see or that you are actually in a game. It creates a virtual world in which no one can see you but you can see everyone else.