Video Card

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. 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 integrated

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, light pen, joystick connectors, or

even the ability to connect two monitors.


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.

From Wikipedia