The very first video card was created by IBM in 1981. The video card was invented so the first screen images visable to the new computor screen. In 1995, the first 2D and 3D video cards were invented. The very fist 3D video card was called Voodoo. This video card was powerful and began a trend of 3D for video cards to come.
The 3D process from "HowStuffWorks"
To make a3-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 vieo card is built up from items such: as a GPU (Grafics Processing Unit) which is generally used to translate a 3D image into a 2D, its own memory card or VMA (video memory card) this memory card usually takes care of the various corridinates in a 3D image.
One way to describe how the video card works:
The CPU sends information about the image to the graphics card, then the graphics card decides how to pixels on the screen and then projects the image
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm
How Stuff Works "How Graphics Cards Works"
Card Reviews and Specifications
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/212966/Video-card.html
History of the, Evolution of the, Components of the - Graphics, Memory, Cards, Released, Rate, and Vram