Video Card 2016-17 B

The video card, or graphics card, serves an important purpose in computers that don't have graphics processing software built into the motherboard. The video card takes the binary data in the form of more than a million pixels and organizes them into the images and graphics shown on the computer screen. The information is sent from the CPU to the video card to be organized, and then it is sent to the monitor. The video card builds a wire frame with straight lines, fills in the pixels, and adds lighting, texture, and color. To keep games running, the video card has to repeat this process about 60 times per second.

The video card draws its power and data from the motherboard. It's processor tells it what to do with the information, and it has a certain memory capacity to temporarily store information about each pixel. The best video cards have fast processors and lots of memory. Graphics integrated in the motherboard is sufficient for computers meant for word processing, web surfing, and email. (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm)

Timeline of the Graphics Card:

• 1983: The Road to Point Reyes was produced:
  • this 'one-frame movie' was a single image that took a month to create
• 1995: First 3D add-in cards
  • Previously, computer graphics had been 2D
  • (soon afterward, 32-bit operating systems and cost effective personal computers were introduced)

http://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/

http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/graphics-games/