Video Card

A video card, is commonly known as a graphics accelerator card or a display adapter. It is a hardware component whose function is to generate and output images to a display. It operated on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.Some Main Components Of Video Card

A Graphical Processing UnitVideo MemoryRAMDAC (random access memory digital-analog converter)Video BIOSThe Interface

Market OverviewThe graphics card is one of the most fierce market in the computer hardware industry. The main leading graphics card producers in the market are AMD/ ATI, and NVIDIA which competes edge to edge and pour millions into developing a core to try and top the other.Graphics Cards or Onboard GraphicsThe graphic cards play important role for gamers, graphic designers and 3D animators who tend to require optimum displays for their work as well as faster rendering in order to efficiently tone up their work whereas integrated or onboard graphics were capable of handling most day-to-day work and supports basic usage to run windows and it’s features.The concept of onboard graphics really came up when Intel integrated graphics with its 810-chipset based motherboards for the PIII processor. Intel didn’t leave an option for putting in an additional graphics card, forcing people to use only onboard graphics, which eliminated a lot of graphics cards from the market. Intel later came up with the provision to add graphics cards as well, and this changed the face of the graphics market.People didn’t feel the need to buy a separate graphics card, because the onboard card served the purpose well. Intel brought iterations of its onboard graphics, with the latest one being the Extreme Graphics 2 core for the P4 processor. Along the way, two major graphics manufacturers joined the race by introducing their motherboard chipsets with onboard graphics. These were NVIDIA with its Nforce and Nforce 2 chipsets, and ATI with its latest Radeon 9100 IGP (Integrated Graphics Port). So today, with graphics manufacturers in the race, onboard graphics have become quite powerful. You can play games, watch movies, or run high-end graphics applications. That brings us to the million-dollar question of why go for a separate graphics card.

The video card market is divided into three segments:Firstly, the high end cards, the ones pushing the limits of games and the limits of your pockets. Next, is the mid-range cards, the most profitable and demanding category of video cards. This classification occupies the maximum market share.Lastly, the low end cards, these are used as either integrated cards or cheap cards that will be used in situations where stress on graphic cards is at a minimum. The graphics card market and computer hardware components is pretty full from top to bottom these days, but that doesn’t keep the big players in the video card industry from bringing out newer models for their customers!.