What is Graphics Card?
A graphics card (also video card) is a piece of hardware installed in a computer that is responsible for rendering the image on the computer’s monitor or display screen. Graphics cards come in many varieties with varying features.

• The first consideration when buying a graphics card is to be sure it is capable of displaying the best resolution the monitor can support. For Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors this means supporting the native resolution. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors do not have a native resolution. In this case, ensure the graphics card is capable of supporting the highest resolution, even if the CRT monitor will be frequently used at lower resolutions.
   
• The second consideration is on-board memory. A graphics card must work very hard to render images to the screen. Unlike text files, graphics images are much larger files consisting of great amounts of data that must be processed by the graphics or video card. A faster graphics card has its own resident memory chips to perform this function so as not to impinge upon the system’s random access memory (RAM). Less robust graphics cards have less resident memory and require sharing system RAM to process images.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is a chip akin to the computer processing unit (CPU). The GPU on the graphics card processes data in parallel lines called “pipelines.” The more pipelines a graphics card has, the faster it can process data. Some cards feature dual GPUs for additional performance. Other factors that play into performance include bus speed and the type of on-board memory the graphics card supports.

Installing a graphics card is very easy. The card features an interface that plugs into a port or slot inside the computer on the motherboard. Older motherboards offer an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) interface, while newer boards have the faster Peripheral Computer Interface Express (PCIe) interface. A PCIe graphics card cannot be installed into an AGP slot, and visa-versa, so be sure to get a card that is compatible with your system.

External ports on the graphics card can allow an additional monitor to be plugged in for gaming or for advanced graphics displays that can be spread across two monitors. A graphics card might also have an “S-Video Out” port for sending the signal to a television, or a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port. Advanced ports that extend functionality add to the cost of the card.