|  Video cards provide the means for the computer to "talk" to your monitor so it can display what the computer is doing. Older video cards were "2D," or "3D," but today's are all "2D/3D" combos. The 3D is mostly useful for gaming, but in some applications can be useful in 3D modeling, etc. Video cards have their own advanced processing chips that make all kinds of calculations to make scenes look more realistic. The many video cards out there are based on much smaller number of different chipsets (that are run at different speeds or have slight differences in the chipsets). Different companies buy these chipsets and make their own versions of the cards based on the chipsets. | For the most part, video cards based on the same chipset with the same amount of RAM are about equivalent in performance. However, some brands will use faster memory or other small optimizations to improve the speed. The addition of other extras like "dual head" (support for two monitors) or better cooling fans may also appear by different brands. At any rate, the first decision to make is what chipset you want your video card to use. Generally most video cards shipped today are included with video memory. Video memory is built onto the video board and or motherboard allowing the video card to run at higher resolutions and run at more efficient speeds. |
| Video cards are most commonly found in the PCI slots however with the release of the Pentium II came the AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) support this new type of slot was released on August 26, 1996. This new technology allows the card to run at 66 MHz, 32-bit bus. | 
