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Graphics Cards
and
Monitors
GRAPHICS CARDS

components
•
•
•
•

video processor (and GPU)
video RAM
video ROM BIOS
video DAC (DVI adapters don’t)
resolution and colors
old: MDA, HGC, CGA, EGA, VGA (up to 640 x 480
pixels and 256 colors)
 new: SVGA, UVGA, SXGA, etc (up to 2,048 x 1536
pixels and 16 million colors)

GRAPHICS CARDS

Connections to motherboard
Peripheral component interconnect (PCI)
 Advanced graphics port (AGP)
 PCI Express (PCIe)


Depth and more
From 2D to 3D
 DirectX
 OpenGL
 comparisons

GRAPHICS CARDS
Calculations
• Colors (4 to 32 bits)
– old: 16 = 2^4 ; 256 = 2^8
– new: 32 K = 2^15; 64 K = 2^16;
16 million = 2^24; 4 billion = 2^32
• Resolution (pixels)
–
–
–
–
800 x 600 = 480,000
1024 x 768 = 786,432
1280 x 768 = 984,040
1280 x 1024 = 1,310,720
• Video memory (examples)
– 800 x 600, 256 colors = 480,000 x 8 / 8 /1024 = 469 K
– 1,024 x 768, 64K colors = 786,432 x 16 / 8 /1024 = 1.54 MB
– 1,280 x 1024, 4 billion = 1,310,720 x 32 / 8 /1024 = 5.1 MB
MONITORS
• Components (CRT)
– electronic circuitry
– power transformer
– picture tube
• Specifications
– vertical frequency: redraw frequency
horizontal frequency: lines per second
– display resolution vs. card resolution
– screen size: different for CRT and LCD
– connectors: analog and digital
–
Dot pitch
MONITORS
• Components (LCD)
– polarized glass
– liquid crystals
Each pixel (picture element) consists
of a column of liquid crystal molecules
suspended between two transparent
electrodes, and two polarizing filters.
– thin film transistors (TFT)
• Specifications
– active and passive matrix displays
– native resolution, viewing angle,
brightness or luminance, contrast
ratio, response rate, and
adjustability
CRT vs. LCD
MONITORS
Calculations
• Monitor sizes in cm (horizontal)
– 14 inches => 11 inches = 27.9 cm
– 17 inches => 16 inches = 40.6 cm
– 19 inches => 17 inches = 43.2 cm
• Resolution and dot pitch
– 1,024 x 768 => 1,024 x .25 = 256.7 mm = 25.7 cm
– 800 x 600 => 800 x .25 = 200.0 mm = 20 cm
– 640 x 480 => 640 x .25 = 179.2 mm = 17.9 cm
• Dot pitch and pixel density
– .25 = 10,000 pixels per in2
– .26 = 9,025 pixels per in2
– .28 = 7,656 pixels per in2