PCI and PCIe Graphics Cards

A graphics card (also known as a video card) is a component which generates and outputs images to be displayed via a monitor. Their support of accelerated rendering of 2D and 3D graphics make them perfect for gaming. In many ways a graphics card is like a mini computer since they have a processing unit (known as a GPU) and its own RAM/memory.

Whilst graphics cards aren't necessary in a computer system, they are usually a necessity for users who want to play computer games via their PC. This is because many games (even some non-3D ones) require a relatively large amount of graphical processing power, which is where graphics cards tend to excel.

Older graphics cards (sometimes referred to as PCI graphics cards) tend to use what's known as a PCI slot on a computer's motherboard to interact with a system. However the amount of data that can be transferred via a PCI slot started to become restricted due to graphics cards becoming more powerful, hence PCIe graphics cards are now available.

These are ones which use a PCI-express slot (a quicker/better version of PCI) to interact with the motherboard.

ATI and Nvidia are the main producers of graphics cards. There are some other manufacturers, although these two companies account for the vast majority of the market. It is worth pointing out, though, that ATI and Nvidia design and produce the actual graphics cards, however other companies tend to actually sell them.

For example, the ATI Radeon HD 5850 card (a popular high end card) is created by ATI, but you might find it sold as Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 (meaning it is repackaged/sold by Sapphire, despite being created by ATI).

The articles in the list below have various information about different types and aspects of graphics cards.

Articles about graphics cards: