Video Card - with 64 MB SDRAM

The video card is a device that plugs into a slot inside the computer. It allows your computer to create a video signal that the monitor can display.  A good video card (or graphics card) will enhance your computing experience by allow your computer to display many sophisticated and complex graphic images and video.

More memory does not necessarily make the card operate any faster. Increased memory only lets you run more colors at higher resolutions. For example, a 1 meg card usually will only allow 256 colors at 1024x768 while a 2 meg card usually allows at least 16-bit (about 65,000 or so) color. You need 4 megs of video memory to use 24-bit (true color: 16 million) color at 1024x768.

Video memory type is the driving force behind making the video card run faster.  SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) is used on the majority of video cards. The newest form of RAM is DDR (Double Data Rate - SDRAM) which activates output on both the rising and falling edge of the system clock rather than on just the rising edge, potentially doubling output.  

Analogy -The video card acts as a "translator" that allows the motherboard and the monitor to talk to each other.

History - Originally, video cards only produced character output, with no graphics.  Once graphics came into the picture, the slugfest was on, to come out with the video card that could have the best resolution, and the most colors faster than the rest.

Manufacturers - Tseng, NVidia, ATI, AOpen all manufacture great cards.

What You Are Looking For - The type of video card you should consider buying  depends on what you are going to do with your computer. Many cards are geared for gaming and have special graphics instruction sets that are made to handle the graphics for today's games. If you are simply going to be business productive on your system, any standard graphics card available will handle your tasks.  Other options include the ability to handle multiple video inputs, and outputs, including being able to attach your camcorder and even cable TV.