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Video Card & Display Terminology

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• 16-bit
  A 16-bit computer hardware device or software program is one that is capable of transferring 16 bits of data at a time. Microsoft Windows 3.11 is a 16-bit operating system, while ATA and IDE are 16-bit hardware standards. When referring to a computer video or graphics card, 16-bit relates to the amount of colors capable of being displayed. For example, 16-bit is the same as 65,536 colors.

• 24-bit
  24-bit is known as “True Color”. 24-bits are equivalent to 16.7 million colors.

• 3-D
  Also known as three-dimensional. 3-D describes a visual image that has the appearance of depth and field. When referring to an internal adapter card, a 3-D accelerator is a graphics cards with additional processing power and memory that helps the performance and look of 3-D images. Also see graphics accelerator card.

• 32-bit
  Computers or software programs capable of transferring data 32-bits at a time. Examples of 32-bit operating systems are OS/2 and Windows NT. The first true 32-bit processor was the Intel 80386. 32-bit can also refer to the amount of colors a video card is displaying. 32-bit is the same as 16.7 million colors (24 bit color with a 8-bit alpha channel).

• 3DFX
  Brand and company of 3D accelerator cards.

• 8-bit
  Computer hardware device or software capable of transferring eight bits of data at the same time. When referring to a video or graphics card, 8-bit relates to the amount of colors capable of being displaying. 8-bit is the same as 256 colors.
  
  8514/A
  Developed by IBM in 1987, 8514/A is a graphics display standard that supports 1024x768 pixel resolution and is interlaced.

A

• Active-matrix display
  Also known as TFT or Thin Film Transistor, an active matrix display is a liquid crystal display (LCD) found on notebook computers and flat panel displays. With active matrix displays one to four transistors, which commonly make the screens fasters, brighter and more colorful then passive matrix control each pixel.

• AGP
  Short for Accelerated Graphics Port, AGP is an advanced port designed for Video cards and 3D accelerators. Designed by Intel in 1997, AGP introduces a dedicated point-to-point channel so that the graphics controller can directly access the system memory.
  Analog Monitor
  Monitor that is capable of accepting continuously varying or analog signals from the video adapter. This allows the monitor to display an infinite range of different colors. The majority of CRT monitors are analog, while all flat panel displays are digital.

• AGP APERTURE SIZE
  The amount of system memory an AGP videocard can use for storing 3D information.

• AGP FAST WRITES
  Enabling AGP Fast Writes lets a program access the videocard directly, instead of through system memory. This reduces bandwidth demands on the bus.

• AGP PRO
  A beefy version of the AGP interface designed to deliver extra power to workstation-class videocards. AGP Pro uses a slightly longer AGP slot, and comes in two flavors, 50-watt and 110-watt. Current consumer accelerators from ATI and nVidia use an onboard Molex connector to draw additional power, because the AGP Pro interface isn't ubiquitous.

• ALPHA CHANNEL
  Every pixel in a game is described by four color channels: R, G, B and alpha. The first three channels store data on the pixel's mixture of red, green and blue, while the alpha channel describes a pixel's relative opacity. In 32-bit integer color, the alpha value is contained in the last 8-bits of the pixel's color info.

• ANISOTROPIC FILTERING
  An advanced filtering technique that corrects a texture's perspective when the texture is drawn on an object that stretches deep into a scene.

• ANTIALIASING
  Any technique used to smooth jagged edges that are created when straight lines are drawn in 3D game or program.

• Aperture Grille
  A method of CRT construction employing vertical strips of phosphor separated by a grid of tiny metal wires. Light emitted from the electron gun passes through this grid of metal strings and is filtered and focused onto the back of the CRT, exciting phosphors that produce the on-screen image. Aperture grille construction produces brighter, more saturated colors, but is not as good for text or fine detail.

• API
  Application programming interface-basically a set of rules and routines that developers can use to design games and applications. APIs provide programmers with a set of pre-defined function calls that can be used for basic tasks, such as drawing windows and buttons, or advanced operations, like applying a bump map to a polygon.

B

• BILINEAR FILTERING:
  The most basic filtering strategy, bilinear filtering reduces texture pixelization by blending adjoining textures at their seams. Modern 3D accelerators use bilinear filtering by default.

• Bit map
  Graphic file usually ending in *.bmp where several bits are made up to make one full image.

• Bit-mapped font
  Font that if enlarged will have jagged edges instead of the scalable font where no matter what the size will look the same. Bit-mapped fonts are comprised of several dots to make a single character.

• Bit-mapped graphic
  Description used to describe an image that is formed in a map form instead of a mathematical form. The image is created by placing dots (or bits) in a row or column, forming an image with several thousand small dots or bits to make the complete image. A bit-mapped image when enlarged will have jagged edges.

• Brightness
  The light level intensity of a computer monitor, adjusted in unison with contrast to effect the quality of the viewable image.

• Brush
  Tool used in creating images with a drawing program. Generally the brush is similar to a paintbrush, capable of making bold or vivid strokes, and able to fill a large area quickly when compared to other tools such as the pencil.

• Bump mapping
  Video accelerator technique that gives a surface the look of texture. Bump mapping may cause walls to look bumpy or rough; without bump mapping it would have an ordinary look.

• Burn in
  When a computer monitor is left for long periods of time with one stand-alone image, the image can permeate. Burn in occurs more often with older monitors. However still can occur on new CRT monitors (although not as common). To help prevent this issue turn off the monitor or use a screen saver.

C

• Candle Power
  A measurement of light reflected by a surface one foot from a lighted candle. Candle light is measured in lux and is commonly used as a light measurement for LCD displays and projectors. Also known as candelas and candle power.

• Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope
  Tool used for measuring the voltage of the cathode-ray tube inside of your computer CRT monitor. The Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope was invented by German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897.

• CG
  nVidias high-level shaded language. It includes all the functions of Microsoft's high-level shader language(HLSL), as well as some functions specific to nVidia GPUs.

• Codec
  Short for compression/decompression, a codec is an algorithm or special computer program that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files. Codecs are often used with videos distributed over the Internet. Codecs enable what would normally be a very large video file to be much smaller.

• Computer Graphic
  A computer graphic or computer picture is either a computer generated image, or a graphic imported into the computer and capable of being displayed on the screen.

• Contrast
  A term used to describe the degree of value (white through black) variation in an image. In a black and white image, there is a large difference in the value range (since there are no in-between grays in the image). An image made of only black and white (and no gray values) is therefore the highest in contrast, while an image with many grays and few white (highlights) and black (shadows) is a low contrast image. Adjusting the brightness of an image does not affect its overall contrast.

• CORE CLOCK
  The speed at which a 3D card;s graphics chip runs, usually measured in megahertz(MHz).

• CrossFire
  The CrossFire™ platform takes your gaming experience to the next level with more performance, flexibility and compatibility. CrossFire combines the awe-inspiring capabilities of two ATI™ Radeon™ graphics cards and CrossFire ready motherboards for AMD and Intel® processors to meet the hard-core demands of your alternate reality. Experience stunning visual realism in today’s games with uncompromising image quality, even on your HDTV.  More »

D

• DB-15
  The standard 15-pin connector for analog monitors. If you use a CRT or analog LCD monitor, this is the connector you use.

• DDR:
  Double data rate, usually used to describe memory. DDR memory can transfer two chunks of data every clock cycle, a "double-pumped" strategy that effectively double memory speed.

• DDR-II:
  The latest version of DDR memory. DDR-II memory doesn't transfer more data per clock cycle than the original DDR memory, but it has been modified to run at much higher clock speeds than plain DDR.

• Dead Pixel
  Term used to describe a pixel that no longer illuminates. More common on LCD and Plasma display technology.

• Degauss
  Degauss is a method of erasing magnetic media and the removal of remnants of previously recorded signals. The degauss process is achieved by passing magnetic media through a magnet field more powerful than the media itself in order to rearrange the magnetic particles.

• Detonators
  Detonators are updated reference drivers for the nVidia chipset video cards.

• Digital Display
  Video display that presents images in shades of gray of very limited color such as a monochrome or an EGA monitor.

• Digital Monitor
  Monitor that takes a digital signal received from a monitor and changes it to analog. Unlike a analog monitor a digital monitor is not capable of displaying an infinite range of colors.

• Digitize
  Process of converting a image into digital data for storing. A good example of digitizing is when a computer scanner converts a non-digital image, such as a picture, into binary.

• DIRECT3D:
  Microsoft's 3D API. Includes all the function calls a developer needs to program old-style fixed-function games as well as new programmable shader games.

• DirectX
  First released in 1996 DirectX is a set of APIs (Application Program Interface) developed by Microsoft to allow all programs to write instructions for hardware without knowing exactly what hardware is within the computer. Games which include DirectX have the capability to utilize multimedia and graphics accelerator features more efficiently.

• Display
  Term used to describe the device used to view images and/or text. Also used to describe the actual object or item being displayed.

• Display attribute
  Attribute of an object viewed on a monitor such as a size, color, etc.

• Dithering
  Technique used with dots or a mixtures of colors to help create a look of a new color or shade of color in an image. Dithering is commonly used in large publications such as a newspaper.

• Dot Pitch
  Distance between pixels on a computer display screen measured in millimeters.

• DSTN
  Also known as dual scan screens. DSTN stands for Double-layer Super Twisted Nematic and is an improvement over STN. DSTN is a passive-matrix technology that uses two layers.

• DPI
  DPI (Dot Per Inch) is a measurement of printer resolution indicating how many ink dots the printer can place in one square inch. The higher the DPI the sharper the image. DPI or Dot's Per Inch is also used to determine an image resolution.

• Drift
  Wave-like movement or swaying of any line that appears on the monitor.

• Dual-Scan display
  Type of passive-matrix display found on notebook computers and flat panel displays. A dual-scan display refreshes twice as often as the regular passive-matrix.

• DVI:
  The connector used for digital LCD monitors; effectively eliminates the video noise from digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion.

• DVI-D:
  A DVI hardware spec that only includes support for a digital signal. DVI-I cables will not fit into a DVI-D connector.

• DVI-I:
  A DVI hardware spec that allows both analog and digital signals to be passed out the DVI port.

E

• Enhanced Graphics Adapter
  Manufactured by IBM in 1984, Enhanced Graphics Ad (EGA) is a video standard with a resolution of 640 x 350 and offers more colors (16 from a palette of 64) when compared to earlier standards.

• ELF emission
  Short for extremely low frequency emissions, ELF emissions are magnetic emissions given off by electrical appliances. Because it is not yet known if these emissions could be harmful to humans over long periods of times, several governments have created standards to help ensure that devices produce less ELF emissions.

F

• FILL RATE:
  The speed at which your graphics card can render pixels-usually measured in millions of pixels per second (Megapixels/sec). GPUs with higher fill rates can display higher resolutions and more colors at higher frame rates than other chips with lower fill rates. NVIDIA GPUs have the highest fill rates of all GPU available on the market. See Frames Per Second.

• Fixed-frequency monitor
  Fixed-frequency monitors are older models designed to only run at a specific signal from within a limited frequency range. Fixed-frequency monitors generally require a specific or specially designed video card.

• FIXED-FUNCTION:
  3D chips running fixed function 3D pipelines can execute a limited number of functions very rapidly. Unfortunately fixed-functions pipelines are also inflexible, and developers can't easily use any functions that aren't built into the chip. Programmable shader pipelines are replacing fixed-function pipelines.

• Flat-display monitor
  Thin screens most often used in notebook computers. However, they are becoming more popular with desktop computers. Flat-panel displays are not based upon the cathode-ray tubes technology; they usually use Liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology.

• Flat screen
  An attribute of some computer monitors that means their display screens are flat. These screens usually use better technology and help prevent screen glare.

• Flicker (not to be confused with Yahoo's Flickr)
  The appearance of a flicker, flashing, or unsteadiness in an image on a display screen. Flickers can occur when the video refresh rate is too low, or because of other video related problems, and in some cases are caused by monitor hardware problems. A flickering screen can cause users to experience eye strain.

• FLOATING-POINT COLOR:
  Floating-point numbers use decimals (e.g., 5.78) to describe a value. When games and applications use floating-point numbers to describe color, rendering errors are minimized, and color become richer and more true to life.

• Foot candle
  A measurement of light reflected by a surface one foot from a lighted candle. Candle light is measured in lux and is commonly used as a light measurement for LCD displays and projectors.

• FPS
  Short for Frames Per Second, FPS is a measurement of the speed or performance of a game and/or computer system. Generally, a user who has a higher FPS will be capable of performing better.

• Frame
  A frame is a single still image frame displayed by the computer, video hardware or software application. Frames are often used in word processing and graphic arts to help focus the viewer’s attention. In data or network communications, a frame is a block of data that begins with a header to indicate the beginning of the block of data, and a trailer to indicate the ending of the data. On the Internet, a frame is a movable or non-movable portion of a web page to help make the navigation easier.

• FRAME BUFFER:
  Memory that is dedicated to the graphics processor and used to store rendered pixels before they are displayed on the monitor.

• Frame capture board
  Also known as a frame grabber, the frame capture board is an internal computer expansion board that is installed in a computer and allows video devices such a VCR, television, or other device to connect to it. This device can then capture video images from that device and store them on a computer.

• FRAMES PER SECOND(FPS):
  The rate at which the graphics processor renders new frames, or full screens of pixels. Benchmarks and games use this metric as a measurement of a GPU's performance. A faster GPU will render more frames per second, making the application more fluid and responsive to user input.

• Frame rate
  The rate at which frames are displayed or projected. Usually measured in frames per second (fps). Today's movies are generally at a frame rate of 24, 25 and 30 frames per second.

• Framebuffer
  Portion of video card memory that holds the information necessary to display a single screen image. The size of the framebuffer determines the resolution and maximum colors able to be displayed.

• FSTN
  Short for Film SuperTwist Nematic, FSTN is a type of LCD display.

• Full-motion video
  Abbreviated as FMV, Full-motion video is a computer system that is capable of displaying full video images and sound on a computer. Depending upon the compression being used by the computer and the computer hardware, the frames per second can vary. Computers not capable of displaying at least 24fps will create choppy video.

• Full-page display
  Computer screen that allows an entire 8.5-inch by 11-inch page to be displayed at once without the need for scrolling or zooming out. These monitors are either longer horizontally then vertically, or are built so they can be turned from horizontal to vertical.

G

• Gamma correction
  Gamma or Gamma correction is the adjustment of the brightness and/or contrast in color on a image displayed on computer monitor or printed on a printer. Adjusting the gamma correction on a image can correct the overall quality of an image.

• Gas-plasma display
  Type of display that is a collection of neon gas materials between two plates. Each plate contains a conductive print; one with a horizontal and the other with a vertical. Gas-plasma displays are sometimes found with older portable computers. However, because of advances in portable LCD technologies and the power requirements, gas-plasma displays are often used for large displays. These displays can range anywhere from 42 to 60-inches.

• Glare Screen
  Clear panel or filter placed over a computer screen to help prevent glare on the screen from the sun or other bright light sources.

• GPU
  Introduced in 1999 by nVidia, GPU is short for Graphics Processing Unit. The GPU is a single chip processor located on the video card capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second.

• Grabber
  Also known as a frame grabber, grabber describes hardware or software that is capable of taking a image frame from analog or digital video. Once the image is grabbed, the computer stores it as a graphic image.

• Granularity
  Term used to describe how clear an image is displayed. For example, with a bit-mapped image the smaller the dots the better granularity or clarity the image will be.

• Graphic
  A digitized version of photograph, or other type of picture that is displayed on a computer display. Below is a basic example of a computer graphic.

• Graphics Accelerator Card
  Also known as a 3D accelerator, the graphics accelerator card is a internal board that generally is installed into the PCI or AGP slot and reduces the time it takes to produce images on the computer screen by incorporating its own processor and memory.

• Graphics controller
  A chip, also known as a graphics coprocessor, which is similar to a microprocessor. It is ordinarily found on graphics accelerator cards. The graphics controller processes the graphics to create dots and lines on-screen.

• Graphics mode
  Computer display mode where an image is produced by pixels to create an overall image.

• Green Screen
  Old technology display monitor - displayed in monochrome, typically green or amber.  In modern terminology applies to a green background used to adding in backgrounds or other elements behind a foreground object, such as a person.

H

• HARDWARE TRANSFORM AND LIGHTING:
  A graphics chip's hardware "T&L" engine can perform lighting calculations very quickly. Prior to the introduction of hardware T&L, these calculations were performed by the already overloaded CPU.

• Hercules
  Type of graphics standard introduced in the early 1980s and developed by Hercules Computer Technology for IBM compatible computers. The standard defined a resolution of 720 Pixels by 348 pixels on a monochrome monitor.

• HGA
  Short for Hercules Graphic adapter.

• HIGH-LEVEL SHADER LANGUAGE:
  HLSL, the shader language that is included with DirectX 9. High-level shader languages allow game developers to use a C-like programming language to write shader programs for gamers and graphic applications. Without an HLSL, developers would have to use a confusing, hardware-specific assembly-level language.

• High-persistence phosphor
  Type of neon phosphor used in monitors that illuminates longer, allows lower refresh rates and reduces the flicker effect. With early monitors this type of phosphor could cause poor animation when an object, such as a mouse, moved across the screen. The user would be able to notice a trail of the moving object.

• High resolution
  The final quality of images displayed or seen. The resolution on printers and monitors is usually measured by the quantity of dots or pixels per-inch.

• Horizontal scan rate
  The speed that each line is drawn horizontally. This is commonly expressed in Kilohertz [KHz].

• HPA
  Abbreviation for High-Performance Addressing. Developed by Hitachi, HPA is an LCD Passive-matrix display technology commonly found on low-end portable computers. Monitors featuring HPA have higher response rates and contrast, and are capable of displaying up to 16-million colors. However, HPA monitors lack the crisp display that is found with an Active-matrix display.

• HPD
  Short for Hybrid Passive Display. HPD was developed by Toshiba and Sharp, and is a technology that utilizes a new type of liquid crystal to provide a better contrast and overall image quality for LCD displays.

I

• IRGB
  Intensity Red Green Blue (IRGB) is the technology used to generate a 16-color image on a computer monitor. 16-colors are created by the addition of an intensity bit. The 16 colors created were black, dark gray, light gray blue, light blue, green, light green, cyan, light cyan, red, light red, purple, light purple, yellow, light yellow and white.

• INTEGER COLOR:
  Integer numbers have been used to describe color information since 3D graphics first appeared on the PC. Compared with floating-point number, integer numbers provide a very limited palette of colors. Integers are whole numbers (e.g., 4).

• Intensity bit
  Bit of information used to display different intensities of color with computer software and computer monitors. For example, the IRGB monitor is capable of displaying 16 different colors because of this bit.

• Interlacing
  Interlacing is a method for refreshing an image on a computer monitor. Interlacing refreshes an image on the screen by scanning every other line, and alternately scans every opposite line. This allows a faster refresh rate, and less information during each scan. Unfortunately this may cause flickering or noticeable line movements in some situations.

J

• Jaggies
  Term used to describe a rigid, non-straight line or edge of an image or graphic. Jaggies are commonly seen when zooming in on an image, or on a low-quality or low-resolution image.

L

• Landscape monitor
  Monitor that lays horizontally and is wider than it is tall. Most computer monitors are landscape monitors.

• LCD
  Abbreviation for Liquid-crystal display. LCD is a flat display technology used in laptops, calculators and the majority of flat screen displays. LCD displays are available as an active matrix, dual-scan or passive-matrix display.

• Liquid crystal
  Liquid crystals were discovered by Friedrich Reintzer in 1988 and are substances that have the properties of both liquids and solids. Liquid crystals are widely used in Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD).

• Low resolution
  Computer screen, image, or printed page that is not crisp, grainy and/or pixilated. Low resolution screen or image commonly describes a picture that has a small amount of pixels causing the image to be jaggy. A low resolution print page has a small amount of dots causing the printed text or image to appear light and not crisp.

• Luminance
  The overall brightness of a computer screen.

M

• MCGA
  Abbreviation for Multi-Color Graphics Array or Memory Controller Gate Array. MCGA is a type of graphics system built into computers manufactured during the 1980s.

• MDA
  Short for Monochrome Display Adapter. MDA is the first text-only video display standard from IBM capable of displaying at a maximum of 80x25 characters in two colors. MDA is no longer used.

• MEMORY BANDWIDTH:
  The amount of data that can be transferred between a graphics chip and its onboard memory. Measured in megabytes per second(MB/s). To calculate memory bandwidth, multiply your memory bus bit-width by the speed of the memory and the number of chunks of data transferred per clock, then divide that number by 8. For example: For 128-bit DDR memory running at 500MHz, you would multiply 128 by 500 by 2, and then divide the product by 8. The result is 16,0000MB/s, or 16GB/s.

• MEMORY BUS WIDTH:
  The size of each data chunk tat the memory bus can transfer each clock cycle. Usually measured in bits.

• MIP-MAPPING:
  Mip-mapping provides several different levels of detail for every texture in a scene, and places low-quality, low-res textures in the background (where they're not easily noticed) and high-quality, high-res textures in the foreground(where game players focus their attention). Because low-res textures consume relatively little memory, mip-mapping can help speed up frame rates. Unfortunately, without filtering, demarcation lines can occur where different mip-map levels intersect.

• Moiré (Moiré Pettern)
  The moiré is a distortion and/or pattern of an image caused by conflicting frequencies; two or more different resolutions overlapping each other. A moiré commonly is a wavy image effect, grids or dots across the image, or a similar visual effect that occurs on a display device such as a monitor or a printed image.

• Monitor
  Video display screen and the hard shell that holds it. Also called video display terminal (VDT). In its most common usage, monitor refers only to devices that contain no electronic equipment other than what is essentially needed to display and adjust the characters of an image.

• Monochrome
  Term used to describe a visual display or output in one color. A monochrome monitor displays only one color, such as green on a black background.

• MPC
  Short for Multimedia PC. MPC was developed in 1990 describes any computer capable of running programs that combine video, animation, audio, and graphics.

• MPEG
  Video codec used by most computers to display a video. MPEG compression is handled through the software and/or hardware. There are various versions of MPEG.

• Multifrequency monitor
  Computer monitor capable of accepting video signals at more than one frequency.

• Multimedia
  Display of a combination of audio, video, animation, and graphics.
  Multiscanning monitor
  Computer monitor capable of responding to any frequency within a specified range. This allows a computer monitor to work with various types of graphic displays.

• MULTI-SAMPLING:
  An antialiasing technique that draws only the extra pixels needed to antialias jagged lines. Each GPU manufacturer uses a different algorithm to perform a multi-sampling, so it's difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison with antialiasing enabled. Multi-sampling is the preferred AA technique.

N

• Nit
  The smallest measurable unit of brightness that is used to measure the brightness of the surface area of a monitor, LCD or other display device.

• Noninterlaced
  Noninterlacing is a method of refreshing an image on a computer monitor. With noninterlacing, every line on the monitor is refreshed during a scan. This provides for a higher quality display and less chance of the user noticing flickering or line movements on the monitor. When considering between a interlaced and a noninterlaced monitor, a noninterlaced monitor is commonly recommended.

• NTSC
  Short for National Television System Committee, NTSC is the American committee responsible for creating technological television and video standards, including refresh rate and color capabilities. NTSC Composite Video is the standard for analog color televisions.

• NV30:
  The code-name for nVidia's first DirectX 9 GPU, which is the core for the GeForce FX line. It operates at speeds up to 500MHZ, and is fabbed on a 0.13-micron process. The 5800 and 5800 Ultra use the NV30 core, while the 5200 series uses the NV34 core, and the 5600 series uses the NV31 core.

• NV35:
  nVidia's follow-up to the NV30. Fabbed on a 0.13-micron process, and the first nVidia chip to use a 256-bit memory pipeline.

O

• OLED
  Abbreviation for Organic Light-Emitting diode. OLED is a type of LED that is being used in flat-panel displays, is much thinner then LCD and requires much less power to run.

• OpenGL
   A 3D API designed by an independent standards body. OpenGL differs from DirectX mainly in its extensibility—it can be changes and added to between major revisions to take advantage of new hardware features.

• Output device
  Any peripheral that receives output from a computer. Computer printers and monitors are output devices.

• Output screen
  Device used to display output. This could be a separate monitor or other display device used only to display the output being received from the computer or other device.

P

• PAL
  Short for Phase Alternating Line, PAL is the dominant television standard across Europe delivering 625 lines at 50 half-frames per second.

• Paper-white
  Refers to a white that is as white as white paper. Paper-white commonly refers to monochrome monitor that contains a pure white background with black text.

• Passive matrix display
  Type of LCD screen display that contains a series of wires that criss-cross each other. At the intersection of each wire contains a single LCD element that allows light to be passed through. A passive-matrix display does not provide the same quality as an active-matrix display.

• PCI Express
  Doubling the bandwidth of the AGP 8X graphics bus, the new PCI Express represents the most profound change to desktop architecture in nearly a decade. PCI Express replaces AGP, allowing much larger amounts of data to move between the graphics card and the CPU, and will soon replace PCI expansion slots as well. The PCI standard allows for a 32-bit bus with a maximum throughput of 133MB/s. By contrast, PCI Express will run at 2.5GHz. PCI Express is a two-way serial connection that carries data in packets along two pairs of point-to-point data lines, compared to the single parallel data bus of traditional PCI. Gamers will benefit from an incredible upgrade in video quality with PCI Express, because it will allow for more powerful video cards, inspiring developers to create more realistic environments that will make games come alive with astonishingly lifelike colors and images. Video enthusiasts will also benefit because PCI Express will accommodate higher-quality video throughput (amount of data you can send per second). As network television moves over to HDTV broadcasts, PCI Express positions the PC platform for integration into the living room, while also allowing for HD video editing and other bandwidth-intensive tasks. PCI Express is compatible with existing PCI drivers and software operating systems and is designed to co-exist with current PCI hardware.

• PCI Express 2.0 - High End Graphics Have Arrived
  PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The performance boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the PCI Express 2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance while reducing cost.

  A number of optimizations and improvements have been made to the protocol and software layers of the PCI Express architecture in the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification. These include:

  • Dynamic link speed management – to control the speed at which the link is operating
  • Link bandwidth notification – to notify software (operating system, device drivers, etc) of changes in link speed and width
  • Capability structure expansion – to expand the control registers to better manage devices, slots and the interconnect
  • Access control services – optional controls to manage peer-peer transactions
  • Completion timeout control – to define a required disable mechanism plus related optional enhancements
  • Function-level reset – optional mechanism to reset functions within a device
  • Power limit redefinition – to redefine slot power limit values to accommodate devices that consume higher power

  

• Persistence
  Display persistence is unit of time required for the phosphor in a CRT display to lose all of its charge.

• PGA
  Short for Professional Graphics Adapter. PGA is a video standard developed by IBM that supports up to 640x400 resolution.

• Phosphor
  A collection of blue, green, and red dots or lines that become charged by the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) within a CRT. When charged, the phosphor lights up for an instant, causing a visible color to be displayed on the screen of your monitor.

• Pixel
  A term that comes from the words Picture Element or PEL. A pixel is the smallest portion of an image or display that a computer is capable of printing or displaying. A pixel can easily be distinguished when zooming onto an image.

• PIXEL PER SECOND:
  The units used to describe the fill rate of a GPU. It is usually measured in millions of pixels per second (Megapixels/sec).

• PIXEL SHADER:
  A Programmable shader unit that manipulates individual pixels Pixel shaders can create bump maps, reflective surfaces, and even programmatically generated textures.

• Polygon
  Number of straight lines used to form a graphic object that can be filled and/or moved. Polygons help create a 3D environment.

• PPI
  Short for Pixel Per Inch, PPI is the numbers of pixels per inch that comprises a pixel image. The more pixels per inch the image contains, the higher quality the image will be.

• PROCESS:
  In respect to microprocessors, the term refers tot he size of transistors on a chip. Formerly measured in microns(one millionth of a meter), but now measured in nanometers (one billionth of a meter). A smaller process technology lets chips run at higher speeds and lower temperatures.

• PROGRAMMABLE SHADER:
  Programmable shader units are the areas of GPUs that can run generalized programs rather than fixed 3D functions. There are two basic types of programmable shader units: pixel and vertex.

• PROGRAMMATICALLY GENERATED TEXTURE:
  Traditional textures in a 3D game are created in a bitmap editor, such as Photoshop, whereas programmatically generated textures are described in real-time using shader programs. The newfangles textures do not require trilinear or anisotropic filtering in order to maintain the proper perspective when they're applied to a 3D model.

• Projector
  A hardware device that enables an image to be projected onto a flat surface. These devices are commonly used in meetings and presentations as they allow for a large image that everyone in a room can see.

Q

• QuickTime
  Developed by Apple Computers, QuickTime is software that allows a computer user to play movie files. QuickTime is available for Apple and IBM compatible users running a compatible operating system such as Microsoft Windows or any Macintosh operating system. With IBM compatible computers, QuickTime is commonly used to play .MOV extension files.

R

• R300:
  The code-name for ATI's first DirectX 9 core. Fabbed on a 0.15-micron process, runs up to 325MHz, and supports a 256-bit memory pipeline. The R300 is used in the Radeon 9500, 9500 Pro, 9700, 9700 Pro, and All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro.

• R350:
  ATI's follow-up to the R300. Fabbed on a 0.15-micron process, but operates at speeds up to 380MHz. The Radeon 9800, 9800 Pro, and All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro use the R350 core.

• Radeon
  The ATI Radeon series was introduced in 2000 and is a type of 3D acceleration video card developed by ATI.

• RAMDAC
  Pronounced Random Access Memory Digital-to-analog converter, RAMDAC is the portion of a computer video card that converts the digital data to a analog signal to be displayed on a computer monitor.

• Raster
  Image file that is defined by a pixel that has one or more numbers associated with it. The number generally defines the location, size and/or color of the pixel(s). Raster images are commonly .BMP, .GIF, .TIFF and .JPEG files.

• Refresh
  A term commonly associated with computer CRT monitors, refresh refers to the renewal of the screen content. As the refresh rate is increased the image will become clearer. We recommend that users run their computers with at least a 75MHz refresh rate. Lower refresh rates commonly cause eye strain.

• REFRESH RATE:
  The frequency at which the electron guns in your monitor redraw the image, measured in Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second. As an example, a refresh rate of 60 Hz means the screen is redrawn 60 times per second. Higher refresh rates reduce or eliminate image "flicker" that can cause eye strain.

• Render
  In general, "render" refers to the process of taking a computer image or file and converting it into another format and/or applying graphic modifications, such as shading or shadows to that image. When referring to 3D animation, the term "render" refers to the process of taking an computer generated image and performing complicated operations that make that image appear as a 3D image and/or making a series of images animated.

• RENDERMAN:
  A high-level language for the complex shaders that are used in very detailed animated movies (such as Shrek). Renderman shaders use multiple computers working in tandem to draw a single frame. It's a very long and laborious process, but 3D hardware companies hope to run Renderman, like shaders on consumer gaming hardware, at 60 frames per second—within the next few years. Full Renderman shaders can run on DirectX 9 cards, but not at full speed.

• Resolution
  The image quality of a printer or monitor. In monitors, the resolution is measured by the number of pixels in a given area.

• Response time
  When referring to an LCD display, a response time is how many frames can be displayed in a second. Response time is very important for users who are considering an LCD display and plan to use that display for full motion video.

• Reverse video
  Also known as invert video, reverse video is a method of reversing the colors or background and text. Highlighting on a computer is a type of reverse video or invert.

• RGB
  Short for Red-Green-Blue, RGB is a method of creating colors from the primary colors of red, green, and blue. RGB is sometimes used when describing a type of display or monitor.

• RGB monitor
  Computer monitor that uses the red-green-blue signals to generate the colors displayed on the screen.

S

• S-Video
  Also known as Y/C video, S-Video is short for Super Video and is a type of interface and cable that transmits video luminance (Y) and chrominance (C) signals separately. When received by the TV or other display device this generates a better picture when compared to composite video.

• SCART
  Also known as a Euroconnector or Peritel, SCART is short for Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseursand is 21-pin connector capable of carrying audio, video, and/or other signals.

• SDRAM:
  Synchronous dynamic random access memory. SDRAM is the dominant form of memory on today's videocards. Its low cost and high speed make for a perfect combo. Variants of SDRAM (e.g., DDR SDRAM) run as high as 500MHz and provide more than 20GB/s of memory bandwidth.

• Screen flicker
  The appearance of a flicker, flashing, or unsteadiness in an image on a display screen. A flicker issue can occur when the video refresh rate is too low, due to other video related issues and, in some cases, because of hardware problems with the monitor. Flicker often causes eye strain.

• SGRAM
  Short for Synchronous Graphic RAM, SGRAM is a 144 pin memory module with a single port with the capability of synchronizing with CPU BUS (speeds of 83 MHz, 100MHz, 125MHz, and 142MHz) and is commonly used with computer video cards.

• Shadow mask
  On standard monitors a shadow mask is a metal plate located on the back of the CRT to mask the beams from the electron guns similar to an aperture grille on a Trinitron monitor.

• Sharpness
  A term used to describe the overall clarity of a computer display's picture or a printed image/text. Commonly the sharper an image, text, or display, the better it will look.

• Snow
  Cast of pixels on a monitor that appears as small, white flickering dots. Snow is often caused by video disruption.

• STENCIL BUFFER:
  The section of the graphics memory that stores the stencil data. Stencil data can be used to mask pixels for a variety of reasons, such as stippling patterns for lines, simple shadows and more.

• SUPER-SAMPLE:
  An antialiasing technique. Super-sampling renders a scene at a high resolution, then filters it down tot eh desired size, While this produces a terrific AA effect, its very slow, especially compared with multi-sampling. Super-sampling isn't used on modern 3D accelerators.

• SuperTwisted Nematic
  Abbreviated as STN, SuperTwisted Nematic is a type of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) used in portable computers and flat panel displays. STN builds on the twisted nematic (TN) method, which twists liquid molecules, causing the LCD display to have a sharper contrast and better viewing angle.

• SVGA
  Short for Super Video Graphics Array, SVGA is a set of video standards that is one step above VGA. SVGA monitors are capable of displaying up to 16 million colors with a resolution of 800 x 600 on 14-inch monitors or up to a 1200 x 1600 resolution on a 20-inch monitor.

• SXGA
  Short for Super XGA, SXGA is a video resolution that supports a maximum resolution of 1280 horizontal pixels by 1024 vertical pixels.

T

• T & L
  Short for Transform and Lighting. T&L is a type of video technology that takes all the 3D information that used to be handled by the computer processor and gives it to the GPU. This enables a more complex 3D environment by adding a higher polygon count and improving the lighting at the same time it allows the computer processor to handle other tasks.

• Text mode
  Also known as character mode or alphanumeric mode, text mode is a display mode where the display is divided into rows and columns of boxes, in which only alphanumeric characters are shown.

• TEXTURE COMPRESSION:
  Most modern APIs include some from of texture compression. Because most textures are simply bitmaps, they're easily compressed. This conserves the limited bandwidth between system memory and video memory, and between video memory and the GPU, with virtually no degradation in image quality.

• TFT
  Also known as Active matrix display. TFT is a liquid crystal display found on notebook computers and flat panel displays. With active matrix displays each pixel is controlled by one to four transistors which commonly make the screens fasters, brighter and more colorful then passive matrix. Because of this improved technology, active matrix screens commonly tend to be a more expensive but better of quality than a passive matrix display.

• TI 34010
  TI 34010 is a graphics standard developed by Texas Instruments that supports a resolution of 1024x768 pixels and is noninterlaced.

• TN
  Short for Twisted Nematic, TN is a method of twisting causing the liquid crystals in a LCD to twist in one direction allowing for light to not scatter allowing LCD displays to have a better contrast.

• Touch screen
  type of monitor with a sensitive panel directly on the screen that registers the touch of a finger as input. Some monitors, as opposed to being touch-sensitive, use beams across the screen to create a grid, which is interrupted by the presence of a finger near the screen.

• Transform and Lighting (T& L)
  T &L is a type of video technology that takes all the 3D information that used to be handled by the computer processor gives it to the GPU. This allows a more complex 3D environment by adding a higher polygon count and improving the lighting at the same time that it allows the computer processor to handle other tasks. Some computer games may require that users have a T&L compatible chipset. If you are unsure if your video card or motherboard video chipset is T&L compatible, or what generation of T&L your computer has, check the documentation for your video card.

• TRIANGLES PER SECOND:
  The rate at which a GPU processes triangles. It is a common industry metric for describing performance. The higher the number of triangles per second, the faster the GPU. The GeForce3 GPU delivers the highest triangles per second rate of any GPU.

• Trichomatic
  A method of mixing red, green, and blue to render the entire color spectrum. This method of mixing colors is commonly used in inkjet printers and computer monitors to create multiple variations of colors.

• TRILINEAR FILTERING:
  A texture filtering technique that blends pixels in different mipmaps to hide the seams between different mipmap levels.

• Trinitron
  The Trinitron technology was invented by Sony in 1968 and later released in a computer monitor in 1982. Trinitron is a display method that uses an Aperture Grill to help create a true, life-like image.

• True Color
  The use of at least 24-bits to represent each pixel in a graphic. 16.7 million colors can be shown when 24-bit color is enabled.

U

• UXGA
  Short for Ultra XGA, UXGA is a video resolution that supports a maximum resolution of 1600 horizontal pixels by 1200 vertical pixels.

V

• VDU
  Short for Visual Display Unit, VDU is a term used to describe a visual display device for a computer. For example, a flat panel display, monitor and a projector are all examples of a VDU. VDU is most commonly used to describe a standard CRT monitor.

• VERTEX SHADERS:
  A programmable shader unit that specializes in geometry calculations. Vertex shaders handle terrain morphing, some lighting calculations, and some shadow calculations.

• Vertical retrace
  Also known as a vertical blanking interval or the vertical sync signal, vertical retrace describes the action performed within the computer that turns the monitor beam off when moving it from the lower-right corner of a monitor to the upper-left of the monitor. This action takes place each time the beam has completed tracing the entire screen to create an image.

• VERTICAL SYNC:
  A setting that allows you to synchronize the frame rate of your 3D accelerator's output to the refresh rate of your monitor. Disabling vsync may allow your frame rate to go higher than your monitor's refresh rate, but at the expense of nasty horizontal tears across the full-screen image.

• VESA
  Short for Video Electronics Standard Association, VESA is a group of monitor and video card manufactures that set various display standards.

• VGA
  Short for Video Graphics Array, VGA is a popular display standard developed by IBM. VGA provides 640 x 480 resolution color display screens with a refresh rate of 60Hz and 16 colors displayed at a time. If the resolution is lowered to 320 x 200, 256 colors can be displayed. VGA capability is built into plug -in video cards, VGA chips, and monitors that can work with the VGA cards. Today VGA has been supplanted by SVGA.

• Video
  Electronic signal of moving graphics, pictures and/or text used to combine a fluent source of images used for entertainment, education or other uses.

• Video accelerator
  Video card with integrated processor and memory to increase the overall capabilities of video graphics. Today most video accelerators are used for computer gaming.

• Video adapter
  Also known as a graphics card, video card, video board, or a video controller. A video adapter is an internal circuit board that allows a display device such as a monitor to display images from the computer.

• Video buffer
  A storage location in a system or video card’s memory that holds information before it is sent to the display device.

• Video digitizer
  Software that takes an analog video still frame and coverts it to a digital still image. This is generally accomplished with the aid of computer hardware.

• Video display page
  A video screen image stored in the video buffer.

• Video conferencing
  Computer software, hardware, or other device capable of transmitting a video signal to another computer software program or hardware device allowing other individuals to see a picture of the participants in a conference.

• Video memory
  Memory on the video card, in some cases located on the motherboard, which is accessible by the video and computer processor. With more video memory, the video card and computer is capable of handling more complex graphics at a faster rate. Video card memory may be between 8 and 512MB of memory.

• Videotex
  Technology developed in the U.S. that allowed users to read text news on a television by using a receiver and a dedicated line. Because of the interface, cost, and other factors the videotex system never became popular and is no longer in service or used.

• Vertical sync line
  Also known as vertical retrace or vertical blanking, vertical sync line describes the action performed within the computer that turns the monitor beam off when moving it from the lower-right corner of a monitor to the upper-left of the monitor. This action takes place each time the beam has completed tracing the entire screen to create an image.

• VLF
  Short for Very Low Frequency, VLF describes the electrical radiation emitted by computer monitors, televisions, and other cathode ray tubes (CRTs).

• VPU:
  Visual processing unit. Some 3D companies designate their 3D chips as "VPUs." VPUs are fully programmable. In fact, in theory you could perform any calculation on a VPU that would run on a CPU. On the other hand, GPUs are capable of just a limited number of sequential operations.

• VOLUMETRIC TEXTURE:
  3D textures that can describe the rings of objects like tree rings. Volumetric textures consume significantly more space—and thus memory bandwidth— than normal two-dimensional textures, but can be efficiently generated using pixel shader programs.

W

• Windows-based acceleration
  Super Video Graphics Array adapter specially created to run Microsoft Windows programs faster. This should not be confused with standard SVGA cards.

• Wireframe
  The simplest type of data representation for 3-D models. Wireframe modeling is a natural outgrowth of 2-D CAD in that such models only contain information on edges and vertices. With a wireframe modeler, there is no implicit information on the boundary between inside and outside the model volume. Wireframe can also refer to a rendering technique in which only the edges and vertices are represented in the image.

• WSXGA
  Short for Wide SXGA, WSXGA is a resolution that supports 1600 by 900 pixels or 1600 x 1024 pixels.

• WUXGA
  Short for Wide Ultra Extended Graphics Array, WUXGA has a resolution of 1920 horizontal pixels by 1200 vertical pixels.

• WXGA
  Short for Wide XGA, WXGA is a video resolution that supports a maximum resolution of 1366 horizontal pixels by 768 vertical pixels.

X

• XGA
  Short for Extended Graphics Array, XGA was introduced in 1990 and is IBM’s upgrade to the VGA video standard. XGA supports a maximum resolution of 1024 horizontal > pixels by 768 vertical pixels and 256 colors.

Z

• Z-BUFFER:
  The area of the graphics memory used to store the Z or depth information about rendered objects. The Z-buffer value of a pixel is used to determine if it is behind or in front of another pixel. Z calculations prevent background objects from overwriting foreground objects in the frame buffer.