Graphics Cards Graphics Cards and and

MonitorsMonitors

GRAPHICS CARDSGRAPHICS 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 CARDSGRAPHICS 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 CARDSGRAPHICS CARDS• 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

Calculations

MONITORSMONITORS• 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

MONITORSMONITORS• Components (LCD)

– polarized glass– liquid crystals– thin film transistors (TFT)

Each pixel (picture element) consists of a column of liquid crystal molecules suspended between two transparent electrodes, and two polarizing filters.

• Specifications– active and passive matrix displays– native resolution, viewing angle, brightness or luminance, contrast ratio, response rate, and adjustability

CRT vs. LCD

MONITORSMONITORS• 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

Calculations