A video card, also referred to as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, graphics card, and numerous other terms, is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.

The term is usually used to refer to a separate, dedicated expansion card that is plugged into a slot on the computer's motherboard, as opposed to a graphics controller integrated into the motherboard chipset. An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an "integrated graphics processor" (IGP).

	Year	Text Mode	Graphics Mode	Colors	Memory
MDA	1981	80*25	-	1	4 KB
CGA	1981	80*25	640*200	16	16 KB
HGC	1982	80*25	720*348	1	64 KB
EGA	1984	80*25	640*350	16	256 KB
IBM 8514	1987	80*25	1024*768	256	-
MCGA	1987	80*25	320*200	256	-
VGA	1987	720*400	640*480	256	256 KB
SVGA	1989	80*25	1024*768	256	1 MB
XGA	1990	80*25	1024*768	65,536	2 MB