West_ray said:
may i knwo what is the differences between 3D video card and 3D accelarator??
Technically speaking, a video card is has a graphic chip that is meant to do only 2D and does not have 3D rendering capabilities.
Like those 10 year old, gfx cards. (They still do work with today's system, if they are not faulty, but only for simple OA work and non graphic intensive apps)
The introduction of games with 3D, gave rise to a new term called 3D accelarator cards.
In the past, the PC has 2 cards, ONE is the video card for normal 2D display and a 2nd card for 3D work.
Like the popular 3dfx's Voodoo card.
As 3D games become popular, more than more video card makers start to inculde or incorporate the 3D Accerlator chip onto the video card. And it gave birth to the new breed of 2D/3D graphics acceralator cards.
The "king" of graphics card in the old days was 3dfx, but it is not longer in the race. Even Matrox has decided to pull out of the 3D race btw ATI and Nvidia and concentrate on the multi-display market with 2-3 monitor support.
If I recall correctly the last 3D only card is the 3dfx Voodoo 2 PCI.
(Ages ago, memory may be failing me)
The 3dfx Voodoo 3 is a 2D/3D card already.
3D graphics cards in the past was complex as there are many types and standards.
Many games are programmed to support one 3D standard and not the other.
The standards are 3dfx's GLIDE, OPENGL and Microsoft's Direct3D.
If you bought a 3D card that did not support GLIDE from 3dfx and the game uses that rendering, then the 3D card has no effect on the game performance.
But Microsoft's Direct3D prevailed again and the other standards slowly faded out.
Most of us today can safely assume that a video card and graphics card and 3D acceralator card is probably refering to the same thing.