video card for graphics card

[Christopher Yeleighton]

Binary package hint: ubuntu-docs

The documentation for Scorched3D in games says:

Ensure you have hardware-accelerated 3D drivers installed for your video card in order to play Scorched3D.

Please, either 3D or video. A video card is for exchanging streaming media with external devices, such as cameras and VCRs. What is needed is probably a graphics card.

[Phil Bull (philbull)]

Thanks for reporting this bug.

I've always held "video card" to be synonymous with "graphics card", and the term is certainly used by the manufacturers of such cards. There is also a Wikipedia article which supports the use of this term [1].

It is also important to make the distinction between "video" and "3D", as some drivers are only capable of 2D output.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_card

[Matthew East (mdke)]

I agree, I think video card is an acceptable synonym for "graphics card" for most users, and is in fact probably more commonly understood! I'm closing the bug for that reason - if someone strongly disagrees they can reopen it.

[Christopher Yeleighton (giecrilj)]

While it is acceptable because of common usage, the term "Video card" is similar to a "Video capture card",
which is present and documented on Wikipedia, if you select Wikipedia for your reference.
I can see no harm (and much profit) from replacing it with a more precise term, especially because 3D is being mentioned.
Anyway, what am I to do with the translation? A "video card" is used for streaming media in Poland.

[Duncan Lithgow (duncan-lithgow)]

I also think that 'graphics card' is a better term. I don't watch many
videos on my machine - but I do 3d modeling, rendering ... and other
graphical tasks that make use of my graphics card.