subject: Vga Cables - What Do Vga Cables Do? [print this page] VGA (Video Graphics Array) was the last three letter acronym standard created for PCs (Personal Computers). A VGA connector uses 3 rows of 5 pins each for a total of 15 pins. A VGA cable has a connector on one or both ends depending on the cable and monitor (some monitors have the cable built in, and only have the one end). The resolutions supported by VGA cables range from 640x480 (640 pixels across by 480 pixels down) to 2048x1536. In order for the higher resolutions to be used with any quality, a VGA cable would have to use coaxial wiring and insulation which shielding to reduce or eliminate ghosting and crosstalk.
The first VGA cables were used on IBM computers, and they continue to be backwards compatible. A VGA cable is a 15-pin connector cable that has a resolution of 640x480. Resolution relates to how many pixels go in a certain direction, which means that with a resolution of 640x480 you have 640 pixels from top to bottom and 480 pixels from side to side. This is a rather outdated resolution for modern day computer monitors, but it is still used widely when it comes to mobile devices including Blackberry, Palm Pilot, media cell phones and so on.
Whenever a computer is booted up, regardless of its resolution or operating system, the computer is always going to boot up into a basic Video Graphics Array operating mode. Most lower-cost graphics cards have a VGA interface that they still use, though it is more likely for them to be SVGA. These cables are 15-pin cables that connect the VGA port on the graphics card to the monitor itself. Three of the pins are responsible for carrying the color signals, red, blue and green. Two of the remaining pins are responsible for transmitting the sync signals, both horizontal and vertical. All of the remaining pins do other tasks such as carrying basic color information and grounding the devices.
The most commonly-used type of VGA today is SVGA as far as VGA cables go. There are also other types of VGA including QXGA, UXGA, SXGA+, SXGA and XGA. All of these later connections are capable of transmitting resolutions of as high as 2048 by 1600. All of these will eventually end up taking the place of original VGA, but right now VGA continues to be the foundation when it comes to computer monitor connections.
