Multi-Color Graphics Array

Multi-Color Graphics Array (MCGA) refers to a video display standard created by IBM, and marketed as a lower-price alternative to the Video Graphics Array (VGA) standard. It would later become part of the VGA standard. Like VGA, it had a 256-color mode, but VGA had a number of high-resolution display modes missing from MCGA. IBM shipped the PS/2 Model 25 in 1987 with MCGA technology on-board. No stand-alone MCGA card was ever made or marketed by IBM.

MCGA supported all of the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) modes, 640x480 monochrome at a refresh rate of 60Hz, and 256 colors at 320x200 at a 70Hz refresh rate. The adapter used a 15-pin connector. MCGA had a very short life, replaced by VGA and the later SVGA variants. It had served as a sort of middle-ground between CGA and EGA.