On 12 Jul 99, at 18:03, Gerard F. Stevenson wrote:

> What is the recommended number of colors and pixel settings I should use on
> computer in order to get the best display/performance with a PCI video ckt
> card - 4MB Memory, S3 Virge GX Graphics, 64 Bit GUI & Multimedia Accelerator
> with 3D and a 15 inch monitor?
>
> 16 Colors

  This uses 4 bits of colour information per pixel, and will offer particularly
poor speed.  It is provided only for backward compatibility with VGA, and should
be avoided.

> 256 Colors

  This uses 8 bits of colour information per pixel, and decent speed.  This
is the recommended colour depth for web graphics, so that they download
quickly, but you have plenty of video RAM to allow you to do better for your
desktop.

> 16 Bit High Color

  This provides a good mix of speed and colour depth.

> 24 Bit True Color

  This provides all of the colour nuances that the human eye can resolve (hence
the name) -- however, performance is likely to be worse than 16-bit.

  Many good video cards also offer "32 Bit True Color", which provides 24 bits
of color but, by aligning pixels to 32-bit boundaries, is almost as fast a 16
bit mode.  Check again to see if your card (and its driver) support such a
mode.


> And what pixel setting????

  With 4MB of RAM, your card can easily support 24 - (and 32- ?) bit modes at
1024x768 pixels -- which is the highest resolution I'd recommend on a 15"
monitor.

  At that resolution, 16-bit colour takes only 2MB.  It's *possible* that the
card's 3D functionality can take advantage of the other 2MB if it is configured
this way, but I don't think it's likely.



David G

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