On Sat, Dec 07, 2002 at 11:15:56PM -0800, pedro noticioso wrote: > Hi all > > I have been looking at online docs about X_COLOR_DEPTH > and only seen 8 and 16 bits, is there a list of > different color depths supported by video cards?
Maybe, but for almost all cards the memory is the limit. 8, 16, 24
are supported by most X drivers (see the man page for XF86Config-4).
A more useful table is one that gives the maximum resolution for a
certain combination of color depth and memory on the graphics card:
Max res (4/3) Color Depth Mem
832x624 8 512kb
1152x864 8 1Mb
832x624 16 1Mb
1664x1248 8 2Mb
1152x864 16 2Mb
832x624 24 2Mb
1664x1248 16 4Mb
1152x864 24 4Mb
1664x1248 24 8Mb
So if you have a good enough monitor, there is no reason to not use
these resolutions instead of the standard ones (640x480, 800x600,
1024x768, 1280x124, 1600x1200 etc). X (in combination with the
videogen utility) makes it really simple to get the most out of your
hardware. Personally I consider the refresh rate of the monitor to be
most important, and I use a resolution that can be displayed at a high
enough rate (currently using 928x696 at 93 Hz)
If you don't require the 4/3 ratio, then it is possible to get 24 bits
with 1Mb cards:
624x464 24 1Mb
640x400 24 1Mb
Some really old cards cannot use more than 8 bit, even if they have
1Mb memory. It could be useful with a table of such cards. I know of
one such card: ET4000AX
Some older cards need some special options set in XF86Config, e.g.
Cirrus Logic cards. cl5428 need a device section in XF86Config like
this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "My Video Card"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Clockchip "cirrus"
Option "linear"
MemBase 0x02000000
Option "med_dram"
EndSection
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