[98526] in RedHat Linux List
Re: generic video question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ramon Gandia)
Mon Nov 9 16:52:02 1998
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 08:17:16 -0900
From: Ramon Gandia <rfg@nook.net>
To: george@mintcity.com, redhat-list@redhat.com
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Michael George wrote:
>
> This isn't exactly relevant to RedHat, but this is probably about as good a
> place as any to post it...
>
> I'm confused about the size of the RAM on video cards nowadays... The hottest
> thing in video is to have 8Mb RAM on them. And this is for Windoze
> machines...
>
> However, by my calculations, even at 32-bit color, the standard windoze screen
> will only require 2Mb...
> 800 x 600 x 4 = 1.83105Mb
<etc etc>
The extra memory is used to build images before displaying, thus
saving time and gaining more speed. When you scroll a picture,
for instance, or you play an animated game, part of the memory
is displaying what there is to show you, while the rest of the
memory is building up its next frame.
Another way to look it it: You are displaying a web page, you
have to scroll it to see it all. With lots of RAM, all of the
page is in the video memory and it does not have to do any
more memory operations. As you scroll, the video chip merely
picks the portion of the memory that is displayable to screen.
In CAD/CAM it is often useful to create "layers", and the video
memory also comes into pay then.
In motion picture, the successive frames..... but you get the
idea.
--
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