(Re. 8bpp faster & higher resolution than 24bpp)

Sorry, I tried to make it clear that I was refering to my particular
hardware.  I believe that the lower-resolution 24bpp display is probably
due to only the available memory (4MB---just a bit more than enough for a
1280x1024x24; 1600x1200x24 is simply beyond its capacity).

As for the speed, I don't mean refresh rates.  I mean things like dragging
windows around (I have opaque window moves, or whatever the proper name
is; the contents drag with the mouse, rather than a rectangular window
outline).  Also, if you ever run any toys, xcruise is unusable on my
system in 24bpp (it bogs down the whole X server and the mouse develops
serious latency); but in 8bpp it is very nice and fluid.  Useless, but
fluid.  (^&

Provided that you don't need truecolor (and the software doesn't end up
spending unreasonable amounts of time approximating true color on an 8bpp
display), 8bpp is significantly faster in some cases.  (In some cases,
it's too fast; I was toying with xpilot, and the screen updates are on the
same order as the display refresh; due to being slightly out of synch with
the refresh, the xpilot window contents are about 85% invisible.  (But in
16bpp, it plays fairly nicely.  (^&)

For reference, it's a 233MHz Pentium II (plenty of memory), with an STB
Nitro 3D (4MB, S3/ViRGE based) PCI card.


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  --rkr@rkr.kcnet.com