In 98Se, the Display properties/settings/color has no option for True Color (24 bit). Oddly enough, there IS an option for True Color (32 bit). My video card is an NVIDIA Vanta. According to this website: http://support.tangent.com/hardware/video card/vga-028.htm the card is "Optimized for 32, 24, 16 & 8bit Color depth operation." I know this must be my card, because not only does it look almost exactly the same, but the drivers on that site worked with my card ,too. But i still didn't get 24-bit colors.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Current nVidia video drivers typically have no '24-bit color' selection option, just '16-bit color' and '32-bit color'.

The 2 desktops in my signature have nVidia video cards (32 mb GeForce2 MX-200 and 128 mb GeForce 6600 GT AGP respectively) using the current nVidia drivers. Both are dual-boot 98SE and XP. On either PC, in either OS, the nVidia driver allows selection of 16-bit color or 32-bit color, but NOT 24-bit color.

The lack of a 24-bit option doesn't really matter for a video card with 32 mb or more of video RAM, but on your old 8 mb video card it WOULD be nice to have a 24-bit option.

If your system can run an AGP 2.0 card, upgrading wouldn't hurt. The used 32 mb video cards I see are dirt cheap...

********************************************

AMD Athlon 1.1 = 98SE & XP Home SP2 - 512 MB RAM

AMD Athlon64 3000 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 1024 MB RAM (98SE RAM access limited to 768 MB)

IBM ThinkPad PIII 900 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 384 MB RAM

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Wow! I am surprised NVidia cards do NOT support 24-bit color...The Vanta is AGP 2x & 4x, can't i just add more RAM to it? I know Matrox cards support 24-bit color, not sure about ATI though...I think i'll get a Matrox G200 or G400 w/16 MB, i can add more RAM to those models i think.


On Thursday, April 13, 2006 at 10:56 pm, DNA wrote:
>Current nVidia video drivers typically have no '24-bit color' selection option, just
>'16-bit color' and '32-bit color'.
>

>The 2 desktops in my signature have nVidia video cards (32 mb GeForce2 MX-200 and
>128 mb GeForce 6600 GT AGP respectively) using the current nVidia drivers. Both are
>dual-boot 98SE and XP. On either PC, in either OS, the nVidia driver allows selection
>of 16-bit color or 32-bit color, but NOT 24-bit color.
>

>The lack of a 24-bit option doesn't really matter for a video card with 32 mb or
>more of video RAM, but on your old 8 mb video card it WOULD be nice to have a 24-bit
>option.
>

>If your system can run an AGP 2.0 card, upgrading wouldn't hurt. The used 32 mb video
>cards I see are dirt cheap...
>

********************************************
>

>AMD Athlon 1.1 = 98SE & XP Home SP2 - 512 MB RAM
>

>AMD Athlon64 3000 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 1024 MB RAM (98SE RAM access limited to 768
>MB)
>

>IBM ThinkPad PIII 900 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 384 MB RAM

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Or you can switch to Linux.. The drivers for that system used to support 24 bit color. ATI used to and then stopped, at least on the ones I have in use. Not a matter of memory. It's a matter of not writing it in the drivers if the hardware "can" support it.


On Friday, April 14, 2006 at 2:37 pm, Klerg wrote:
>Wow! I am surprised NVidia cards do NOT support 24-bit color...The Vanta is AGP 2x
>& 4x, can't i just add more RAM to it? I know Matrox cards support 24-bit color,
>not sure about ATI though...I think i'll get a Matrox G200 or G400 w/16 MB, i can
>add more RAM to those models i think.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

 
You obviously came to the wrong place for an answer. Windows will not display it 
and never has................

"Video boards for the last few years are 24 bit color (called True Color). Note that 
there is no 32 bit color. The confusion is that 24 bit color mode normally uses 32 
bit video mode today, referring to the efficient 32 bit accelerator chips (word size).

The 24 bit color mode and so-called 32 bit video mode show the same 24 bit colors, 
the same 3 bytes RGB per pixel. 32 bit mode simply discards one of the four bytes 
(wasting 25% of video memory), because having 3 bytes per pixel severely limits video 
acceleration functions. 

Processor chips can only copy data in byte multiples (8, 16, 32, or 64 bits). A 24 
bit copy done with a hardware video accelerator would require three 8-bit transfers 
per pixel instead of one 32-bit transfer. 32 bit video mode is for speed, and it 
shows 24 bit color."

READ ME: Video-boards&Modes


    

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Drivers for what system? Don't you mean video card? What do you mean by "used to"?


On Friday, April 14, 2006 at 7:35 pm, C K wrote:
>Or you can switch to Linux.. The drivers for that system used to support 24 bit
>color. ATI used to and then stopped, at least on the ones I have in use. Not a
>matter of memory. It's a matter of not writing it in the drivers if the hardware
>"can" support it.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I beg to differ. On an my friend's PC an HP Vectra VLi 8 w/Matrox Millenium G200 
card there is the following  under Display Properties/Settings/Colors:

16 colors
256 colors
high color (16 bit) =65,000
True color (24 bit)=24 mil?
True color (32 bit)=32 mil?

The reason i want 24 bit is becasue its "True" color and displays correctly w/16-bit 
apps, like CakeWalk Pro 3. It looks distorted w/32 bit , although this is w/ NVIDIA 
Vanta card. 






On Friday, April 14, 2006 at 10:55 pm, JmC wrote:

> 

>You obviously came to the wrong place for an answer. Windows will not display it 

>and never has................

> 

You have heard of the free Linux operating system?? It's not Windows so uses drivers written especially for it to support the hardware devices. The last time I used that system, the drivers for the NVidia card supported 24 bit color but not 32 bit. They may have been updated and eliminated the 24 bit support and added 32 bit support only. I don't know as I haven't used that system in about 3 years.


On Saturday, April 15, 2006 at 1:40 am, Klerg wrote:
>Drivers for what system? Don't you mean video card? What do you mean by "used to"?
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have a Win2K machine in the basement (1.7 Cel, 256 RAM) with a 32 MB ATI-chip AGP Video card, and the ATI video driver gives you the option to select 24-bit color (as well as 16-bit and 32-bit). I don't know if it's the 'current' (latest) ATI video driver, but it works fine...

My old 3dfx Voodoo 5 card (remember those?) also gave you a 24-bit option, in addition to 16-bit and 32-bit.

"32-bit" is the same amount of colors as "24-bit" (16.7 milllion), the extra 8 bits are for the alpha transparency layer.

Any 32+ MB video card should be able to run any 'realisitic' resolution in 32-bit color (3D Games and Vista's Aero Glass effects etc. excluded). This is why a lot of the 'modern' video drivers don't bother having a 24-bit option.

********************************************

AMD Athlon 1.1 = 98SE & XP Home SP2 - 512 MB RAM

AMD Athlon64 3000 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 1024 MB RAM (98SE RAM access limited to 768 MB)

IBM ThinkPad PIII 900 = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 - 384 MB RAM

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