MSI Twin Turbo-128M Manual - Page 5

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Introduction

About True Color

True Color is so called because 24 bits (binary digits) of

information are used to define each pixel. The 24-bits are divided

as eight bits for the red channel, eight bits for the green, and eight

bits for the blue. The total number of colors that can be defined by

a 24-bit diplay board is 2

* 2

, which equals 16.7 million

colors. While you'll never be able to see all 16.7 million colors

displayed at once, you will appreciate the smooth, continuous

transitions in a shaded object.

The preferred display mode for QuickTime video playback is 16-

bits per pixel. Special YUV-RGB hardware on the Twin Turbo-

128M and M2 will be used to accelerate software MPEG movie

playback in future software releases.

The Twin Turbo-128 processes 128-bits of graphics data every

two clock cycles. Graphics performance is inversely proportional

to the amount of color used to define each pixel. When running

the Twin Turbo-128 in 256 color mode, 16 pixels are processed

in two clock cycles. In thousands of colors mode, 8 pixels are

processed in two cycles, and in millions of color mode, 4 pixels

are processed in two cycles. Maximum graphics performance is

achieved by using the lowest possible color mode for each

application. A word processing application would operate best in

256 color mode, while a Photo-Retouching program would

operate best in millions of color mode.

Unlike DRAM based graphics accelerator cards, screen resolution

and refresh rate have little effect on graphics acceleration

performance on the Twin Turbo-128. A typical DRAM based

graphics card might only be able to display 800 x 600 pixels at

16.7 million color mode, and have degraded graphics

performance.