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STB Velocity 4400

16 bit vs. 32 bit color

 

Test system

Although this test system won't exactly show the pure muscle the TNT has, it will give a good range of scores. These particular tests were done with the AGP card.

Pentium II 266 (running at different speeds)
ABit BX6 mainboard
64 MB PC100 SDRAM
STB Velocity 4400 (AGP & PCI)
Diamond Monster Sound MX200
Refresh rate set at 60 Hz
Windows 95 OSR 2.1

 

 

Performance of 16 bit vs. 32 bit color

 

CPU clock speed: 336 MHz (112 MHz x 3)

 

16 bit color 32 bit color

 

  640x480 800x600 1024x768 640x480 800x600 1024x768
Forsaken 150 104 63 113 75 45
Quake II 64.1 57.2 38.5 58.0 44.4 27.1
GLQuake 99.7 68.9 43.4 81.0 52.4 31.8

 

 

16 bit 32 bit
Dark Blue Green

 

Forsaken-640x480

150
113

 

Quake II-640x480

64.1
58

 

GLQuake-640x480

99.7
81

Forsaken-800x600

104
75

 

Quake II-800x600

57.2
44.4

 

GLQuake-800x600

68.9
52.4

Forsaken-1024x768

63
45

 

Quake II-1024x768

38.5
27.1

 

GLQuake-1024x768

43.4
31.8

 

 

 

CPU clock speed: 233 MHz (66 MHz x 3.5)

 

16 bit color 32 bit color

 

  640x480 800x600 1024x768 640x480 800x600 1024x768
Forsaken 120 95 58 110 70 41
Quake II 44.3 43.6 36.7 43.2 39.9 26.6
GLQuake 83.8 67.6 43.4 76.1 52.4 31.6

 

 

16 bit 32 bit
Dark Blue Green

 

Forsaken-640x480

120
110

 

Quake II-640x480

44.3
43.2

 

GLQuake-640x480

83.8
76.1

Forsaken-800x600

95
70

 

Quake II-800x600

43.6
39.9

 

GLQuake-800x600

67.6
52.4

Forsaken-1024x768

58
41

 

Quake II-1024x768

36.7
26.6

 

GLQuake-1024x768

43.4
31.6

 

 

I wouldn't use 32 bit color for a few reasons. First of all, as you can see from the #s here, the framerates take a significant dip when using it. Also the image quality is not much better. The only people that should really be concerned with it are those who are either totally psycho about image quality and will do anything for it, or power users that will never be satisfied with less than perfect gaming.

 

Visual differences

I'd throw some screenshots on here, but after compression and all that confusing mess it wouldn't even be worth it. But, I can tell you first hand, the visual difference is barely noticeable. I even thought I was in 16 bit some times when I was actually in 32 bit and vice versa.