How to calculate how much RAM a video resolution uses

Hiya

I know there was a simple formula to determine how much RAM a certain screen resolution uses. For example 1024x768 in 32 bit colour could be shown to use a certain amount of video ram. Can anyone help me on this?

Thanks
Sam

 

But wouldn't a display with full millions of colors at x resolution still use more then a solid white or black screen at same x resolution? Don't really believe thats a valid formula.

 

It's a laptop with integrated gfx, so it shares it's RAM with system RAM. I am trying to allocate as little RAM as possible to gfx to free up more for the system but still keep a 1024x768x32 resolution.

 

Well in my opinon your going about it in the wrong way, just set it at 32 for the video if you can, thats plently if your not gaming, gaming, well thats another story.

 

well I have been running it at 8 for the last few years and have had no problems. It gets used to play divx, emulators and general internet browsing. I think in my case 32 is too much.

 

For non-accelerated graphics, like VGA, the current display buffer at a resolution of 1024x768 pixels requires;

@8-bit colour depth = 786,432 bytes
@16-bit = 1,572,864 bytes
@24-bit = 2,359,296 bytes
@32-bit = 3,145,728 bytes

Double these numbers if you have a GPU that uses a build buffer (next frame) as well as a display buffer.

If a program that you are running uses accelerated graphics as in DirectX graphics, you may be able to run some programs with as little as an extra 4 MBytes.

 

Then go with 8 if it works for you.