16 bit or 32 bit color?

[That guy.]

I'm viewing pics and I can't seem to see the difference between the Display
settings of my video card (32 mb Matrox 450 dual head but only using the
primary monitor) whether they are at 16 mb High Color or 32 mb True Color.
Should I be able to? I'm looking at flesh tones which are usually the
toughest to display accurately. I want to add another monitor and since my
video card can't come close to powering 2 monitors at 1280 x 1024 I thought
it might be workable to use a PCI video card for the second monitor. For
displaying pictures, would an 8 mb card display 1280 x 1024 @ 60 hz at
whatever color setting be satisfactory? The 2nd monitor is not for video or
animations.

 

[Rob Stow]

I'm viewing pics and I can't seem to see the difference between the Display
settings of my video card (32 mb Matrox 450 dual head but only using the
primary monitor) whether they are at 16 mb High Color or 32 mb True Color.
Should I be able to? I'm looking at flesh tones which are usually the
toughest to display accurately. I want to add another monitor and since my
video card can't come close to powering 2 monitors at 1280 x 1024 I thought
it might be workable to use a PCI video card for the second monitor. For
displaying pictures, would an 8 mb card display 1280 x 1024 @ 60 hz at
whatever color setting be satisfactory? The 2nd monitor is not for video or
animations.

You don't say whether you have a CRT or LCD monitor.
60 Hz is fine on an LCD, but a few minutes of 60 Hz on a CRT
would give most people a bad case of eyestrain and a headache.

And yes, you should be able to see the difference between 16 bit
and either 24 or 32 bit colour when looking at pictures. The
difference would be just about non existent *except* when looking
at images, viewing movies, etc.