Wallpaper - Video Memory: Myth or True?

[Asestar]

Is it true that (under winXp) using no wallpaper on desktop at all, saves
video memory of graphic card?
And also that using a compressed .jpg desktop wallpaper saves video-mem vs
using a .bmp wallpaper?

Is this true or what?

Does that mean playing a game with no wallpaper on desktop gives faster
performance than using a huge 1600*1200*32 bmp wallpaper?

FYI I'm using both 9600SE and M-10 (mob.9600) Pro cards with 128mb.

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

Regardless of what compressed format (jpg, gif etc..) the wallpaper image is
stored in locally, the image is of course, ultimately displayed uncompressed
and as a bitmap. Just as a CPU does not understand an instruction you throw
at it perl, C, Java, html or any HLL for that matter until it is compiled
and assembled, the graphics hardware does not understand the jpeg image
until it is decoded by the system CPU in conjunction with a software jpeg
decoder.

Your only going to save space on your hard-drive by limiting the image
sources for wallpapers to compressed formats. You will not save any system
or video memory.

Also, the wallpaper will not use any additional "video memory", that is...
memory on the graphics card. The extra memory being utilized when using
desktop wallpaper is system ram. At 1024x768x32bpp, the frame buffer is
25165824 bits or 3145728 bytes (3.07MB) regardless of what pixels make up
the display. They could all be yellow, all be black, or could be a
combination of different colored pixels that represent a beautifully
detailed landscape. In the end, it's still the same amount of pixels and
same amount of framebuffer usage.

Hope that helps.

 

[Asestar]

Thanks.. I needed that info.

Does that mean running a game is not affected wallpaper?

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

Correct. Unless you are already strapped for system RAM

 

[Asestar]

What about the themes of winxp, blue silver olive? Does same applies to
them? I know these themes use about 10-20mb of system ram, but that ram
space is freed when running a game or not?
If that ram is not freed, a 512mb system with A/V software, wallpaper, xp
theme and some firewall/ICS would behave like it has about 450MB of ram in a
game?

 

[patrickp]

Thanks.. I needed that info.

Does that mean running a game is not affected wallpaper?

I've always found when running in machines with resources that are
sufficiently limited to show the difference, that a bitmap file sized
to the desktop and saved in the lowest colour depth possible makes the
least drain on the resources there are. When you're reducing the
colour depth, it pays to experiment with the dithering you use etc, as
it can make all the difference as to how smoothly colour and shadow
differences are rendered.

Black-and-white photos can be great for this - you can't actually get
them down to 2 colours, because they're not literally simple
black-and-white, but you can get them to quite low colour depths - and
the right ones can look quite stunning. If you're into jazz, for
instance, I found some Herman Leonard photos that look superb, with a
little appropriate trimming to fit the desktop..




patrickp

(e-mail address removed) - take five to email me

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

yes... the same applies to themes - all system RAM. No, the memory is not
freed when running a game. The only time memory is "freed" is when the app
is unloaded, otherwise, it may evenutally be pushed out to slower disk cache
(swap) but it is still occupying a type of system memory.

If that ram is not freed, a 512mb system with A/V software, wallpaper, xp
theme and some firewall/ICS would behave like it has about 450MB of ram in a
game?

Congrats... you've passed how to configure a gaming system for
performance-101 The more system overhead created by background apps and
processes, the less memory and cpu available to the game.

 

[Slug]

Is it true that (under winXp) using no wallpaper on desktop at all, saves
video memory of graphic card?
And also that using a compressed .jpg desktop wallpaper saves video-mem vs
using a .bmp wallpaper?

Is this true or what?

Does that mean playing a game with no wallpaper on desktop gives faster
performance than using a huge 1600*1200*32 bmp wallpaper?

FYI I'm using both 9600SE and M-10 (mob.9600) Pro cards with 128mb.

Anything that is displayed on screen is taking up some video memory but
when you are playing a game the desktop is not being displayed so the
wallpaper is not using any video memory. And yes, a jpeg file is a lot
smaller than a .bmp file so it uses less memory.