Last cards to support 16-bit dithering \ VOGONS

Last cards to support 16-bit dithering

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by BEEN_Nath_58

Posted on 2023-06-30, 09:43

BEEN_Nath_58 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2380
Joined: 2020-04-19, 19:36
Location: India

It has been long that 16-bit dithering has been deleted from driver support. I miss it now, having the option would have been good to people anyways.

New cards (at least Nvidia) used to render at 32-bit and now back at 16-bit (at least by default) on Windows 11 so it keeps reminding me of dithered colors.

How old do I look to have a GPU that properly supports 16-bit dithering, and drivers work with at least Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit)?

Thanks.

previously known as Discrete_BOB_058

Reply 1 of 3, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on 2023-06-30, 10:09

Joseph_Joestar Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4422
Joined: 2019-10-31, 21:14
Location: Europe

Nvidia GeForce 7 series and ATi X1000 series, unless I'm mistaken. Both of which came out in 2005.

Not sure about Intel iGPUs though. They may have supported 16-bit dithering later than that.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 2 of 3, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2023-06-30, 17:23

The Serpent Rider Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5667
Joined: 2017-03-25, 19:07
Location: The Hole

Intel iGPUs indeed had (or still have?) dithering even after DX10 was implemented, but Nvidia and AMD dropped it with DX10 hardware completely. All preDX10 cards have dithering support both in Windows 2000/XP and in Windows Vista+ environment.

Only S3 Chrome DX10+ cards are complete mystery, due to obscurity.

But Nvidia/AMD and probably Intel DX10 GPUs have much better quality in 32-bit color, including older games: Re: Image Quality of various old video cards (Quake 3 comparison)

Can't win them all.

Last edited by The Serpent Rider on 2023-06-30, 17:38. Edited 1 time in total.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 3, by leileilol

Posted on 2023-06-30, 17:37

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 11786
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

Intel HD IGPs (at least around Haswell) has had 16-bit dithering implemented in the way PowerVR does it - an ordered dither upon a much higher precision buffer. So not only is it dithering, it's the best possible looking dithering.

long live PCem

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Video

Main menu

Common searches