Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!brahms!phil From: phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: Am I stuck with 640x480? Message-ID: <1990Dec23.184402.3502@amd.com> Date: 23 Dec 90 18:44:02 GMT References: Sender: usenet@amd.com (NNTP Posting) Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc; Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 30 In article sophist@brainiac.raidernet.com (sophist) writes: |Now I'm wondering if its possible to use this monitor with higher |resolution cards? What's stopping me? Will the monitor simply not |produce higher resolutions? Could I damage the monitor? Will it |flicker? It is not (I don't think) a multisync. Let me give you a few facts (ignore what others have said, at least one of them is 180 degrees off course) and why don't you see if you can extrapolate from them. (the following is simplified for tutorial purposes. EGA/CGA emulation modes and 8514 interlaced type displays are not considered here) Computer displays work by displaying one dot at a time, very fast. They scan from left to right to make a line. Then they move down and paint another line. The number of dots per line is 640 in 640x480 mode and the number of lines is 480. A complete set of lines makes up a frame. A frame is usually displayed 60 times a second. You can't play with this too much in the slow direction or it flickers. Making it faster reduces flicker but there is a point of diminishing returns. Assume a fixed 60 Hz frame refresh. How are you going to put up more dots? What happens to the amount of time you get to display each line? -- Whatever happened to Global Warming? Could we have some Local Warming?