Optimizing the speed of the Mach64 X server

Mach64 X Server Release Notes : Optimizing the speed of the Mach64 X server
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## 2. Optimizing the speed of the Mach64 X server

To maximize the speed of the Mach64 X server, I suggest that you use the following maximum resolutions. This will allow room for the font and pixmap caches and a hardware cursor.

    Max Resolution   BPP   Video RAM
    --------------   ---   ---------
      1280x1024       8       4Mb
      1280x1024      16       4Mb
       1024x767      32       4Mb

      1280x1024       8       2Mb
       1024x767      16       2Mb
        800x600[*]   32       2Mb

       1024x767       8       1Mb
        800x600[*]   16       1Mb

[*] - With a 2MB video card, the only way to use the font and pixmap caches is to have a virtual resolution of 1024x480 with a 640x480 mode. I suggest using 800x600 to maximize your screen size at the cost of the speed gained from the caches. The same argument can be made for 1MB video cards running in 16bpp mode. Note that it is not possible to run in 32bpp mode with 1MB of video memory.

Technical explanation for the above suggestions: The Mach64 X server uses a font and pixmap cache that is only available at a screen width of 1024 or greater. This restriction will be removed in a future version of the X server. To obtain the best performance from your video card, you need to make sure that there is enough room off-screen for the caches (at least 1024x256). In addition to the cache, the Mach64 uses memory mapped registers which are mapped to the last 1024 bytes of the memory aperture. This takes away another line from video memory. Thus, you need at least a video memory area of 1024x257.

Mach64 X Server Release Notes : Optimizing the speed of the Mach64 X server
Previous: Supported Cards, RAMDACs, and Bits Per Pixel
Next: XF86Config options