[bjames]

Never noticed this before as I have always used the SGI1600sw monitor with my O2.  But last night I plugged in a 19" Sony FP monitor to compare the screen brightness and notices an increase of speed when IRIX loads the desktop.  Opening and closing apps seems a bit faster.  Overall the system seems less sluggish.  The resolution im running on the Sony through the VGA port is 1280x1024 32x32 bit.  I understand with the UMA memory the higher resolution of the 1600sw may be using more ram than the lower res monitor.  I just didnt think it would be that noticeable.

[Jacques]

Hi, yes it's quite noticeable. I suppose it's pushing data for 327,680 more pixels at 32x32 depth so quite an ask for a machine which shares it bandwidth as the O2 does. The CRM -> Display Engine bandwidth size has a direct impact on the remaining available bandwidth for the rest of the system.

Ian did some tests a while ago for something and found the O2 sped up the lower the resolution was (or slowed down with higher resolutions, take it how you want ). You could increase the O2's performance by about 13% he found if you're willing to go to 640x480X16

Ref Ian's page

http://sgidepot.co.uk/o2arch.html

edit - My O2 now runs at 1440x900 on my 24" Dell with a custom vfo, so the aspect ratio of 16:10 is spot on. This resolution also uses less bandwidth that the standard 1280x1024.

[bjames]

So its not just my imagination then.. I wonder if anyone has been able to create a custom VFO for the 1600SW to drop the resolution slightly. Its a great monitor, but I constantly have a problem with everything being so small to read.

[Jacques]

I've never seen a 1600SW run at anything other than 1600x1024...I'm not sure it can run at anything other than the native resolution?