bit depth question

[sample text]

can someone tell me what does "8 bit depth" and "32 bit current display mode mean"? why they are different?what is this 8 bit depth for?isn't it too low?how can I increase that 8 bit?

[Mira Yurizaki]

When the term "8-bit" is thrown around, it's usually talking about how many bits per color channel (red, green, or blue) the display is capable of handling. This in turn is how many shades of that color are possible. This is a hardware spec of the display, so you can't change this.

 

The "32-bit" in the dxdiag window is talking about how many bits in total for color in software are being processed at once. Though 32-bit is a misnomer, it's really 24-bit color (8 bits per color channel) plus an 8-bit alpha channel for transparency.

 

So to recap, the "8-bit" part means the display can do 8-bits per color channel. The 32-bit part means the software is using 32-bits (or really 24-bits plus an alpha channel) for storing and processing color.