PC display modes

The screen resolution on a PC is determined by a plug-in graphics card or the equivalent circuitry built into the chipset on the motherboards. The very early cards supported only the 640x480 VGA resolution, but resolutions increased dramatically over the years, and current cards and monitors support wide screen formats (see resolution for details). The number of colors that can be displayed jumps in large increments from 256, to 65 thousand to 16 million.

Text and Graphics Mode
A PC graphics card supports both text and graphics modes. Windows PCs boot up in text mode and switch to graphics mode. Many DOS applications supported both modes and switched between them based on the function selected by the user. Following is a summary of early PC display modes and resolutions. See display adapter, how to select a PC monitor and virtual screen.

VESA STANDARDS - SUPER VGA (colors in parentheses) 640x480 text+graphics (256-16M) 800x600 text+graphics (16-16M) 1024x768 text+graphics (16-16M) 1280x1024 text+graphics (16-16M) IBM STANDARDS (colors in parentheses) MDA 720x350 text only, monoc CGA 320x200 text+graphics (4) EGA 640x350 text+graphics (16) MCGA 640x400 text; 320x200 graphics (256) VGA 720x400 text; 640x480 graphics (16) 8514 1024x768 text & graphics (256) XGA 1024x768 text & graphics (256) HERCULES STANDARD 720x348 text & graphics (mono) VESA MODESVESA BIOS Extension (VBE)Super VGA modes defined by VESAMode no. VideoDec. Hex Res. Colors RAM used 256 100 640x400 256 250K 257 101 640x480 256 300K 258 102 800x600 16 234K 259 103 800x600 256 469K 260 104 1024x768 16 384K 261 105 1024x768 256 768K 262 106 1280x1024 16 640K 263 107 1280x1024 256 1280K 264 108 80x60 text 9.3K 265 109 132x25 text 6.4K 266 10A 132x43 text 11.1K 267 10B 132x50 text 12.9K 268 10C 132x60 text 15.5K 269 10D 320x200 32K 125K 270 10E 320x200 64K 125K 271 10F 320x200 16M 188K 272 110 640x480 32K 600K 273 111 640x480 64K 600K 274 112 640x480 16M 900K 275 113 800x600 32K 938K 276 114 800x600 64K 938K 277 115 800x600 16M 1406K 278 116 1024x768 32K 1536K 279 117 1024x768 64K 1536K 280 118 1024x768 16M 2304K 281 119 1280x1024 32K 2560K 282 11A 1280x1024 64K 2560K 283 11B 1280x1024 16M 3840K 81FF Special mode to save and restore video RAM

Note: As of VBE 2.0, VESA no longer defines new modes by number. It provides a mechanism for defining the mode by resolution.

Number Pixel bitscolors R G B 32K 5 5 5 64K 5 6 5 16M 8 8 8 EARLIER IBM MODESModeNo. CGA 0 320x200 40x25 txt 16 gray 1 320x200 40x25 txt 16 colors 2 640x200 80x25 txt 16 gray 3 640x200 80x24 txt 16 colors 4 320x200 graphics 4 colors 5 320x200 graphics 4 gray 6 640x200 graphics monochrome EGA 0 320x350 40x25 txt 16 gray 1 320x350 40x25 txt 16 colors 2 640x350 80x25 txt 16 gray 3 640x350 80x25 txt 16 colors 7 720x350 80x25 txt monochrome 13 320x200 graphics 16 colors 14 640x200 graphics 16 colors 15 640x350 graphics monochrome 16 640x350 graphics 16 colors MCGA 0 320x400 40x25 txt 16 gray 1 320x400 40x25 txt 16 colors 2 640x400 80x25 txt 16 gray 3 640x400 80x25 txt 16 colors 17 640x480 graphics monochrome 19 320x200 graphics 256 colors VGA 0 360x400 40x25 txt 16 gray 1 360x400 40x25 txt 16 colors 2 720x400 80x25 txt 16 gray 3 720x400 80x25 txt 16 colors 7 720x400 80x25 txt monochrome 18 640x480 graphics 16 colors XGA 640x480 graphics 256 colors 640x480 graphics 64K colors 1024x768 graphics 256 colors