PCI/VGA Palette Snoop
Common Options : Enabled, Disabled
Quick Review of PCI/VGA Palette Snoop
The PCI/VGA Palette Snoop BIOS feature determines if your graphics card should allow VGA palette snooping by a fixed function display card. It is only useful if you use a fixed-function display card that requires a VGA-compatible graphics card to be present (i.e. MPEG decoder card).
Such fixed-function display cards generally do not have their own VGA palette. So, they have to “snoop” VGA palette data from the graphics card to generate the proper colours. Normally, the graphics card’s Feature Connector is used for this purpose.
When this feature is enabled, the graphics card will not respond to framebuffer writes. It will forward them to the fixed-function display card via its Feature Connector. The fixed-function display card will then snoop the palette data and generate the proper colours.
When this feature is disabled, the graphics card will display all framebuffer writes.
It is recommended that you disable this feature if you do not use any fixed-function display card like a MPEG decoder card.
But if you are using a fixed-function display card that requires palette snooping, enable this feature. Otherwise, the colours displayed may not be accurate and the monitor will blank out once you stop using the fixed-function display card.
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Details of PCI/VGA Palette Snoop
The PCI/VGA Palette Snoop BIOS feature determines if your graphics card should allow VGA palette snooping by a fixed function display card. It is only useful if you use a fixed-function display card that requires a VGA-compatible graphics card to be present (i.e. MPEG decoder card).
Such fixed-function display cards generally do not have their own VGA palette. So, they have to “snoop” VGA palette data from the graphics card to generate the proper colours. Normally, the graphics card’s Feature Connector is used for this purpose.
When this feature is enabled, the graphics card will not respond to framebuffer writes. It will forward them to the fixed-function display card via its Feature Connector. The fixed-function display card will then snoop the palette data and generate the proper colours.
This ensures accurate colour reproduction. It will also prevent the monitor from displaying a blank screen after the fixed-function card’s capabilities are not required (i.e. when you stop playing MPEG video using the MPEG decoder card).
When this feature is disabled, the graphics card will display all framebuffer writes.
It is recommended that you disable this feature if you do not use any fixed-function display card like a MPEG decoder card.
But if you are using a fixed-function display card that requires palette snooping, enable this feature. Otherwise, the colours displayed may not be accurate and the monitor will blank out once you stop using the fixed-function display card.
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