Amiga Graphics ArchiveScreen Modes CRT About Links

Screen modes

The Amiga was capable of displaying various screen resolutions. All monitors and TV's of that time had a picture aspect ratio of 4:3 but the pixel aspect ratio varied greately. The ratios in the lists are pixel aspect ratios and the are rounded to the nearest neighbour. In reality PAL pixels are a tiny bit wider than they are tall (16:15) and NTSC pixels are a bit taller than they are wide (8:9).

OCS (Original Chip Set - released 1985)

The hardware that was used in the first generation of Amigas still very close to the original concept of the Amiga being used as a video games console. For that reason the screen modes were tied very closely to the television standards NTSC and PAL that were in use at that time. This also meant that the screen modes varied depending on what type of Amiga you had and where you had it.

LowRes

320×200 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
320×256 @ 50Hz (PAL)

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 32 colors, EHB, HAM

LowRes Laced

320×400 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
320×512 @ 50Hz (PAL)

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 32 colors, EHB, HAM

HiRes

640×200 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
640×256 @ 50Hz (PAL)

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

HiRes Laced

640×400 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
640×512 @ 50Hz (PAL)

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

ECS (Enhanced Chip Set - released 1990)

The enhanced chip set was released with several small improvements over the original chip set. New screen modes were added to support higher resolutions offered by multisync monitors but at the same time sacrificing color depth.
Technical limitations also limited the usefulness of many of these new modes as most had either very extreme pixel aspect ratios or were limited to very few colors. The reason for this was possibly the attempt to squeeze addition features out of the original chip set design without changing to much on the chip.

Super-HiRes

1280×200 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
1280×256 @ 50Hz (PAL)

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Super-HiRes Laced

1280×400 @ 60Hz (NTSC)
1280×512 @ 50Hz (PAL)

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Productivity

640×480 @ 60Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Productivity Laced

640×960 @ 60Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

10Hz

1024×800 @ 10Hz (NTSC)
1024×1024 @ 10Hz (PAL)

4 bit color depth (16 colors)
up to 4 colors

15Hz

1024×800 @ 15Hz (NTSC)
1024×1024 @ 15Hz (PAL)

4 bit color depth (16 colors)
up to 4 colors

LowRes

320×200 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 32 colors, EHB, HAM

LowRes Laced

320×400 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 32 colors, EHB, HAM

HiRes

640×200 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

HiRes Laced

640×400 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

Super-HiRes

1280×200 @ 73Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Super-HiRes Laced

1280×400 @ 73Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Euro72

Productivity

640×400 @ 70Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Productivity Laced

640×800 @ 70Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

HiRes

400×300 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

HiRes Laced

400×600 @ 73Hz

12 bit color depth (4096 colors)
up to 16 colors

Super-HiRes

800×300 @ 73Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

Super-HiRes Laced

800×600 @ 73Hz

6 bit color depth (64 colors)
up to 4 colors

AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture - released 1992)

The AGA chipset was the first real improvement over the original chipset. Further screen modes where added, the color palette was extended to 24bit and resolutions with up to 256 colors. All resolutions could now be used with all color modes.

LowRes

320×200 @ 60Hz
320×256 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8

LowRes No Flicker

320×400 @ 60Hz
320×512 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8

LowRes Laced

320×800 @ 60Hz
320×1024 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8

HiRes

640×200 @ 60Hz
640×256 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8

HiRes No Flicker

640×400 @ 60Hz
640×512 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8

HiRes Laced

640×800 @ 60Hz
640×1024 @ 50Hz

24 bit color depth (16,777,216 colors)
up to 256 colors, EHB, HAM, HAM8