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>8. Tradeoffs in Configuring your System</H1
><P
>Another way to look at the formula we derived above is</P
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>&#13; DCF = RR * HFL * VFL
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>That is, your dot clock is fixed. You can use those dots per
second to buy either refresh rate, horizontal resolution, or vertical
resolution. If one of those increases, one or both of the others must
decrease.</P
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>Note, though, that your refresh rate cannot be greater than the maximum
vertical sync frequency of your monitor. Thus, for any given monitor at a
given dot clock, there is a minimum product of frame lengths below which you
can't force it.</P
><P
>In choosing your settings, remember: if you set RR too low, you will
get mugged by screen flicker. Keep it above 60Hz. 72Hz is the VESA
ergonomic standard. 120Hz is the flicker rate of fluorescent lights
in the U.S. (100MHz is Europe and other places with 50-cycle current);
if you're sensitive to those, you need to keep it above that.</P
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>Flicker is very eye-fatiguing, though human eyes are adaptable
and peoples' tolerance for it varies widely. If you face your monitor
at a 90% viewing angle, are using a dark background and a good
contrasting color for foreground, and stick with low to medium
intensity, you *may* be comfortable at as little as 45Hz.</P
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>The acid test is this: open a xterm with pure white back-ground
and black foreground using <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>xterm -bg white -fg
black</SPAN
> and make it so large as to cover the entire viewable
area. Now turn your monitor's intensity to 3/4 of its maximum
setting, and turn your face away from the monitor. Try peeking at
your monitor sideways (bringing the more sensitive peripheral-vision
cells into play). If you don't sense any flicker or if you feel the
flickering is tolerable, then that refresh rate is fine with you.
Otherwise you better configure a higher refresh rate, because that
semi-invisible flicker is going to fatigue your eyes like crazy and
give you headaches, even if the screen looks OK to normal
vision.</P
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>For interlaced modes, the amount of flicker depends on more factors
such as the current vertical resolution and the actual screen
contents. So just experiment. You won't want to go much below about
85Hz half frame rate, though.</P
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>So let's say you've picked a minimum acceptable refresh rate.
In choosing your HFL and VFL, you'll have some room for
maneuver.</P
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