An earlier VESA programming interface for Super VGA cards. It provided a way for developers of DOS games and applications to query a graphics card for its capabilities and to set resolution and color depth directly. A VESA software driver was provided by the card or game vendor. As of VESA BIOS Extension (VBE) 2.0, the driver had to be implemented in the card's BIOS, and resolutions were selectable by pixels (640x480, 800x600, etc.), not just mode number.
The Universal Driver
Since the graphics card could be interrogated, it allowed for the development of a universal driver that asks for and then uses the commands that the card supports. Most VBE modes are outlined below. For more details, see
PC display modes. See
UniVBE.
Mode no. Video
(hex) Res. Colors RAM used
101 640x480 256 300K
110 640x480 32K 600K
111 640x480 64K 600K
112 640x480 16M 900K
103 800x600 256 469K
113 800x600 32K 938K
114 800x600 64K 938K
115 800x600 16M 1406K
105 1024x768 256 768K
116 1024x768 32K 1536K
117 1024x768 64K 1536K
118 1024x768 16M 2304K
107 1280x1024 256 1280K
119 1280x1024 32K 2560K
11A 1280x1024 64K 2560K
11B 1280x1024 16M 3840K