Patent ID: 7184059

Claim:
A method of reducing an amount of storage space required for storing image data in main memory in a graphics processing system while increasing main memory bandwidth when displaying image data from a frame buffer located in said main memory, said graphics processing system including a graphics processing chip having an embedded first frame buffer memory and a separate non-embedded second frame buffer in a main memory provided separate from said graphics processing chip, comprising: storing RGB format image data in said first embedded frame buffer on the graphics processing chip; initiating a copy out operation for reading out said image data from the first embedded frame buffer and transferring image data to the separate non-embedded second frame buffer located in the main memory of the graphics processing system; converting said image data from an RGB format to a YUV display format during the copy out operation after reading out said image data from the embedded first frame buffer and prior to writing said image data to the non-embedded second frame buffer; and writing the converted image data to the non-embedded second frame buffer located in the main memory of the graphics system, wherein a total amount of memory storage space occupied by said converted image data in said second frame buffer is less than an amount of memory storage space occupied by said RGB format image data in said first frame buffer, and wherein main memory bandwidth is increased when displaying image data from said second frame buffer.