Patent ID: 7623133

Claim:
A computer system, including: a display device having a display screen; a processing unit that includes a texture processing subsystem; and a graphics unit coupled to the texture processing subsystem and the display device and including graphics memory that includes a frame buffer, wherein the display screen has an available area within which display data stored in the frame buffer can be displayed, the frame buffer has an initial size large enough to store more display data than can be displayed within the available area of the display screen, and the graphics unit operates in a mode in which the graphics unit is configured to reduce graphics memory usage automatically by reducing the initial size of the frame buffer to a second size whereby, when the graphics unit operates in the mode, the frame buffer can no longer store more display data than can be displayed within the available area of the display screen, causing the texture processing subsystem to perform volume-reducing filtering on display data to generate filtered data, storing the filtered data in the frame buffer having the second size, and asserting the filtered data from the frame buffer having the second size to the display device for display.