23.2.1 Distinguishing Between Standard VGA and Super VGA

Most super VGA adapters are single-plane devices, which makes them well-suited for displaying DIBs. On a super VGA adapter, there is little speed difference between drawing DIBs and drawing device-dependent bitmaps—you can choose whichever format is more convenient for your application.

Standard VGA adapters have multiple planes and are not as well suited for displaying DIBs. It is faster to work with device-dependent bitmaps on standard VGA. To determine whether a standard VGA adapter is present, use the following code:

hDC = CreateDC("DISPLAY", NULL, NULL, NULL);

bIsMultiplane = (GetDeviceCaps(hDC, PLANES) > 1);

DeleteDC(hDC);