You could do a lot with weird modelines in Xfree86. I had not enough VRAM in a computer to do 16 bit 1024x768 but the difference was tiny. I think it needed a

You could do a lot with weird modelines in Xfree86. I had not enough VRAM in a computer to do 16 bit 1024x768 but the difference was tiny. I think it needed a few tiny buffers for the mouse cursor and dragdropped icon, which was advanced 2d hardware acceleration at the time (Onion, belt, ...),and whatever memory was left just did not make it by a hair. So I wrote a custom modeline to create an absolutely nonstandard videomode. I think the only requirement was that vert and horiz resolution were divisible by 4, so I did 1000 by 752 or something like that. You had to make sure the dot clock was acceptable, or you could physically damage the CRT. Scary. So I did the calculations and tripple checked everything, then started a custom config with my thumb on the power button. It worked.