# How much memory does GL\_ALPHA use?

**URL:** <https://forums.imgtec.com/t/how-much-memory-does-gl-alpha-use/723>\
**Category:** PowerVR Insider\
**Created:** [June 3, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://forums.imgtec.com/t/how-much-memory-does-gl-alpha-use/723 "2010-06-03T21:44:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lefty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@lefty](https://forums.imgtec.com/u/lefty)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://forums.imgtec.com/t/how-much-memory-does-gl-alpha-use/723/1 "2010-06-03T21:44:59Z")

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Just a quicky question 😉  
  
How much texture memory per pixel does it use when you use GL\_ALPHA:  
  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; glTexImage2D(GL\_TEXTURE\_2D, 0, GL\_ALPHA, Width, Height,  
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0, GL\_ALPHA, GL\_UNSIGNED\_BYTE, pData);  
  
Thanks for any info.

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**Author:** ![xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@xmas](https://forums.imgtec.com/u/xmas)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://forums.imgtec.com/t/how-much-memory-does-gl-alpha-use/723/2 "2010-06-04T08:09:23Z")

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On pretty much any implementation (certainly on MBX and SGX) it should be one byte per pixel, though most hardware has certain stride requirements affecting small textures, e.g. width may be rounded up to a multiple of 16 or so.

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**Author:** ![lefty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@lefty](https://forums.imgtec.com/u/lefty)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://forums.imgtec.com/t/how-much-memory-does-gl-alpha-use/723/3 "2010-06-04T08:24:15Z")

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Thanks for the info 😉