Version: Unity 6 (6000.0)
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GPU texture formats reference

Default texture formats, by platform

The following table shows the default formats used for each platform.

Platform Color model None Normal quality (default) High quality Low quality (higher performance)
Windows, Linux, macOS RGB RGB 24 bit RGB Compressed DXT1 RGB(A) Compressed BC7 RGB Compressed DXT1
RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA Compressed DXT5 RGB(A) Compressed BC7 RGBA Compressed DXT5
HDRhigh dynamic range
See in Glossary
RGBA Half RGB Compressed BC6H RGB Compressed BC6H RGB Compressed BC6H
WebGLA JavaScript API that renders 2D and 3D graphics in a web browser. The Unity Web build option allows Unity to publish content as JavaScript programs which use HTML5 technologies and the WebGL rendering API to run Unity content in a web browser. More info
See in Glossary
(configurable)
RGB RGB 24 bit RGB Compressed DXT1 RGB Compressed DXT1 RGB Compressed DXT1
RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA Compressed DXT5 RGBA Compressed DXT5 RGBA Compressed DXT5
Android (configurable) RGB RGB 24 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block
RGB Compressed ETC2
RGB Compressed ETC
RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block
RGB Compressed ETC2
RGB Compressed ETC
RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
RGB Compressed ETC2
RGB Compressed ETC
RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block
RGBA Compressed ETC2
RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block
RGBA Compressed ETC2
RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
RGBA Compressed ETC2
iOS (configurable) RGB RGB 24 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block
RGB Compressed PVRTC 4 bits
RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block
RGB Compressed PVRTC 4 bits
RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
RGB Compressed PVRTC 2 bits
RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 4 bits
RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 4 bits
RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 2 bits
tvOS RGB RGB 24 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA Compressed ASTC 6x6 block RGBA Compressed ASTC 4x4 block RGBA Compressed ASTC 8x8 block
Default RGBA RGBA 32 bit RGBA 16 bit RGBA 16 bit RGBA 16 bit

Texture formats, by quality

The table below shows each format available in Unity, and their quality details.

Texture formatA file format for handling textures during real-time rendering by 3D graphics hardware, such as a graphics card or mobile device. More info
See in Glossary
Description Channels Quality Bits per pixelThe smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info
See in Glossary
Size of 1024x1024 texture, in MB
RGB(A) Compressed BC7 Compressed RGB or RGBA RGB or RGBA High 8 1
RGBA Crunched DXT5 Compressed RGBA, with additional on-disk Crunch compressionA method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression, Animation Compression, Audio Compression, Build Compression.
See in Glossary
RGBA Low to medium Variable Variable
RGBA 64 bit Uncompressed RGBA, very high precision RGBA Very high 64 8
RGBA 32 bit Uncompressed RGBA RGBA High 32 4
RGBA 16 bit Quantized RGBA RGBA Medium 16 2
RGB Compressed DXT1 Compressed RGB (also known as BC1) RGB Medium 4 0.5
RGB Crunched DXT1 Compressed RGB, with additional on-disk Crunch compression RGB Low to medium Variable Variable
RGB 48 bit Uncompressed RGB, very high precision. Converted to RGBA 64 bit for the GPU RGB Very high 48 disk, 64 GPU 6 disk, 8 GPU
RGB 24 bit Uncompressed RGB. Converted to RGBA 32 bit for the GPU RGB High 24 disk, 32 GPU 3 disk, 4 GPU
RGB 16 bit Quantized RGB RGB Medium 16 2
RG Compressed BC5 Compressed two channel (RG) RG High 8 1
RG 32 bit Uncompressed two channel (RG), very high precision RG Very high 32 4
R Compressed BC4 Compressed single channel (R) R High 4 0.5
R 8 Uncompressed single channel (R) R High 8 1
R 16 bit Uncompressed single channel (R), very high precision R Very high 16 2
Alpha 8 Uncompressed single channel (A) A High 8 1
RGBA Half HDR, half-precision (FP16) RGBA, –64k to +64k range RGBA High 64 8
RGB Compressed BC6H HDR, compressed RGB, 0 to +64k range RGB High 8 1
RGB9e5 32 Bit Shared Exponent Float HDR, quantized RGB, 0 to +64k range RGB Medium 32 4
RGB(A) Compressed ASTC Compressed RGB or RGBA, size & quality dependent on block size RGB or RGBA Low to high 12x12: 0.89, 10x10: 1.28, 8x8: 2, 6x6: 3.56, 5x5: 5.12, 4x4: 8 12x12: 0.11, 10x10: 0.16, 8x8: 0.25, 6x6: 0.45, 5x5: 0.64, 4x4: 1.0
RGBA Compressed ETC2 Compressed RGBA RGBA Medium 8 1
RGBA Crunched ETC2 Compressed RGBA, with additional on-disk Crunch compression RGBA Low to medium Variable Variable
RGB + 1-bit Alpha Compressed ETC2 4 bits Compressed RGBA, with alpha values fully opaque or fully transparent RGBA Medium 4 0.5
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 4 bits Compressed RGBA, texture required to be square RGBA Medium 4 0.5
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 2 bits Compressed RGBA, texture required to be square RGBA Low 2 0.25
RGB Compressed ETC2 Compressed RGB RGB Medium 4 0.5
RGB Compressed ETC Compressed RGB RGB Low 4 0.5
RGB Crunched ETC Compressed RGB, with additional on-disk Crunch compression RGB Low Variable Variable
RGB Compressed PVRTC 4 bits Compressed RGB, texture required to be square RGB Medium 4 0.5
RGB Compressed PVRTC 2 bits Compressed RGB, texture required to be square RGB Low 2 0.25
RG Compressed EAC 8 bit Compressed two channel (RG) RG High 8 1
R Compressed EAC 4 bit Compressed single channel (R) R High 4 0.5
RGB(A) Compressed ASTC HDR HDR, compressed RGB or RGBA, size & quality dependent on block size RGB or RGBA Low to High 12x12: 0.89, 10x10: 1.28, 8x8: 2, 6x6: 3.56, 5x5: 5.12, 4x4: 8 12x12: 0.11, 10x10: 0.16, 8x8: 0.25, 6x6: 0.45, 5x5: 0.64, 4x4: 1.0

Supported texture formats, by platform

The table below shows each texture format available in Unity, and the platforms that support them.

Texture format Windows macOS Linux Android iOS & tvOS Web (Desktop Browsers) Web (iOS and Android browser)
RGB(A) Compressed BC7 yes (1) yes (1) yes no no yes (1) no
RGBA Compressed DXT5 yes yes yes no (3) no partial (2) no
RGBA Crunched DXT5 yes yes yes no (3) no partial (2) no
RGBA 64 bit yes yes yes partial (4) yes no no
RGBA 32 bit yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RGBA 16 bit yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RGB Compressed DXT1 yes yes yes no (3) no partial (2) no
RGB Crunched DXT1 yes yes yes no (3) no partial (2) no
RGB 48 bit yes yes yes partial (4) yes no no
RGB 24 bit yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RGB 16 bit yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RG Compressed BC5 yes yes yes no no yes no
RG 32 bit yes yes yes partial (4) yes no no
R Compressed BC4 yes yes yes no no yes no
R 8 yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
R 16 bit yes yes yes partial (4) partial (4) yes (10) yes (10)
Alpha 8 yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RGBA Half yes yes yes partial (7) yes partial (7) partial (7)
RGB Compressed BC6H yes (1) yes (1) yes no no yes (1) no
RGB9e5 32 Bit Shared Exponent Float yes yes yes yes yes yes yes)
RGB(A) Compressed ASTC no no no partial (5) yes (6) no yes (6 and 9)
RGBA Compressed ETC2 no no no partial (9) yes no yes
RGBA Crunched ETC2 no no no partial (9) yes no yes
RGB + 1-bit Alpha Compressed ETC2 4 bits no no no partial (9) yes no yes
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 4 bits no no no no (8) yes no no
RGBA Compressed PVRTC 2 bits no no no no (8) yes no no
RGB Compressed ETC2 no no no partial (9) yes no yes
RGB Compressed ETC no no no yes yes no yes
RGB Crunched ETC no no no yes yes no yes
RGB Compressed PVRTC 4 bits no no no no (8) yes no no
RGB Compressed PVRTC 2 bits no no no no (8) yes no no
RG Compressed EAC 8 bit no no no partial (9) yes no yes
R Compressed EAC 4 bit no no no partial (9) yes no yes
RGB(A) Compressed ASTC HDR no no no partial (7) partial (7) no partial (7)

Notes:

  1. Except on pre-DX11 level GPUs, or macOS when using WebGL or OpenGL. When not supported, BC6H textures get decompressed to RGBA Half, and BC7 get decompressed to RGBA32 at load time.
  2. With linear rendering on web browsers that don’t support sRGB DXT, textures are decompressed to RGBA32 at load time.
  3. Except on Android devices with NVIDIA Tegra GPUs; these do support DXT/BC formats.
  4. Requires GL_EXT_texture_norm16 or corresponding Vulkan capability on Android.
  5. Requires Vulkan or GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_ldr OpenGL ES extension.
  6. Except on Apple A7 chip devices (2013).
  7. Android: requires GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_hdr extension. iOS: requires A13 or later chip (2019). WebGL: requires WEBGL_compressed_texture_astc extension and HDR profile. When not supported, the texture is decompressed to RGB9E5 format, losing the alpha channel.
  8. Except on Android devices with Imagination PowerVR GPUs; these do support PVRTC formats.
  9. Requires WEBGL_compressed_texture_astc extension.
  10. Requires EXT_texture_norm16 extension and WebGL 2.

Supported texture formats in Web

The following table provides the supported texture formats for the Web platform.

Format Description
ASTC Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression3D Graphics hardware requires Textures to be compressed in specialized formats which are optimized for fast Texture sampling. More info
See in Glossary
(ASTC) is an advanced lossy texture compression format. Widely used for mobile browsers / devices.
DXT Also known as S3 Texture Compression (S3TC), DXT is mainly used for desktop browsers and devices.
ETC2 Ericsson Texture Compression (ETC) is an older lossy texture compression format, lower quality than ASTC, used for mobile browsers / devices.

Additional resources:

TextureImporterOverride

Choose a GPU texture format by platform
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