Looking OpenGL 3.0 spec, Section 4.4 Page 291, The following base internal formats from table 3.15 are color-renderable: ALPHA, RED, RG, RGB, and RGBA. The sized internal formats from table 3.16 that have a color-renderable base internal format are also color-renderable. No other formats, including compressed internal formats, are color-renderable. you can find it in table 3.15 Base Internal Format RGBA, Depth, and Stencil Values Internal Components ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RGB R,G,B R,G,B It suggest that the RGB format is color-renderable. you can find it in table 3.16 Sized Internal Format Base Internal Format R bits G bits B bits A bits shared bits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RGB32F RGB f32 f32 f32 According to description, as Sized Internal Format the Base Internal format of RGB32F is RGB, RGB format is color-renderable according to description of table 3.15, So RGB32F should be color-renderable