LCD Gaming

[SeeFree]

I hear that when you run a laptop at a resolution lower than the native for its screen, there are degradations in the image. Since I am gaming and most games run at the native resolution of SXGA screens, would this be better than a UXGA or Ultra-Res on a Dell? Thanks!

[Banti]

In most cases the display will be letter boxed. A 800x600 screen showing a 640x480 source will have a 640x480 video display centered on the lcd with the rest colored black.

What games are you playing? Most games nowadays aloow you to change the resolution.

Also most newer LCD displays allow more than one resolution that looks good. It still has one "ideal", but the "decent" resolutions increase in number as the lcds design gets better.


Banti

[SeeFree]

I play all sorts of games on my deskptop, right now, like everyone else, I am playing Neverwinter Nights and Warcraft 3. I range all over, but I never see a screen res of 1600x1200 like on the Sony Vaio and Inspiron 8200. Most games max out on 1200x1000, but a lot still run at lower res. So are you saying that on a UXGA or higher res LCD screen I can run lower res games that will look better than on a SXGA screen where the game res is the same as the native res for the laptop or a less steep res drop? Thanks!

[Banti]

They may...

I fyou can get your hands on one in the store, try changing the resolution and opening a text document. Usually you can tell how they handle the different resolutions by changing the desktop (icons get distorted etc.) but the font handling will let you know how games might be affected.

"Look better" is a realtive term. I would rather the 640x480 is distorted slightly when stretched to a 800x600 screen rather than squint.


Banti

[alligator_al]

Shouldn't a screen native at 1600x1200 be able to run full screen at 800x600 clearer than running at an intermediate size?

As far as I know, it's the expansion of the image and the scaling of fonts, graphics, etc that degrades quality. Don't let this put you off UXGA LCDs -- they are definitely worth it, especially for text.
(if the icons are too small you can always use 'large icons' and push up the point size of the text)

I agree with Banti -- much rather have a full screen game expanded from a lower res than windowed.

[SeeFree]

Thanks for the input, now if only I could find a large screen UXGA than doesn't come with an overpriced, sub-par notebook (i.e. Sony Grx with great screen and weak components). 15.7" SXGA vs. 15" UXGA, any thought for gaming? Thanks!

[Jut]

well as a gamer heres my bit.

LAPTOP SCREENS SUCK FOR GAMING. the problem is most laptops have a high native resolution i.e. 1600x1200 on my grx316mp.
now running a game in say 800x600 you have 2 choices. play it in a tiny incy window or stretch it to fill the panel. the latter option is the problem. when you stretch to fill its more or less the same effect as when you zoom into a photo. the egdes become jagged and horrible.
not usually games look ok in 1024x XXX but neverwinternights for example i cannot stand to look at in anything less than 1600x1200 but thats eats up resources.
My solution?? if you have a radeon mobility card download the omega beta2 drivers from rage 3d.com as this will install the newest catalyst drivers on your laptop no probs which gives a kick ass performance boost.
for gaming at home i bought a cheepy CRT monitor just for gaming so stuff looks good at 800x600 and runs fast too

[prophecy]

Does this letterbox thing happen on all laptops? even the Alienware area-51m?

[Phas3d]

I put UT2K3 on a laptop with a UXGA screen and on an almost identical laptop with a SXGA screen. The native res for the UXGA was 1600x1200 and the native res for the SXGA was 1400x1050. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between the two in visual quality. However, the SXGA laptop had faster benchmarks and framerates because it wasnt drawing as many pixels each cycle.

If you are buying a laptop with a GeForce440Go/GeForce460Go, opt for the SXGA screen. 99% of laptops carrying the 440Gos, have 15inch screens and with a native res of 1600x1200 on a UXGA, text looks absolutely horrible on non-native resolutions. Im talking about Dells, Compaqs, Toshibas, Alienwares, etc...all of them. Now, if you are buying a Radeon Mobility 9000, go for the UXGA screen, as it is a more powerful chipset AND has a great software utility to let you change the res to non-native numbers and still look almost native.

Have you ever tried to do work in Photoshop, 3DMax or even Word on a UXGA 15" screen? Talk about headaches from straining and squinting!!! Ill stick with my 1400x1050 native res on my 15inch screen.

CHOW***