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1080 or 1050 resolution for PC gaming?

G

Gibbo

Member
currently hooking up my PC to my 32" Bravia LED.. and i usually play my games in full 1080p. my graphics card is e Sapphire hd 7870 and can handle most games on hight to very high settings. however, id like an extra boost in performance by turning it down to 1050. doing so, would it then be better to get a 22" monitor? would like GAFs thoughts on this :)
 
Is it really that much if a difference in performance? Why not turn down the physics or AA instead if you aren't satisfied with the frame rate? Buying a new monitor simply for this seems like a waste of money.
 
Completely different aspect ratios, one is 16:9 one is 16:10 so they wouldn't be compatible without introducing black bars also even though they look close, 1080p is much better looking.
 
I had a 20" 1680x1050 monitor and didn't see a need to upgrade to 1080p.

But I probably will now that it's broken down and I've reverted to my old 1280x1024 for now :/

No black bars if the game supports 16:10 mind you, most do. Assuming the display is 16:10 too.

But yeah it's not worth buying something new just for that.

Maybe lower the game resolution and play in windowed or fullscreen but not scaled mode (black bars) to avoid the scaling blur.
 
1680 x 1050 is a fine resolution for gaming.
And on a 22" it will actually look better(IMO) than 1920 x 1080 on a 32" ppi and all.


Horse Armour said:
Completely different aspect ratios, one is 16:9 one is 16:10 so they wouldn't be compatible without introducing black bars also even though they look close, 1080p is much better looking.
Click to expand...

1680 x 1050 on a 22 looks better than 1920 x 1080 on a 32.
 
1080 to 1050 will not grant you any real notable performance boost.

Might as well save that money for another graphics card.

Does AMD cards have sli or something similar?
 
jediyoshi said:
2048x1536 on a 9.7 looks better than a 1680x1050 on a 22.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

If the OP was debating going to a 9.7" visor i would recommend it absolutely.
But he is contemplating moving from 32" to 22", so talking about any other size would just make me look like a fool.

Ledsen said:
Yeah but the OP is specifically saying he'll go from 32" 1080p to 22" 1050p.
Click to expand...
.
 
You can just run games at 1680X1050 and just have your video card throw some back bars around the image. That way you do not get a stretched or upscaled image, while still using most of your screen.

You will have more physical screen space than going to a 22" monitor.

It's how I play 16:9 only games on my 16:10 monitor. I promise you the black bars look better than displaying something on an LCD that is not it's native res.
 
thanks for the feedback all. decided to keep using the tv, and play on 1050 with the black boarders. i tried the witcher 2 and can vouch for the.increase in performance from 1080. averaged about 40-45 fps on high-ish settings in 1080. adjusted to 1050 and stayed close to 60fps most of the time...
 
Gibbo said:
currently hooking up my PC to my 32" Bravia LED.. and i usually play my games in full 1080p. my graphics card is e Sapphire hd 7870 and can handle most games on hight to very high settings. however, id like an extra boost in performance by turning it down to 1050. doing so, would it then be better to get a 22" monitor? would like GAFs thoughts on this :)
Click to expand...

Wow.

-SD- said:
1920x1200, of course.
Click to expand...

This of course.

But seriously, what are the complete specs of your pc? A 7870 is more than enough to handle much higher resolutions and high quality settings. Extra boost in performance? What do you want to play? Do you need some 200fps or something?
 
To me native screen resolution is a must if available.
If I need better performances I am more willing to tune down even every single graphic option rather than using an upscaled resolution.
 
I game at 1680x1050, and considering upgrading my monitor. Not because I need the extra resolution, but rather because monitors have come a long way since then. My monitor is 1xVGA, 1xDVI, no speakers (leaving me to use crummy little speakers that I got for free), pretty bulky, pre-LED backlighting, etc.
 
If it's a 16:9 monitor, use 1920x1080. If it's a 16:10 monitor, use 1920x1200. Your card should be able to handle those fine. If not, just tweak the anti-aliasing and/or texture filtering.
 
I wouldn't, just turn down a setting or two.

Personally I will be sticking to 1600x900 for a while (maybe 1080p upgrade some time), I am happy with it and a better performance.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I game at 1680x1050, and considering upgrading my monitor. Not because I need the extra resolution, but rather because monitors have come a long way since then. My monitor is 1xVGA, 1xDVI, no speakers (leaving me to use crummy little speakers that I got for free), pretty bulky, pre-LED backlighting, etc.
Click to expand...
You really don't want to use monitor speakers. Splurge a little on good headphones (I use Sennheiser HD598) instead.
 
2560x1600

1920x1080 is quite a lot more pixels than 1680x1050. But you won't be able to set such resolution on a 16:9 screen with proper aspect ratio. For 16:9 display the correct aspect ratio will be provided by 1867x1050 and that's not that much different from a proper 1920x1080.
 
Gibbo said:
currently hooking up my PC to my 32" Bravia LED.. and i usually play my games in full 1080p. my graphics card is e Sapphire hd 7870 and can handle most games on hight to very high settings. however, id like an extra boost in performance by turning it down to 1050. doing so, would it then be better to get a 22" monitor? would like GAFs thoughts on this :)
Click to expand...
If you have to drop down the resolution from 1920x1080, you should go to 1600x900, not 1680x1050, to keep the same aspect ratio.
 
Have you overclocked the 7870? Shouldn't be hard to get atleast 7950 performance with an overclock, if not 7970. Your memory should hit 1500 and the shoot for 1200 on the core. These cards scale very nicely with moderate overclocks.
 
wutwutwut said:
You really don't want to use monitor speakers. Splurge a little on good headphones (I use Sennheiser HD598) instead.
Click to expand...

I already have decent headphones (also Sennheisers, but I use closed cans), but sometimes I don't want to wear headphones. Sometimes I want music playing while I'm doing the dishes or cleaning up. Sometimes I've got a Youtube video or a podcast on. There are times where sound quality is important, and then there are times where it's not. And for the times where it isn't, I'd rather not have speakers cluttering up my desk.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I already have decent headphones (also Sennheisers, but I use closed cans), but sometimes I don't want to wear headphones. Sometimes I want music playing while I'm doing the dishes or cleaning up. Sometimes I've got a Youtube video or a podcast on. There are times where sound quality is important, and then there are times where it's not. And for the times where it isn't, I'd rather not have speakers cluttering up my desk.
Click to expand...

Problem with monitor speaker sis they are like 1w so you wouldn't really hear them from a distance and they will distort quite easily. Home Stereo?
 
Horsemama1956 said:
Problem with monitor speaker sis they are like 1w so you wouldn't really hear them from a distance and they will distort quite easily. Home Stereo?
Click to expand...
That used to be the case, but these days you can find them pretty easyily if you google for it. I had some HP (or could be dell forgot) at work and it had nice speakers if you weren't too worried about it

Alternatively you can build a speaker or two inside your computer case
 
Resolution has a pretty small impact on performance when compared to other things. Especially since you would only be dropping from 1080 to 1050 there is going to be no difference in performance you can notice. Turn other settings down if you want a boost.
 
MaximusNeo701 said:
Resolution has a pretty small impact on performance when compared to other things. Especially since you would only be dropping from 1080 to 1050 there is going to be no difference in performance you can notice. Turn other settings down if you want a boost.
Click to expand...

This is absolute nonsense. Resolution has by far the greatest impact on performance of any setting in 90% of PC games. The switch from 1920x1080 to 1680x1050 would absolutely be noticeable.
 
Horsemama1956 said:
Have you overclocked the 7870? Shouldn't be hard to get atleast 7950 performance with an overclock, if not 7970. Your memory should hit 1500 and the shoot for 1200 on the core. These cards scale very nicely with moderate overclocks.
Click to expand...

havent thought of that. thinking of doing it through amd overdrive. do u eecommend i change the fan settings too?
 
I'm backing the 1920x1200 16:10 peeps. I'm still dismayed that most people consider 1080 lines the pinnacle of vertical resolution when it's 10% lower than what was available to the mainstream fifteen years ago.

Also I just don't like that I'm constantly scanning left and right but never up and down. 16:9 is just too short for my tastes compared to its width.




That said, the whole "given choices not good enough!" answers don't actually address the original post. Here's my take:

Going from 1080p (1920x1080) to 1050 lines (I'm assuming ~1867x1050) would give you an extra 5.8% overhead for performance. It sounds like that's not really much to sputter about. You do get an increase in sharpness going from 32" (69dpi) to 22" (97dpi), which is pretty nice, but you're also likely to sit further away from the larger screen, so that advantage might not be so great.

I'd personally stick with the physically larger screen. The differences for me aren't that great, and when people visit my home for some multiplayer, they would appreciate a larger screen more.
 
It's getting harder to find 1920x1200 monitors, and thanks to the prevalence of consoles games are being made specifically for 16:9 nowadays anyway.
 
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