Gaming Resolutions

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MISMCSA

2[H]4U
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Sep 6, 2001
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What resolutions are you all gaming in? I'm just starting to upgrade aspects of my system, after taking a long break. I'm using 1280 x 1024, and wondering what a good upgrade would be. I'm not taking the plunge into multiple monitors quite yet.
 
Most people are playing 1680x1050 or 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 these days (I'm guessing).

19x12 for me.
 
Once you go 2560x1600, you don't go back if you can help it.

But I imagine Eyefinity's actually cheaper.
 
1920*1200/1080p. If you're lower than that you're still in the stone ages. The people with money are running eyefinity or 2560*1600 displays.
 
1680x1050 is the ideal cost/performance resolution.

The benefit being that this rez won't demand TOO much of a video card. (The standard $200 card every 18 months should do just fine etc)
 
z3r0- said:
1920*1200/1080p. If you're lower than that you're still in the stone ages.
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I agree with this

horrorshow said:
1680x1050 is the ideal cost/performance resolution.

The benefit being that this rez won't demand TOO much of a video card. (The standard $200 card every 18 months should do just fine etc)
Click to expand...

this is what i'm doing and why I did it. but if the next Nvidia gen had a serious leap :)rolleyes:) i'll go 1920.

btw, 1280 x 1024 is the popular according to Steam Hardware Survey
 
horrorshow said:
1680x1050 is the ideal cost/performance resolution.

The benefit being that this rez won't demand TOO much of a video card. (The standard $200 card every 18 months should do just fine etc)
Click to expand...

1680x1050 was the hot price/performance resolution back in the A64 days... 1080p TN panels are dirt cheap now and even a single 4870/gtx260 level card from two years ago can max out just about all the games on the market with frame rates acceptable for most people.
 
I use a 21" CRT and run at 1600/1200, so if it was widescreen I would be fine with 1920/1200 or maybe 1920/1080 for anything up to ~28". At ~2.5ft away I can't see a difference at any resolution higher than that on my monitor (goes up to 2048x1536) and according to charts I've seen most people wouldn't be able to. If getting a monitor bigger than 24" or sitting closer for some reason then maybe move up in resolution.
 
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720p for most of my games until I pony up for a decent graphics card. My monitor is 1080p native so it scales quite well.
 
5040x1050 via Eyfinity. 5230x1050 IIRC with Bezel Compensation. 3xDell 2007FPW's at 1680x1050. Only been running this for about a month though.
 
playing at 1920x1200 and i refuse to go any lower.. any game that doesnt support 1920x1200 gets thrown away..
 
2560x1600

For a really great gaming experience you want to grab a 24" a 1920x1200 panel, at this size you finally start getting some really good quality monitors with better panel types such as PVA and IPS. They're a really nice size, the wide aspect ratio is great for a lot of games and they have quite a high PPI (pixel per inch) which means they're crisp and sharp.

If you dont have the money for that kind of setup then aim for a 1680x1050 panel, it's like the baby brother of the 1920x1200, only they're only available in lower quality TN panels however.

Powering both of these resolutions is fairly easy now a days, a mid range 5xxx series card will easily do that.
 
1680x1050 with full AA+AF for me still. Since I (and im sure many of you) generally sit much closer to a monitor than a TV, I don't feel the need to go too huge... yet :p
 
Actually the dell 2209wa goes for below 250 and thats an e-ips panel (res is 1680x1050). However there is a newer e-ips screen from dell, the U2211H which is a 21.5 at 1920x1080. Picked it up recently, and the pixel pitch is just amazing. No 24inch at 1080p would compare, especially at sub 250
 
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Plague_Injected said:
720p for most of my games until I pony up for a decent graphics card. My monitor is 1080p native so it scales quite well.
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Do the games look good when using a non native? When I use non-native on my monitors, it gets fairly blurry. I ask since this might be what i do. I currently have a 4670 1gb card, so I don't think I can roll with 1920 x 1080 on 50% of the games i just bought on steam.
 
MISMCSA said:
Do the games look good when using a non native? When I use non-native on my monitors, it gets fairly blurry. I ask since this might be what i do. I currently have a 4670 1gb card, so I don't think I can roll with 1920 x 1080 on 50% of the games i just bought on steam.
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Short answer is yes, games still look good at the non-native resolution. Sure, things aren't as crisp at 720p than at native, but it's really only noticeable on menu screens. I get better-looking graphics at a non-native resolution on my 8600GT-powered PC than games on my 360 (which of course renders most games at 720p) that is upscaling to the native resolution.

Cranking the graphics settings at 720p looks better and gives me much better FPS than trying to make the 8600GT render games at 1080p.
 
2560x1600 is what i currently game at, and like some have mentioned, once you get there, you don't want to have to go back down. However as it has been mentioned, its a big investment to get up there, not to mention stay up there, so its probably easier to go for eyefinity or something.
 
5040 x 1050 with eyefinity and 3x Dell 2209wa e-ips panels.
Wife's machine and Lan1 are 1920x1200, Lan2 computer has 1680x1050 with a 20.6" NEC wmgx2 beauty.
 
horrorshow said:
1680x1050 is the ideal cost/performance resolution.

The benefit being that this rez won't demand TOO much of a video card. (The standard $200 card every 18 months should do just fine etc)
Click to expand...

I like this suggestion. This is the resolution of my monitor so grab one while you still can.
 
1920x1080 at my house and 1680x1050 when I go back to my parent's place.
 
I'm not bothered about resolution, all I strive for is a smooth framerates. Not very [H] but nevermind.
 
1920x1080 on my pc

1366x768 on my laptop

i've grown quite fond of 16x9 for gaming
 
spicey said:
I'm not bothered about resolution, all I strive for is a smooth framerates. Not very [H] but nevermind.
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I agree with you for the most part. I'd like to have 1920x1080 for work, movies, tv, and I have no problem dropping the resolution significantly to play a game with good frame rates. I just wouldn't want the resolution to really distort and blur the game visuals.
 
1680x1050 is fine. I'd like to see 1920x1080 at a screen size of about 20.5" or so, but for now, 1680x1050 at 20" is fine. Even better would be 2560x1400 on a 23"-24" display, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen anytime soon.

Not so much about the total resolution or screen size for me. What's more important is resolution per inch.
 
1920x1200. Those steam stats are a little disappointing. Can't believe there are so many still gaming at 1024x768. That is so 1990's. At least we're getting Windows 7 x64 near the top of the list.
 
1680x1050 with all the "Bells & Whistles" on my aging ATi HD4870 512MB. Higher resolutions would have me sacrifice quality features.

If I were to get a 5870 or 480, I'd definately go higher resolutions.
 
1920x1080 on a 1920x1200 screen because I like to play in window mode
 
No matter what resolution a 16:10 aspect ratio is superior. Friends don't let friends buy cheap 1080p panels.
 
I run 1920x1200. I can't recommend less than 1920x1080 since they're so ridiculously cheap these days. 1680x1050 isn't terrible but it can't display 1080p HD movies and 1920x1080 panels are almost the same price.
 
-=WooDWorKeR420=- said:
2560x1600 is what i currently game at, and like some have mentioned, once you get there, you don't want to have to go back down. However as it has been mentioned, its a big investment to get up there, not to mention stay up there, so its probably easier to go for eyefinity or something.
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I agree it's a hard resolution to power, i've had to invest a lot of money in video cards to keep this resolution playable at high settings, and have to continue to invest to keep it playable. However I would not swap my monitor for anything, the dot pitch (PPI) beats most monitors and its a lot of retail space with no borders like eyefinity has.

You could go eyefinity with smaller screens, to be honest I don't think it's worth it, and with 1680x1050 screens or above in the common 3x1 setup, thats 50% more pixels than 2560x1600 so a much harder total resolution to power.
 
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