will the 17" MBP out perform the 15" for gaming? they seem to have the exact same specs, only one has a bigger screen. thanks in advance
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2011 15" vs 17" MBP
- Thread starter Barnzee
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The higher the resolution of the screen, the better graphics card you need to get the same performance at native resolution. So, any resolution (max 1680x1050) of the higher end 15 inch will run at a higher FPS in the same game than the 1900x1200 resolution 17 inch screen if you're running at native resolution. With the craptastic card in the lower-end 15 inch MBP (with the regular res screen) you might be better off with the 17 inch.
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so If they have the same specs and both have the high res screens the 15 inch would perform better because the native resolution is less demanding?
Yes, if you run your game at native resolution. With the same CPU, GPU and RAM, running the game at 1680x1050 is a lot easier than running it at 1900X1200 so the frame rate at the higher resolution will be less than at the lower resolution. You can always choose to run either computer at a lower resolution than native (like 1440x900), in which case they should be the same. Unfortunately, LCD screens look somewhat blurry when they are run at a resolution other than their native resolution so running at a lower resolution is not ideal.
I am assuming that you're running the same game with the same settings other than resolution (details all high, AA the same, etc.) on both hypothetical computers.
yes, the settings would be the same. only difference would be native resolution between 15" high res and 17" high res.
With these conditions I should have higher FPS with the 15" right?
If you're in love with the screen size, don't let its performance relative to the 15" stop you. Just because the GPU will perform better running a lower resolution screen doesn't mean it will run a 17' screen poorly. What I mean is: do you really care about the difference between 100 fps on a 15" and 70 fps on a 17"? Probably not. There will be some (resource-intensive) games on that will be playable on the 15" whose settings you have to modify (go from high to med detail, for instance) to be playable on the 17", but that's most likely for the really new games. It all depends on what you'd like to do.
See if you can find some benchmarks for performance on the 17" with the 6750 vs. the 15" high res with the 6750. They'll be different but the difference may not be huge.
