Does the hi-res MacBook Pro support 1440x900?

[Bendy Walker]

I'm looking to purchase one of the new MacBook Pros in a month or two and was just wondering if the hi-res screen (1680x1050) supports 1440x900 resolution? I want to be able to play games at this res whilst using the higher res for browsing the web and such.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Yes

 

[Mal]

It won't look as good as the native resolution of the display, though. Is there a reason you want to use that for games?

jW

 

[altecXP]

It won't look as good as the native resolution of the display, though. Is there a reason you want to use that for games?

jW

Typically it helps FPS.

 

[Bendy Walker]

Even in Boot Camp? My current iMac has a 1680x1050 resolution, but the next resolution down when playing games in Boot Camp is 1280x800. I assumed this would be the same on the MacBook Pro with the hi-res display.

I want to play games at this resolution because the MacBook Pro GPU cannot run some newer games smoothly at native resolution (with settings at medium-high). Using a lower resolution increases performance (obviously).

 

[asdf542]

On my hi-res 15" I don't see 1440x900 under my display choice options in System Preferences but I see 1440x852 (which is 16:9). Under OS X though you can add any resolution you want using SwitchResX, not sure if something exists like that for Windows.

 

[amroc]

I have one of the new 1680x1050 15" MBPs with the 6750m, and I game a lot on Win7. You can create custom resolutions for ATI gfx cards using the simple registry modification explained here:

http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13196

I have 1440x900, although I can't remember now if it worked straight away, or I added it as a custom res. Either way, it's there, and it's recognized both from desktop and within games. I also have all sorts of other ones that I just like to experiment with. 1152x720 for example, is a good one for really intensive games (I'm playing the witcher 2 at this rez, with most detail settings on high).

 

[Bendy Walker]

And I'm guessing because it's a 15" screen, things still look pretty sharp when at lower resolutions like 1152x720?

 

[dusk007]

If you go for performance I would go down to 1280x800 straight away. It is a rounder number and the interpolating I think looks better than from 1680 to 1440. It also offers even more speed increase.
Usually I prefer turning of most other stuff like AA/AF and some details before I give up resolution but that's just me.

 

[mastaofdisasta]

No it doesn't. Back when I had it, the closest setting to 1440 x 900 was like 14 something to 852. And it did not look good. Anything different than it's native res would look dull and blurry. Your best bet is to get the standard res if you're going to play games.

 

[amroc]

Yeah it seems that the closer you get to native at one end (1680x1050), or exactly half native at the other (840x525), the sharper the pixels become. But being close is still not as sharp as native. Yeah 720p is a bit fuzzy, but for games it doesn't bother me really.

 

[Bendy Walker]

I think I'll have a look at what the text looks like and how sharp the hi-res displays look in my local Apple Store, and then make a decision on whether to get the hi-res model or not. My vision isn't great (I have to wear glasses when I'm on my iMac most of the time). But I can live with playing games in a lower resolution if need be; I can always hook up the MBP to my 32" TV (with a resolution of 1366x768), and then games will look awesome, no?

 

[amroc]

I think I'll have a look at what the text looks like and how sharp the hi-res displays look in my local Apple Store, and then make a decision on whether to get the hi-res model or not. My vision isn't great (I have to wear glasses when I'm on my iMac most of the time). But I can live with playing games in a lower resolution if need be; I can always hook up the MBP to my 32" TV (with a resolution of 1366x768), and then games will look awesome, no?

I went with the 1680x1050 just because I wanted the matte screen, although I've definitely gotten used to having the extra screen space now. I probably would have gone with a 1440x900 screen though if Apple had done them in matte.

 

[aniketroxx]

Whats point in that you can switch to lower resolution on any computer

 

[Bendy Walker]

Whats point in that you can switch to lower resolution on any computer

If you'd read the rest of the thread, you'd have seen that switching to a lower resolution when playing games can increase performance and frames per second.