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Gaming - High Res vs. Standard Res - Who has done both?

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Nov 5, 2009
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Who has actually played games on BOTH the 2010 high res and standard res macbook pros?

Reading through that gaming benchmark thread isn't much of an indicator as most people don't post their resolution and if they have they have only played on one or the other.

Im trying to get a better indicator on the performance difference with newer games. Are we talking 2-6 fps drop or 10-20 or more?

Thanks : )
 
You can always drop the resolution that you're playing the game at. I know when I drop my hi res screen down to 1200x800 within Starcraft 2 I get about 10-15 more FPS.
 
MBHockey said:
You can always drop the resolution that you're playing the game at. I know when I drop my hi res screen down to 1200x800 within Starcraft 2 I get about 10-15 more FPS.
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I imagine it wouldn't look too clean.

Anyboy there played the same game on both screens?
 
MBHockey said:
You can always drop the resolution that you're playing the game at. I know when I drop my hi res screen down to 1200x800 within Starcraft 2 I get about 10-15 more FPS.
Click to expand...

I had a high res for 2 days before returning it and I tried to play some games. I had to drop the resolution but the game then looked blurry. I would advice the normal res for gaming!
 
Tex-Twil said:
I had a high res for 2 days before returning it and I tried to play some games. I had to drop the resolution but the game then looked blurry. I would advice the normal res for gaming!
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Thanks for the response : ) Mind me asking what game you were playing?
 
ozreth said:
Thanks for the response : ) Mind me asking what game you were playing?
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Operation Flashpoint DR ;)

Yesterday I tried Dragon Age Origins on my standard res MBP and it looks very nice on the 1400x900 native resolution.
 
You guys are missing the point. It's that if dropping down from 1680x1050 to 1200x800 with the same graphics settings only yields a 10-15 FPS increase then dropping down from 1680x1050 to 1440x900 will only be a handful of FPS increase. Hardly noticeable. If your sole reason for not getting the hi-res screen is because you think games will run a lot smoother you are incorrect.
 
MBHockey said:
You guys are missing the point. It's that if dropping down from 1680x1050 to 1200x800 with the same graphics settings only yields a 10-15 FPS increase then dropping down from 1680x1050 to 1440x900 will only be a handful of FPS increase. Hardly noticeable. If your sole reason for not getting the hi-res screen is because you think games will run a lot smoother you are incorrect.
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Thing is though that when running on a non native resolution, the picture does not look nice. And .. a hand full of FPS i.e. even 10 FPS can make a difference in a game.
 
Tex-Twil said:
Thing is though that when running on a non native resolution, the picture does not look nice. And .. a hand full of FPS i.e. even 10 FPS can make a difference in a game.
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From my experience it will certainly be less than a 10 FPS increase. If 4-7 more FPS in a game is that important to you than go with the low-res screen.

SC2, at least, doesn't look any less sharp at 1200x800 than at native res.
 
I haven't owned both, but I've got the normal res and I do play a lot with external screen.

My experiences are strictly related to blizzard games.

World of Warcraft:
1440x900->1680x1050: No noticeable difference whatsoever, maybe a less than 5% difference.
1680x1050-> Both screens on (1680x1050+1440x900): Slight FPS loss, maybe a 15-20% hit, not noticeable unless I do raiding (ICC25) or Wintergrap.

Starcraft 2 (Win XP):
1440-1680: Maybe a 10% FPS loss, huge battles at high settings doesn't seem so fluid on 1680.

I haven't tried with dualscreen here.

I got the SC2 beta for mac now, but haven't had any time to try it out.
 
I have owned both. I would say there is no difference in FPS for most games, and only a slight drop in performance/FPS when playing newer, more demanding games. Apples choice of mobile GPUs is always weak, if a game struggles at 1680, it's also going to struggle at 1440. Games I have played :

World of Warcraft : no difference between the two resolutions.

Dragon Age : Slight (3-5 FPS) drop in some areas compared to my old 2.66 C2D.

Call of Duty 4/5/6 (bootcamp Windows7) : At low/medium settings, all of these games run quite well. I would say these games run faster on my 15" i7 @ 1680 than they did on my C2D @ 1440.

Vanguard SOH (bootcamp) : This is the only game i've found where resolution plays a large factor. Anyone whos played it before would know why... the world/textures are MASSIVE.

Overall, I'm glad I sprung for the high-res screen.
 
Thunder82 said:
Vanguard SOH (bootcamp) : This is the only game i've found where resolution plays a large factor. Anyone whos played it before would know why... the world/textures are MASSIVE.
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Hm, I feel like this would be the case in many graphically demanding MMO's, which is what I play the most of. Good insight thank you : )
 
ozreth said:
Hm, I feel like this would be the case in many graphically demanding MMO's, which is what I play the most of. Good insight thank you : )
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If your into non-blizzard MMOs, the lower res screen might be your ticket. I've played other MMOs in the past (Age of Conan, EQ2, etc) and I imagine these games wouldn't be too far different than Vanguard @ higher resolutions. Personally, i'd rather have the benefits of the higher res screen for non-gaming tasks, and deal with the "possible" slight performance loss while gaming. Guess it all boils down to what you'll be doing most with your MBP.
 
Thunder82 said:
If your into non-blizzard MMOs, the lower res screen might be your ticket. I've played other MMOs in the past (Age of Conan, EQ2, etc) and I imagine these games wouldn't be too far different than Vanguard @ higher resolutions. Personally, i'd rather have the benefits of the higher res screen for non-gaming tasks, and deal with the "possible" slight performance loss while gaming. Guess it all boils down to what you'll be doing most with your MBP.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, although I don't notice much of the benefits of the high res screen. The small fonts kind of bug me and I don't often have a bunch of different windows open at once. I do however game a lot : )
 
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