How much does resolutionaffect gaming...

[acearchie]

I was just wondering how much of an impact resolution had on the quality of gaming.

Would something like a Macbook Pro (with say a 512mb Graphics memory card (praying for introduction at macworld)) be substantial enough?

Or is resolution only a small factor determining at what frame rate the game runs? With other variables like trees: on/off, Player graphics:high/medium/low etc. taking more affect?

Thanks

 

[Eric5h5]

I was just wondering how much of an impact resolution had on the quality of gaming.

It depends on the game. With most modern games, it has a reasonable impact.

Would something like a Macbook Pro (with say a 512mb Graphics memory card (praying for introduction at macworld)) be substantial enough?

Yes, although the type of graphics card is far more important than the amount of memory it has. The current ones are OK but obviously not high-end. 99% of the time, a fast graphics card with 256MB will be a lot more useful than a slower graphics card with 512MB.

Or is resolution only a small factor determining at what frame rate the game runs? With other variables like trees: on/off, Player graphics:high/medium/low etc. taking more affect?

It totally depends on the game.

--Eric

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I just got hellgate: London a few weeks ago.. what a waste of good money.

However, I found that the resolution had a more noticeable effect on load times then it did frame rate. I don't actually count frames or anything, but I found it "playable" on 1440x900, and "slightly more playable" on 1152x720.

Noticeably, the shorter load times, but also there was less random slowdowns as it had to buffer smaller graphics I guess.. AA had a larger effect.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Generally speaking, the higher the screen resolution, try to reduce the anti-aliasing settings in the game's video settings. Anti-aliasing makes objects appears smoother, compensating for the lower DPI settings of most modern monitors. This means set it lower than maximum, or reduce the "level of detail" involving shadows and animated effects so 3D and transparent objects render better and more quickly. A very good graphics card compensates for this, and I mean a quality better than most iMacs ATI's where hardware aliasing is present for font setup but not optimized for 3D gaming (objects).

As an aside, if you're really into gaming, get a PS3 or XBox for Christmas or buy an Alienware setup. Mac's are excellent gaming machines for limited numbers of quality titles (Universal binaries), but by no means is intended to compete with dedicated game machines with a million titles.

On my iMac (Intel Duo Core, ATI) I bought Sims2 with Nightlife pack, enabled highest resolution possible/full screen with highest detail and amazingly no crashes, no jitter or lag. I also loaded it with 3.3GB RAM which makes a difference overall. So it is possible, just I don't have the wide selection of gaming choice like other platforms.

-jim

 

[acearchie]

Thanks to everyone, your posts have been most helpful.

I was only wondering because im thinking of getting an HD screen for film (mainly but also for the huge workspace area) and I only wanted to know if my preferable machine would be able to boast some HD games...

One again thanks for all your help!

Anyone have any suggestions (apart from sims 2 ) that would definately run well, even possibly in 1080p?

Thanks