Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Pixel Doubling

A

apolloa

Suspended
Original poster
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
7,802
Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
Ok, I thought I would open a discussion on this as they have stated the new MacBook Pro will use pixel doubling for any non retina applications.

So what does it mean exactly and is it good or bad? Will it make a non retina app look horrible or great? I don't know myself hence the thread...
 
I was wondering that myself.

I'm worried being "pixel-doubled" means the image quality would be inferior to the other MBPs
 
Since the resolution is double that of the old display, the doubling of pixels for older apps should not look any better or worse.
 
maflynn said:
I was wondering that myself.

I'm worried being "pixel-doubled" means the image quality would be inferior to the other MBPs
Click to expand...

Exactly, what will it mean for MS Office apps? A word document? And all the other games? I am still worried about what sort of FPS performance Diablo 3 on high settings would give at the screens native resolution on an Nvidia 650m?
 
apolloa said:
I am still worried about what sort of FPS performance Diablo 3 on high settings would give at the screens native resolution on an Nvidia 650m?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was surprised to see that. The 650m is a decent graphics chip but can it really give you playable fps at 2880 x 1800? Maybe it is supporting the retina display by only utilizing the higher res for certain ui elements.
 
How will Bootcamp work on this new screen? I need to use Windows 7 still and am wondering how that will look?
 
Someone had to take the first step towards retina. No retina no incentive to make retina apps, websites etc. Now Apple has set the next standard for laptops, others will be looking to copy asap and that will bring with it more stuff suited for retina displays on computers.
 
salmoally said:
Someone had to take the first step towards retina. No retina no incentive to make retina apps, websites etc. Now Apple has set the next standard for laptops, others will be looking to copy asap and that will bring with it more stuff suited for retina displays on computers.
Click to expand...

I don't buy that, in a desktop monitor sure but a laptop with a mid range GPU card? It's not retina anyway it's just high res.
 
OSMac said:
Somewhat grainier due to the black space between pixels?
Click to expand...

I doubt it. My guess is the space between pixels on these new MB's will be too small to see. That's pretty much what retina is all about, "too small to see with the naked eye". If you can't perceive the pixels, I doubt you'd be able to perceive the space between them.
 
I'm really curious about this myself. I have Adobe CS5 and was planning on installing it on the new MacBook Pro. Now I'm concerned that I won't have a quality picture when I'm working in the programs.
 
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
 
Zorn said:
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
Click to expand...

But surely then the risk is on a 15" screen everything will look tiny? really bad?
 
Zorn said:
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
Click to expand...

I'm quite sure it will be the same as what they did with the iphone 4.
 
Zorn said:
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure this is "glorified 1440x900", otherwise applications would need no special api support.
 
Zorn said:
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
Click to expand...

It makes more sense that it will remain at 1400x900 but the pixels will just be doubled.
 
Check out the specs

Supported resolutions: 2880x1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920x1200, 1680x1050, 1280x800 and 1024x640 pixels

Basically you can do all of the whizz bang stuff on apps that support Retina resolution, or you can run it in scaled 1920x1200 (or lower) mode as if it was a 17" MBP.
 
insimbi said:
How will Bootcamp work on this new screen? I need to use Windows 7 still and am wondering how that will look?
Click to expand...

There's a DPI scaling option in the Windows 7 display settings. Just set your resolution to 2880x1800 and set the DPI scaling to suit your preferences.
 
Zorn said:
What I'm really curious about is whether this is actually 2880x1800 worth of usable destkop space? Or if it's just 1440x900 at a finer pixel quality. For example with the iPhone 4, even though the resolution went way up, we still have the grid of icons the same as before and no usable space at all was gained. I really hope there will actually be 2880x1800 of usable real estate, not just glorified 1440x900.
Click to expand...

Hi-DPI can be turned on or off. With hi-DPI off, it will be normal 2880x1800 with 4x the screen real estate (and very tiny text). With hi-DPI on, it will have 1440x900 worth of real estate, yet things will be much sharper.

For non-native resolutions such as 1920x1200, 1680x1050, etc., there would be theoretically no blurriness since you aren't able to discern individual pixels at typical viewing distance. Even if there is some blurriness in actuality, it will be slight. So really, you can use any resolution you want on the retina MBP and get whatever real estate you desire.

As resolutions go up, non-native resolutions become a non-issue.
 
drjsway said:
Hi-DPI can be turned on or off. With hi-DPI off, it will be normal 2880x1800 with 4x the screen real estate (and very tiny text). With hi-DPI on, it will have 1440x900 worth of real estate, yet things will be much sharper.

For non-native resolutions such as 1920x1200, 1680x1050, etc., there would be theoretically no blurriness since you aren't able to discern individual pixels at typical viewing distance. Even if there is some blurriness in actuality, it will be slight. So really, you can use any resolution you want on the retina MBP and get whatever real estate you desire.

As resolutions go up, non-native resolutions become a non-issue.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to figure this out, but my first question is whether or not this is confirmed with the new build. The second question is, could I use the 1680x1050 resolution on Hi-DPI mode? Is that possible?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back