Monitors (Ext and Int)

Hey all,

I still haven't placed my notebook order, but will be doing so soon. Just a couple of things first:

1) I still don't understand why a higher resolution would be worse for gaming. Is it because at such a high res, the GPU has to work harder? And why/would the quality decrease if you lower the res from native (shouldn't the resolution be high enough at native that you don't really notice the graphics being downed)? [If possible, please provide an example. Those I can understand.]

2) I'm planning to purchase a larger external monitor for the notebook, to sit on my desk when I'm not taking it to school. The monitor will look great on its resolution, no matter what the resolution of the notebook is, correct?
EDIT: I don't really plan to play games on the notebook monitor itself. I'll probably use the external most of the time. Or, I could save $200 and not get the ext. if gaming performance won't be too bad on the integrated monitor.

3) In your opinion, would it be worth it to get a 1920x1200, or should I just take it down a notch and save $100?

 

Uh im not so sure about this but this is my basic understanding of the problem:

at higher resolutions the gpu does have to work harder to fit more "stuff" into the set number of pixels in your monitor screen. Also its recommended to get monitors with a lower native resolution for gaming since sure you can get a high resolution monitor and tone it down for gaming but especially with laptops some of the images are distorted. Also purchasing an external monitor is fine but it would be better if it is widescreen with the same ratio as your laptop since if its 4:3 for example the output will be distorted.


Heres something i used that helped me a good deal about laptop screens:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=26696

hope i helped

 

1) Yes, higher res is worse for gaming because the GPU has to work harder. Honestly, to me, turning down the resolution in games doesn't seem to have as negative effect as it does on the desktop.
In general though, running at a non-native resolution makes it blurry, let's take this as an example, you have four blocks in a row that can be red, or blue, and I tell you (give a signal) that two should be red, and one blue. Since I gave you a signal for 3 blocks, but you have 4, you either have to do RRBB, or RRRB, neither is exactly what I wanted.
An LCD monitor has discrete, physical pixels that make up the image, if you turn down the resolution, and you send, say a 1024x768 signal to a 1600x1200 monitor, it will have to make any number of those small compromises like I described with the blocks, leading to an imprecise, potentially blurry image.
Does that make sense? If not, I can try again...

2) Regarding external monitors, if you want it to mirror your laptop screen (display the same thing), you will want it to match the resolution of your screen. However, if you set it up to extend your desktop (as in, it shows different things on both screens), then you can use any resolution up to what your external monitor port can support (on that note, a DVI port is better than VGA).

3) Personally, I like having as high a resolution as I can get. But, I don't have any first hand experience using WUXGA on a notebook screen, from general comments, some say it leaves the fonts too small, others love it.