Resolution Scaling

Hi all...

I'm about to sell my MacBook Pro and get back into the PC world. This will ofcourse mean that I'll get a M1530. The one thing I'm a bit unsure of is which resolution to get it in. Here in Denmark we don't have the LED option yet. So I have to chose the 1440 x 900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200.

My main concern about the higher resolutions are scaling if I run newer games at lower resolutions. Will this degrade the picture or strain the GPU more?. Or will it look just as good running a game in 1440 x 900 even though the native resolution is 1680x1050 or 1920x1200?

What resolution would you chose and why?

 

If you run a game at 1440x900 on a 1920x1200 screen it's not gonna look as good as playing the same game at 1440x900 on a 1440x900 screen. You can try this out with your MacBook Pro if you want. Install Windows, run a game (or possibly a Mac game demo like UT2004...only OS X game i can think of lol) at a lower than native resolution and you'll see it does not look quite as good as a game running at native resolution.

But performance wise it will be the same running the game at 1440x900 on a 1920x1200 screen as it is running the same game with the same settings at 1440x900 on a 1920x1200 screen.

It won't look terrible if you keep the resolution at the 16:10 aspect ratio. For example a game running at 1440x900 (16:10) on a 1920x1200 (16:10) screen will look better than playing a game at 1280x1024 (5:4 aspect ratio) on a 1920x1200 screen.

 

why sell a macbook pro to get an xps m1530?

just install windows on your macbook pro and call it a day. save yourself the wasted effort.

 

I think that's pretty much a debate-proof statement, right there.

Basically, any time you scale to a lower, non-native resolution in a game, you're going to get a performance boost at the cost of quality.

1920x1200 res displays have to calculate, apply effects to and render 2,304,000 pixels. 1440x900 only have to do so for 1,296,000 pixels. That's just over half the pixel-specific processing required for the lower resolution.

 

andgad1608, just to throw some ideas out there...

Advantages of running Windows on a XPS M1530 vs. MacBook Pro 15":
-2 mouse buttons
-Much Higher screen resolutions available
-More configurable
-Easier to upgrade HDDs, ram, etc.

Also I think the XPS M1530 is a lot better looking. And maybe just is embarrassed to carry around an Apple product

edit: Oh and it's cheaper

 

yeah if i was in your boots....i wud go for the M1530 any day....!!

 

Running a game at native res is recommedned as images are run through less filters(ie. no filters) than when scaling down to the lower resolution. There is also some blur but imho it's mostly only noticable to photoshoppers

If you plan to watch full high def films on it then go for 1920. Otherwise 1440 is plenty for a 8600m GT

 

Thanks for your input guys. I'll defiantly stick with the 1400 resolution then. I plan on playing a number of the newer games coming out so quality wise it'll be best to go with that..

Looking forward to getting it...

 

yeah if i were a gamer, i would goo with a lower resolution too. not native resolutions for me looks very bad

 

If it's gonna be your main game system then ya, go 1440x900. I went 1920x1200 since I mostly use my desktop for gaming, although I do plan on occasionally gaming and possibly some mobile gaming on my XPS M1530.