Best resolution for a NVIDIA 9650M GT

I plan on buying me a ZEPTO NOX A15.

What I don't know is what resolution to get the screen in. I plan on doing a bit of gaming (WAR, Starcraft II, Spore and Diablo III). I only have the following 2 choices:

1680 x 1050
1280 x 800

I know that 1440 x 900 would be perfect, but it only has one two options. So what will be best with the NVIDIA 9650M GT card?

 

it's personal preference. higher resolution will have crisper looking screen. 1280x800 on 13" looks pretty bad when compared to my 17" 1920x1200 resolution. i'd go with 1680x1050 if you don't mind smaller text.

 

A 9650M GT should be able to handle the 1680x1050 quite well. It's also the highest and most suitable setting I'd recommend for a 15.4" notebook. Good choice btw.

 

What is that built off of? the nox a15

You won't be running new games @ 1680 x 1050 native resolution. But 1680 x 1050 is a great desktop resolution.

But have 1400*900 now on a 19" screen, and it is great, so 1400*900 is still awesome for a 15.4"

 

I would go for 1280 x 800 so i could run all games at native res and highest possible settings

With 1680 x 1050 you have to choose native res with little details or scale down and get a blurry pic with full details.

 

There is no blurring when turning down the resolution and gaming.

 

That depends on the screen quality and who made it etc. Some are good at scalng down but others are terrible. Like my Samsung screen looks awful blurry when scaling down bu my friend who has a dell XPS 1730 1920x1080 native offers a better scale down.

Since this laptop is a midrange laptop am afraid that it will become blurry.

 

It should not blur, all your seeing is pixelation, blur happens when you change the ratio/format different to the screens one.

I'd go for the 1680x1050, so certain games will look great. 1280x800 on a 15.4" isnt too good. But you should ask around to have a proper look at the difference between the two options.

 

What I'm considering is something like this:

P8400 – 2,26Ghz 1066Mhz FSB 3MB Cache
4 GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC6400 800MHZ
250GB 7200rpm SATA
DVD-RW / CD-RW SATA (150127)
WSXGA+ 1680x1050 ZBD + NVIDIA® 9650M GT 512MB GDDR3
Intel WiFi 533AN / ANBG / 450Mbit

...I know it won't run new games at the native resolution, but IMO 1280 x 800 just is too small for a 15,4" screen. But if games run in non-native resolution looks bad, then it won't do. So it's a bit of a difficult choice for me.

 

I suggest that you try a friends laptop and scale don the res and see. personally i am quite picky. On some games you will see the blur very good i guess, like on Age f Conan but on other games you might not see it at all.

My syncmaster 22 inch from samsung 1680 res shows a clear blur on AOC when i scale down.

 

If you are just going to use your laptop for basic stuff like internet, Word, games etc... and gaming is very important to you I would go with 1280x800 since you will be able to run every game at that res. I have 15" laptop with that res I find it to be perfect for my use. But if you are ever going to be doing some work where you are going to have to 2 windows open next to each other or working with some high res pictures or something that will force you to scroll left and right often I would go with 1680x1050.

 

that card will start to lag at higher resolutions, If you want to lower settings a bit , sure go for the higher res, but at a lower res you should be able to crank the settings more. Personal pref i guess.

 

I would go for the 1680x1050.

Why?

Because gaming should never determine your native screen resolution. I'm serious...this "playing at native res" stuff is hooey.

A higher native resolution will give you more screen real estate when you are going your non-gaming activities.

Games are one of the few things that almost always look great (still) even at non-native resolutions. You can play your 1280x800 game on a 1680x1050 screen and it will still look as good because of the way 3D graphics work.

I regularly play games at 1680x1050 or 1280x800 on my desktop with a native resolution of 1920x1200 and I do not complain. Nor will many many others when playing at non-native resolutions.

 

Some truth here, but i think some games scale better than others.

 

However I can't think of any game that does not scale well. Most programmers realize gamers do not game at native resolutions and they think about that.

 

I am sorry but from any experience I have had downscaling the result has been ugly, there is lower quality in the image. The higher the res I hear the better it looks when downscaling, but from 1440x900 it usually doesnt look too good.

 

well it's still not worth getting lower res because of "some" games.

 

Since I use my laptop for 4 things gaming, browsing the internet, burning dvds, and downloading/syncing music I chose 1280x800 for my 15" laptop because gaming was the only thing I did that resolution mattered and I wanted the best gaming experience possible. What does it matter when reading the news or watching a low res youtube video if your screen resolution is higher?

 

well one example would be the ability to have 4 pages of word document displayed on single screen simultaneously. not just because you can but because it's actually useful! the ability to quickly look through multiple pages for information is convenient. another is the quality of images and text. everything is much richer on higher resolution, especially if you cram 1920x1200 on a 17" screen.

go with low resolution if you prefer being able to see each individual pixels on screen and enjoy scrolling through multiple pages. higher res displays more information at once. you will understand what i mean if you play any kind of RTS game.

 

I have never experienced this 'blur', my native res is 1400*900, I constantly switch from 1280*1024, to 1280*800, or 1300*whatever... in different games.

 

Playing games other than native resolution does incur an image quality hit but you have to be unbelievably picky for this phenomenon to stop you from playing any game at settings other than native resolution.

 

It seems that this subject has many conflicting opinions. But since the GT 9650 card isn't available for over 50 days I think I'll just go for the 9600 card and the lower screen resolution, that actually saves a lot of money too, and still gives me a machine I can play games and web surf on.
A 1280 x 800 with a 9600 card will be able to run most never games at acceptable levels right?

 

hmm, so the nox has the 9650 option now....

*** is this 'blur' thing, satyrion? i have never experianced any type of blur when not gaming on max res.

as said before, you must be unbelievably picky.

or it could just be your crappy graphics card

 

I've gone for a 1280x800 with 9650GT purely for gaming performance as I would like to run at native res. I also have a 1680x1050 monitor lying around at the mo and my plan is to hook up my laptop to that and use dual screens for my apps etc. I could have visual studio or something open on one screen and a web browser on the other. The best of both worlds!

 

Personally I'd go with the 1680x1050. The 9650m GT is more powerful than my 9500m GS, and I am able to game at 1680x1050 (I don't like the downscaling either) with most settings still on high on DX9 (DX10 destroys my FPS). I was very surprised at the results.

Bioshock ~27-37 FPS maxed
A Creed ~20-25 FPS max except shadows and AA on Medium
Company of Heroes ~30-40 FPS mostly maxed
Source games ~50-60 FPS Maxed (AA x2)
Mass Effect ~20-30 FPS Maxed (no Motion Blur or Dynamic Shadows)

You may not get 50-60 FPS in newer games, but it just depends on your personal taste. I think that the smaller the screen is, the less noticeable the down scaling. I couldn't tell the difference on my 14" laptop (1440x900 native), but on my 22" monitor (1680x1050 native) I could really tell the difference.

Hope this helps!

 

Gaming in non-native resolution has a small drop in picture quality, and that happens with all LCD type of displays. The effect is indeed some sort of blurred image compared to actual native resolution, which happens because the image is stretched to fit the full screen. old CRTs didn't work that way which is why gaming on any res on CRT looks better.

Just as when you put a jgp image of 640x480 fit all the screen of 1400x900, the result is a blurry pic.

Of course, certain LCDs look better than others, and some scale better as well. And besides, it depends on the resolution-- if your native is, say 1400x900, and you play a game at 1280x800, it wont look as bad because there is not a huge change in res and you still maintain the aspect ratio. So, I believe 1650x1050 res should be great for having many things on your desptop and when playing, just make sure you use a resolution that matches your screen ratio (16:10, 16:9, 4:3 etc)

For example, when using 1024 res on a 16:10, its best to use 1024x640 and not 1024x768--- while the later has more pixels, the ratio does not match and the picture looks weird.