Should a HARDCORE gamer upgrade to 1080p panel?

Well i m about to get xps 15 with i7+435M gpu.I know this gpu isn't powerful enough for 1080p gaming.I m hardcore gamer and want the best possible fps.Do you think i should opt for 1080p B+RG panel or 720P WLED panel.The only thing stopping me to go for 720p panel is the 1080p's B+RG panel which supposedly blows WLED in terms of contrast.Do you think i should go for 1080p just for the sake of this superior contrast!.I occassionally watch movies.most of my time is gaming.I don't do photoshop or stuff like that where contrast/colour gamut is important!Or m i better getting 1080p panel and lowering to 720p(1368*768) while gaming!I suppose gaming at 720p on 720p panel will be better/crisper/not pixelated than gaming at 720p on 1080p panel.If it looks same,then i cud opt for 1080P obviously!
Price isn't a factor as this is a replacement ,dell is offering me and i can go for either without paying a cent!
Thanks!

 

You can play on 720p native resolution for much longer on mainstream graphics cards, if you're not using your screen for anything other than going, superior contrast likely loses out to longer native resolution gaming.

 

First, the B+RG thing is just Dell marketing, as cooler way of saying WLED. It is not RGBLED like a lot of people seem to think it is. That said, it is still a great monitor, and 720p will look horrible on a 15.6" display. Go for the 1080p and lower the res when playing games. It's not as good as playing at native res, but 720 will suck horribly for anything else. Also, if you're a 'hardcore gamer', why are you getting the XPS 15? It's a mid-range multimedia laptop, not a gaming laptop.

 

Well thanks for the input guys.
@seekermoc
I m not buying xps 15,i m getting it as a replacement for my m1330 as Sxps 1645 reached EOL.And dell isn't willing me to give m15x instead.So the only option remaining is the xps 15.I can get xps 17 thoush with 445m but 17" is too big for me.
I think i have to go with 720p panel.I cannot imagine gaming at non-native res.
I would sacrifice some cool contrast for a better gaming performance and less power consumption!
Thanks once again!

 

@seeker moc
N how can 720p look horrible on a mere 15.6" screen when many 32" lcd tv's are 720p res ! and look damn fine to my eyes!
i know it has to do sumthing with the distance but still for a 16" laptop,720p will be fine i think!BTw it would be gr8 if u can see a 720p 16" laptop in person and compare it to your FHD panel .I will wait for your response dude.
Cheers!

 

Because you're sitting 10 feet away from a TV screen, but your nose is only a few feet away from a laptop screen. The main problem with 720p on a laptop is that you won't be able to fit much on the screen, so whether surfing the net or reading a document, be prepared to do a lot of scrolling.

 

It's that there's a difference between 720p on a TV and on a monitor. You do not interact and control a TV. On a monitor, you're moving around and controlling what it displays, and 720p is ridiculously small compared to 1080p.

 

I'm not sure how the nvidia gt 435m compares to my ati hd4670, but lets assume the nvidia is better (or at least just as good). I have a 23" full hd screen, and I can play Assassins creed 2 in full high def.
I have to run heavy games like maffia 2 on resolutions of 1280*800, but they still look good. I know many people say screens run better at their native resolution, but lowering your resolution still gives you great quality imo.

The thing is, eventhough you won't be able to play most games on full hd, the ones that you will be able to run in that res, will look awesome. Being able to run them at that res is worth it imo.

Besides, I assume you will use your monitor for a longer time than your laptop, so i'd say its better to get the highest res as possible for your future gaming laptop/desktop.

 

In my opinion, it's stupid to even have the option of a 720p 15.6" screen. You should definitely go for 1080p. I have 1280x800 on my 12.1" screen, and every time I see a 15" laptop with that same resolution, the ugliness just makes me cringe.

If you end up having to play on lower resolutions, it won't look *too* bad, since the pixel density is very high so the interpolation will look better.

Plus, if your primary usage is not gaming, the general usage benefits of 1080p (web browsing, spreadsheets, multitasking, etc.) will far outweigh the "disadvantage" of playing your games at a non-native resolution.

 

K,you guys got some good points there!
If anybody can assure/have seen in person that lowering res to 720p on 1080p panel while gaming wont look weird/pixelated,then i would be an idiot to not opt for 1080p panel.Thanks for the responses.BTW wont 1080p look too small to read spreadsheets/webpages.I have got a old compaq 15" with 1280*800 res and it seems to be fine to my eyes.
What do you guys say.

 

lets wrap this up,if you were given option to go for 1080p or 720p panel free of cost and if you are kinda serious gamer,what would you choose.BTW i have no external monitor ,so this is my primary display!
Thanks!

 

why not 1920*1200, or higher?

 

i'm with faruk on this one. the benefits from a high resolution screen is something that u should definitely check out if u have a chance to. all of my main laptops have had WUXGA (1920x1200) screens for near 10 years now. my NP8850 is the first laptop within that time span that has had lower than 1920x1200 resolution, but 1080p is the lowest i will go. like faruk said, u do many other things then just play games. yur whole experience will benefit from yur laptop having a high res screen.

plus, as long as u have a capable enough GPU (which u do), vista and win7 downscales beautifully. i used to play Team Fortress 2 @ lower resolutions on my XPS M1530 and as long as u have good driver support the picture quality is still very good. there aren't very many screen artifacts and picture errors compared to older windows OS's.

again, windows vista and win7 have great scaling abilities. if text is too small u can adjust DPI settings to customize all of yur texts and icons. i don't want to sound like i'm glorifying high resolutions screens here, so the only real complaint i have is that some websites still haven't made coding adjustments to properly display on higher resolution screens yet. if u have yur internet browser zoomed in too much then the website's contents will display a bit out of sync. many websites have adjusted, and hopefully (hopefullyyy!!!) that'll change soon.

 

The most you'll have to deal with is the picture getting a bit "cloudy". but it's not much and having a 1080p screen is worth it.

If it helps, 720p actually looks really good on a 1080p screen. It's more the other resolutions with look really bad (768p and 900p).

 

yes, definitely downscale to 720p if u have a 1080p screen. that's going from a 16:9 ratio to another 16:9 setting. other settings might look super weird because they are 16:10 ratios.

p.s. - aren't option 2 and 4 the same? lowering the resolution would yield the biggest improvements for yur FPS. me, personally, i prefer to go with high res + lowerED (not low) settings to take advantage of the 1080p's clarity. like on SC2, i have my settings set to 1080p @ high/high settings as opposed to ultra/ultra settings. i also have the shadows set to medium to give me a few more FPS. but they are both options u will have with high res.

 

So you guys say that i will be a jerk to avoid the 1080p b+RG screen.
Well thanks .I think i need more replies on this 720p on 1080p thingy!
CAn you provide me some site/link where u know they tell about res lowering and its effects!

 

I just tried a bunch of lower than 1920x1080 resolutions on my monitor and they all look like garbage and are blurry. But the pixels on 15" might be so small that you won't notice

 

Try 1280x720. It looks a lot better, though I'm not sure why that it.

 

If you are a "HARDCORE gamer," you play at 1080p natively on a 21.5" or larger screen. Anything less, and you are NOT a "HARDCORE gamer."

 

dont hardcore gamers use desktops with 3 25" monitors or more?

 

Depends on how hardcore you are.

 

I thought being a hardcore gamer had more to do with the time you spent with your games and the kind of games you played (games that take quite a long time to complete instead of casual/puzzle games and such) than hardware.

 

great, then im buggered, ive spent thousands of hours on RTS games over 20 some years

 

Lol, it's funny when people start throwing around definitions. People like you and me, Bro, have invented the hardcore gaming
Some say it all began with Sinclair ZX Spectrum (those were good times , times when "Tape Loading Error" was our worst nightmare ), but I was happily gaming long before Sinclair - using this calculator - NO KIDDING! It took a few minutes to manually load the code and then a few minutes to play - only simple strategy games (numbers-numbers-numbers) were available, but it didn't stop us from skipping school lessons to do some shooting

To all those still in doubt - hardcore gamer is not defined by the system one's using but by the passion alone!

 

well cant say I have ever gamed on that calculator but I did have a few for my graphing calculator in highschool ummm errrr a few years ago. ahh yes loading games by casette tapes brings back both fond and NOT so fond of memories, I did alot of gaming on a sinclair and a trash-80, heck I thought I died and went to heaven on my forst C64. Akimox how many games did you get by buying a magazine and then typing in all that BASIC/QBASIC/BASIC-A code so you could save to tape or 180K floppies to play?

now I still find I go for the games with better game play and replayability and to heck with FPS's and fluffy graphics.

BTW Bro, when you want to catch a steak and brew in cowtown?

not a bad line, I dont think there are many of us that have spent thousands of hours soldering and modding just to get better gameplay and realism from old games like choplifter and A-10 attack

 

Being a "Hardcore" gamer has nothing to do with screen res, but that's besides the point and I would agree with everyone else and get the higher res screen.
If your a "Hardcore" gamer I would ask DELL for a M15x and pay the difference if that's possible in anyway.
It wouldn't hurt to ask

 

In our small town the only source of those games was the elder brother of a good friend of mine, who was studying/working somewhere in Moscow and brought us some tapes on every vocation.

That's a very good question, M8! Hopefully, we can arrange something during November. I'll give you a call in a few days

 

Well here's my opinion... (sorry for the long post )

I used to use my notebooks primarily for gaming and I always go for a lower res screen because I hated the fact that gaming at non-native res gives blurry textures. If I game at 720p on a 1080p screen I will definitely have to turn on some AA, and that will decrease performance quite a bit which is always a bad thing imo. I also don't like gaming on high res on low settings because I always enjoyed the special effects. So in the end it is crystal clear to me that going for a lower res screen is the obvious choice if gaming is the main reason for the notebook.

People's been saying how 720p will look bad on a 15.6" notebook. 5 years ago my first notebook was a 15.4" Toshiba @ 1280x800 (which I use for gaming and watching movies) and I'm perfectly happy with the res on that screen. 3 years ago I had my second notebook which was the Sager NP5790 with a 17" screen @ 1680x1050 (which I also use it mainly for new games and movies). I had the choice to go for 1920x1200 but I chose 1680x1050 because of the reasons above and I don't regret a single bit for not choosing the higher res despite what the others said. (before I bought my Sager I remember myself reading threads like this trying to figure out whether I should go for higher res or not too ) My bro has a Sager NP8660 which is a 15.4" notebook @ 1680x1050 now and imo 1680x1050 looks nice on it (everything seems to be at the right size if not slightly on the small side). Right now I also have a new desktop with a 24" monitor @ 1920x1080 and IMO I would only go for 1080p on a 17"+ screen because going for 1080p on anything smaller would result in everything appearing to be too small for me. (I know you can change the settings on the desktop to enlarge stuff and all but it never feels natural to me)

I guess you gotta do more research on it since you're talking about going 1280x720 on a 15.6" notebook (not 1280x800 on a 15.4"), so things wouldn't look as good. But if you ask me I'm definitely against going 1920x1080 on your xps 15.

 

um, are u just downscaling your normal desktop to a lower resolution? that's not the same as when u downscale yur resolution in a game...

 

Well I sometimes connect my G73 to an external 23" LCD monitor using HDMI and use a wireless keyboard and mouse when I play Starcraft 2 and Civ5. I like the extra real-estate when playing strategy games.

 

My opinion is anything less than 1080p means a ton load of scrolling and not able to fit as much stuff on the screen. When I was looking for a lappy, I could maybeeeee deal with 1600x1080 or whatever but anything less and you can fit like 4 icons on your desktop. Get the higher res!

 

There is no official setup for "hardcore gamers"; you get what's comfortable for you.

Personally, I would get the 1080p because it's going to be so much sharper and crisper than 720p, and you will really notice the difference on a 15" display. I mean, I have 720p on my 12" netbook and I wish it were higher res.

In terms of games, you will always get higher framerates at lower resolutions; end of story. Depending on the game, you'll probably still play just fine at 1080p, and in the absolute worst case you can turn the resolution down in your game settings.

tl;dr - you can run a 1080p display at 720p, but not the other way around. Get the 1080p.

 

i know you can't go the other way around!But the question m asking is will 720p look exactly same on 1080p panel as on a 720p panel!
If it looks blurry ,then i cant stand it!
I m in middle of nowhere now.Tmrw/day after tmrw i gotta tell dell the config and tday m still deciding on the panel!
Gosh help me!
Thanks for ll your inputs btw!

 

Go 1080p. I game at 720p periodically on my laptop if needed and it looks good. You can usually afford at least a 2xAA, sometimes 4xAA when you drop to that resolution anyhow.

As someone else mentioned 1080p scales very well to 720p especially for games.

 

It won't look the same, but the pixel density on the 1080p will be solid enough that you won't have to worry about it looking blurry.

This really should be a no-brainer if you ask me.

 

1080p all the way, i used to have a 768P but after i got my 23 inch 1080P screen i could never go to a lowers res, and in Metro 2033 i scale down to 720P to be able to run at high settings and i get no blurring

 

Heh, don't think hardware or your screen size has anything to do with being a hardcore gamer. Even though I have a 5870M+1080p screen, I'm not as hardcore as someone who is always modding their games, making mods for games, knowing every single extra and bonuses in a game or playing every sequel/expansion.

Just get whatever runs the best for you and be the hardcore gamer you want to be, joining game forums and being the king of gamers!

 

alot of us have already told u, multiple times, bro. there's NO reason for u to have to settle with a 720p over a 1080p panel if money is not an issue. i don't see what makes the decision so hard?

if ANYONE tells u that today's technology can't downscale properly they need to go home. most, if not all, of the guys in this thread that gave u advice (including myself) actually have, and use high resolution monitors on a regular basis. we are speaking from real life experience and not just a bunch of rumors.

 

well m extremely sorry for my silly repeated questions,but i just wanna make sure that i don't get the wrong display.Now i have made my mind on 1080p panel.Thanks everyone for all the information.I really love nbr.com!
I apereciate all of your efforts and once again sorry!
Cheers!

 

Don't be sorry, Bro! That is why this place exists - to help those in doubts, share knowledge and also...for a small part participate in eternal&useless word battles

 

I would say that if you can get at least 25-35 fps or so on 1080p, it will be a much more enjoyable experience than 60 fps on a 720p display.

 

I would certainly not go that far. 60fps is pretty much the minimum I would consider playable at any resolution. I have a 1680x1050 display, but I'll run games at 1280x800 if I have to in order to get a decent framerate.

 

To each their own. I don't need 60fps, 30fps+ is fine for me. And to be honest if all I was doing was gaming on my laptop then I'd probably opt for the 1366x768. But if I did any amount of real work on the Windows desktop then I'd definitely go for 1080p.

 

If you use vsync, 60fps is the maximum frame rate.

If I understand correctly, it's important to have extremely high frame rates for certain multiplayer games, however, I haven't tried any of those games and personally I cannot tell the difference unless I'm using FRAPS between, say, 45 fps or 55 or 60fps. Once you get above 35-40fps, it looks pretty much the same to me. I have tried disabling vsync on some games (and the framerate cap on oblivion for example) and I've seen as high as 90 - 120 fps using FRAPS, but even these really high frame rates do not seem to be too much improvement in the experience compared with the 60fps I get using vsync.

IMO, the experience is just so much better in 1080p even with a little bit of lag or stutter, compared to lower resolutions.

 

Having two other laptops I bought my Alienware soley for gamging and I wanted to try and strech some extra years and performce from it.
Its roughly 900p. I can hook it up to m y 23.5" beyound HD samsung (Sorry strange resolution I can't remeber) and play games like mass effect smoothly now, but what about mass effect 3? I feel I bough some futureproofing by going with a lower res screen. From I can tell you of downscalling on high res monitors is it looks alot better then it used to but it still doesn't look anything as good as native.

 

anything lower than 1080P is useless when it comes to windows and apps. Downscaling is also very good if u go to 720 on a 1080P screen. I dont notice any blur on my HP 23 inch 1080P when i go 720P in Metro 2033.

 

1080p, no questions about it. getting anything less youll be disappointed.

 

I vote for the 720p display. I have yet to see a notebook LCD which didn't look atrocious below native resolution.

A hardcore (in all caps, no less) gamer should choose the LCD according to what the GPU can handle.

 

Define atrocious. If you're gaming, most modern games have such huge hulking models anyhow in game and whether running 720p or 1080p you really don't notice unless you spend your time looking for it.

 

I think that real hardcore gamers dont play at high resolutions, i remember some years back there were rumors of real good players using huge 22'' CRT monitors (1600x1200) and played at very low resolutions (640x480), favoring rendering over eye candy res, even today i hear some pro sc2 players go into lower res, weather still true with how LCD are idk, but this was the way it was before.