1080P for a gaming laptop?

Hey guys, I’m planning on buying a laptop (Probably HP DV6) and I’m contemplating whether I should get the1080P. (768 looks pretty bad on a 15.4 screen IMO) I will be using this laptop for Photo editing, web design & gaming. I Really would love to have a 1080P screen but I’m just worried about gaming performance. I could run the games at a lower resolution but wouldn’t that be taxing on the GPU because it wouldn't be native? Could I just run games in window mode and alleviate any performance losses due to running at 1080P or running a non native resolution?

I’m not concerned with the additional cost because I actually need to upgrade the laptop to be over 1000 to use my 30% off coupon

Anyone have any ideas or wisdom to share?

 

If you can't game at 1080p, you can run at 720p or anything in between just fine. It will look fine if you can run any degree of AA, or generally even if you don't. It will be less taxing on the GPU, not more, because there are less pixels to render.

High resolution is more beneficial when you're doing general Windows desktop things than when you're gaming, anyways. I'd always get the highest-resolution screen I can put up with, and let games run at whatever resolution they want.

 

Ok cool, I know it will be less taxing to run 768 on a 1080 screen But won't running 768 on a 1080 screen be more taxing then running 768 on a 768 screen?

 

for gaming a 1080p screen is a must IMO...however, on a DV6, you will have issues running native 1080p on the newer AAA titles. The reason for this is that the highest vid card I've seen on a DV6 is the AMD 6770m which is an upper mid range card, but not really considered be a gaming card. Its a decent card that you can do some gaming with

Is there a reason why you are stuck on the HP DV6?

 

Not stuck on the DV6 at all, I just want a decent laptop for $700 or under. Have any other recommendations? I've been shopping around quite a bit.

 

its probably best to post the question in the "What notebook should i buy" forum as the guys there would know how to best maximize $700 but A dv6 is actually a really good laptop in this price range

 

Yep, if you are looking for a laptop to purchase, these questions go here: What Notebook Should I Buy?

 

I can vouch for DV6z, it plays everything well at 1080p if you're willing to:

- tune / OC it accordingly
- run more demanding games at low to medium detail

In the case of the HP, and most other brands even, the 1080p screens are far superior in viewing characteristics than the 1366x768. Stock screens are usually the cheapest, bottom of the barrel the OEM's can find, unless it's a top end laptop, even then they can be sub-standard. The DV6 1080p screen is matte, and has excellent viewing angles, brightness, contrast, and color saturation.

We have a small but active and enthusiastic DV6z ownership community here at NBR. See my sig for links...

 

Just upgraded my DV6z with A8 APU+6750M to 1080p with B156HW01 V.7 and HD+ cable for DV6 6100 series. HP is not very generous in choosing screen panels. Even their 1080p is not of good display quality.
Such a pitty that almost all manufacturing do not pay a lot attention to display quality

 

What do you mean their 1080p is not a good display? It's phenomenal. It's an LG LP156WF1 matte with nearly 180 deg side to side viewing and a solid 60-65 vertical, high contrast, bright backlight, 62% gamut. Side by side with the v.7 in the NP8130 I had I'd say it's a comparable screen. Out of the box, the V.7 is a bit more crisp and a little richer colors, but after calibrating both screens they looked remarkably similar.

 

You could, but it's very unlikely that you would have to do so. First, the dv6 (with the 6770M or its 7690M replacement) is a pretty decent gaming machine. For example, Skyrim runs nicely on High settings at 1080p. Second, for most games, the resolution is a lot more important than the high-end settings. Third, why do you think that a non-native resolution would be more taxing for the GPU?

Also, I agree with HTWingNut about the quality of the 1080p display. It's not quite the best out there (that distinction goes to the 95% gamut ones), but it's very good. The 720p one is a lot worse.

 

The 1080p is one of the better ones I've seen available, there are definitely better ones, but it's pretty great in comparison with other options. And running at a lower resolution, the GPU only has to manage that many fewer pixels per frame. Once it's displayed it's just stretched out across the display.

 

gaming at a lower than native resolution would only help relieve the stress off of your GPU. how well the image looks, while downscaled, is really up to your software. as long as u downscale from a 16:9 resolution to lower 16:9 resolution then u should be good. for example, if u downscaled to a 16:10 resolution then their will probably be some noticeable degradation.

1080p @ low/mid settings would look much better than 720p @ mid/high settings. try to tweak the shadow, AA, and reflection settings before u downscale your resolution.

 

95% gamut is a lot more than 62% IMO.
I do not have side to side comparison with LP156WF1, and i would like to order one to have a feeling about it.
From what i know, LG and AUO are the only two companies offering 1080p panel at 15.6 with gamut larger than 60%. I will not be suprised they will performe so close to each other since either one is a lot better than the crippy Samsung 768p panel

 

The contrast of the two panels is very similar, and rather good. Contrast affects image quality more than color gamut, I find.

 

Color gamut is really more for people that require color accuracy with photo work. It's really hard to tell the difference between 62% and 95%, especially if calibrated properly, unless color accuracy is of utmost importance to you. Contrast, brightness, and black levels to me are more important.