Question regarding screen resolution (and more) before purchase of 5790

Hello all,

I've just decided to order a sager 5790 over the asus c90s, mostly because of the graphics card capabilities (and hopefully more extensive future options).

Im trying to decide between the higher and lower resolution option, however. For the most part I will be using this laptop for gaming and video editing, possibly watching dvds and the such as well. I realize higher resolutions will cause slow downs in games, but can't you just lower a few settings to counter balance the lag, and then have a higher resolution (so that if in the future I did get a more powerful card, I would not be bottlenecked by a lower resolution). Plus, the higher resolution is "true HD" right? How bad is it with the 8700 card, vs the lower resolution, and can you compromise elsewhere to improve performance? Would having a higher resolution be better for future GPU's during the lifetime of this laptop?

The other thing I was worried about was the gpu fan noise which I've heard many conflicting stories about. I guess Ill just deal with it, but with the Zalmann (?) cooler, do you guys think is very annoying? Im very sensitive to sound, and I wont be blasting music or game sound to overcome the gpu fan. Ok thank you for your time! Hope you're all enjoying your 5790's... any regrets/problems prospective buyers should be aware of? Or, any positive comments about the laptop? Thanks again!

 

Ever since I got my Asus G1 with a 1680x1050 res screen, I have loved it. When I finally get around to buying a new 17" laptop, it will be 1920x1200 res. The resolution of the screen you have does not affect the FPS in a game. It's the resolution that you run the game at that will effect it. You don't have to play games at the native res. In order to get a decent FPS out of the most games I play now, like Bioshock, NFS Carbon etc need to be dialed down to about 1280x768 and they still look great. Better than I dare say on a lower res screen. The only possible reason someone should opt to get a lower res screen is to safe a few bucks.

Get the higher resolution, you will not be disappointed.

 

The 8700 should do decent at any resolution... not as good as the 7950 with todays games, but still over 25 FPS.

Also at the 1920x1200 resolution you can disable memory intensive features like Anti-Aliasing. This is because the physical dimensions of a screen pixel is very tiny on a 1920x1200 display. So you're less likely to see "jaggies" from lack of edge blending. This plays well into performance, especially with the 8700 which is limited in memory bandwidth.

I struggled with this for a while and decided to go with max resolution. Mostly because I will use the computer for both gaming and work. The larger resolution lets me put a lot more work on the screen.

 

I am also interested in the noise factor. Despite being in the music business, my hearing threshold has left me with a real aversion for excessively high frequencies. So while the noise level of the NP5791 is of relevance to me, I need to be assured that this laptop is otherwise "quiet."

About my previous unanswered question in another post: Could someone please confirm that the 'matte' WSXGA screen is not overly grainy? Your replies are appreciated!

 

My 5790 with the 1900x1200 8700m is maybe two weeks old so far

1) Theres no real fan noise; my wife sits a couple feetr away (the other couch) and doesn't notice it. (To wit, it is more likely that gaems driving up the temp will annoy by bullet sounds, unless your'e using headphones

2) The res -- I worried about it as well, but went ahead since the smaller res was backordered; I'm glad I did.. its a very nice screen (though not the largest viewing angles, nomatter to me); you definately dont' need AA since the pixels are so small, and everything is sharp. I'm playing Oblivion and HL2(etc) and such, which are a little older, but I'm playing them at 1900x1200 with max everything and they're quick as a monkey.

3) You can certainly turn a game res down; upscaling to the 1900x1200 is a pretty much 0-cost effort for the video card, so it can be used to speed things up by simulating the lower res.

jeff

 

True you definitely won't notice any difference between using AA or not at WUXGA... My 5790 only has a WSXGA glossy screen and I personally don't notice much difference between using AA or not at 1440x900 (which is the resolution most of my games are being played on atm). I would say the fan would be louder than most other med-range (15.4") laptop's fan. But personally I think it is no where near unacceptable or disturbing.

 

Ok, thank you all so much for your replies. My heart is set now Im buying it! I guess the norm is either xoticpc, powernotebooks, or sager?