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Resolutions.. What?!

Post Date: 2008-06-25
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Maestro View Drop Down
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Posts: 56 		  Quote Maestro Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Resolutions.. What?!
    Posted: 25 Jun 2008 at 3:40am
They make no sense to me. Never have. I've always put my games on whatever resolution seems to have a nice "size" on the user interface. Besides that, what's the real difference?

I hear good graphics cards are better for higher resolutions.. Why is that? Do they perform worse on lower resolutions and better on higher ones? Is the visual change different, or something? Would an 8800GT perform better on a low resolution than a GTX 280 would? Makes no sense.

Can someone explain them, please?
Thanks.
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Jun 2008 at 7:41am

short answer: right click on your desk top and go to properties/personalize... go to desktop and select the lowest resolution, then the highest.
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gamerk2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 198 		  Quote gamerk2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Jun 2008 at 8:13am
The resolution determines the number of pixles "dots" that can be displayed at once.  The more pixels, the sharper each image looks. 

Because there are more dots, images of a fixed size (such as desktop icons) end up looking smaller as a result.  For games though, this is not an issue.
 
The problem with high resolutions, is that more pixles need to be updated every time the screen redraws (default is 60 times per second, although I prefer 72-75 for a smoother look).  As a result, older cards, which are slower, take longer to redraw as the resolution increases, resulting in a loss of FPS.
 
With very, very, few exceptions (there are a few), newer cards are always better at lower resolutions, and are usually better at higher resolutions than the card they are replacing. 
 
Note, that the memory located on a graphics card is important as well; the more memory a graphics card has, the better it preforms at higher resolutons.  So a newer card with less memory on board might be faster at lower resolutions than its predecesor, but might actually be slower at higher resolutions.  Thats one reason why 3x 8800 Ultras are faster than 2x 9800 GX2's, as even though the GX2's have 2 cores each, each card only has 512MB RAM, as opposed to the 8800 Ultras 768MB.
 
 
If you want to run a test: run a game at 800x600 and look at how smooth gameplay is.  Now run the same game with the same settings at 2560x1980, and look how most games are unplayable.  The look a lot more detailed though.
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gamerk2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 198 		  Quote gamerk2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Jun 2008 at 8:34am
Sry bout double post, just thought of an example to explain this better:
 
Take a peice of paper, and make a diagonal line using squares across the paper.  That is, make a large square, and on its corner, make another large square, and so on.  Thats how your moniter displays a diagonal line.  Notice how jagged the edges look as a result.
 
Now, lets simulate what happens when you increase the resolution (lets say, double in this case).  Inside each square, make two more, of equal size, moving in the same directon as the large squares you made before. Notice how the edges of the "line" are less jagged?  Thats the effect of increasing the resolution: you put more information in the same area, which results in a more precise picture of what you want to draw.
 
If i had any skill at photoshop, I would make a simple image displaying this effect, but I think i made my example clear...
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