Questions about "native resolution"

[Melios]

I've been using a CRT monitor for years, but now I've gotten an LCD monitor (this one), so I'm concerned about the "native resolution."

Specifically, its 1920 x 1080...which is far higher than the resolutions I currently use, and I understand the display works best only at that resolution. So how would this affect games, including older ones, especially if I need to use a lower display resolution (for frame rate concerns or compatibility)?

[Avanarius]

generally if you play full screen you'll notice more pixelation. If my computer can't handle a game at 1920x1200 I just put it in windowed mode and suck it up because it's too hard to look at.

[Zosi]

Basically, you have three choices.

1) Run at 1920x1080 full-screen and take the performance hit.
2) Run it in a window at a smaller resolution.
3) Run it full-screen in a smaller resolution which will look like trash.

To elaborate on "trash", imagine a 800x600 game like Diablo II stretched to 1920x1080 with no smoothing or filtering.

Native resolution is something you have to look at very carefully when buying a LCD. Higher isn't always better, you need to be able to drive it comfortably at that res.

[Norellicus]

If your app can't run windowed mode it could be a problem, but I don't really see the downside to a larger monitor and higher native res even if you can't run fullscreen...if anything you'll have some screen real estate free for other windows or such while playing, and windows popups won't kick you out of your game.

[Isiolia]

Kinda depends on the scaling in the display or card (however it's being done). I mean, most HDTVs are scaling content at some point or another. 360/PS3 are often rendering at 720 and upscaling to 1080 as well. It doesn't "have" to look bad.

Basically, you have three choices.

1) Run at 1920x1080 full-screen and take the performance hit.
2) Run it in a window at a smaller resolution.
3) Run it full-screen in a smaller resolution which will look like trash.

Well, there's the amalgamation between 2 and 3 as well, potentially, which would be to run it "full screen" but without stretching. IE, running a game at 1280x1024 on that screen and simply having a black box around it. May depend on what hardware/software scaling options are available to you though.

That should also get around input lag due to scaling too.

[Zosi]

The "nicer" scaling is usually only on the models that are designed to be HDTVs rather than PC monitors. There's some overlap, but you're not going to have nice scaling on a $200 21.5".

[Isiolia]

True, I wouldn't expect much out of a $200 21.5" period...but point is that there's more to it than that it's a fixed number of pixels.

[Melios]

So there's no way to scale 1920x1080 gracefully (downwards)?

[Isiolia]

You could look at what options your video card supports for doing the scaling within that. Catalyst drivers (at least with my 4850) allow for GPU scaling, and among those options you can set "use centered timings", which doesn't scale to the panel size, and instead just makes a black box around the image.

I'm not sure what else you could potentially do, as until Christmas I was using a 17" panel running at 1280x1024, so it was a nonissue...but now I have a 24" panel that's 1920x1200...

[Melios]

Basically, you have three choices.

1) Run at 1920x1080 full-screen and take the performance hit.
2) Run it in a window at a smaller resolution.
3) Run it full-screen in a smaller resolution which will look like trash.

To elaborate on "trash", imagine a 800x600 game like Diablo II stretched to 1920x1080 with no smoothing or filtering.

Native resolution is something you have to look at very carefully when buying a LCD. Higher isn't always better, you need to be able to drive it comfortably at that res.

I wasn't actually the one who selected and purchased it.

[levish]

So there's no way to scale 1920x1080 gracefully (downwards)?

the scaling works 100% fine, but you are still dealing with a "Fixed Pixel Display"

if you want sharp, you want native resolution.

if you don't mind a small screen in whatever doesn't support it you can set fullscreen and turn off scaling on most displays that i've used which will result in a image in the center of your LCD as big as the native resolution

might be too small to use though