27" iMac non-native resolution

[layziegtp]

So, I'm doing what a lot of folks here are doing right now, (im)patiently waiting for my new quad core 27" iMac to ship. In the meantime, I've been doing some thinking. I intend to game quite a bit on this new system, and I'm concerned about the resolution of the screen. Obviously, even with the HD4850, most games are not going to tolerate the massive resolution required of this huge screen. So obviously, to maintain decent frame rates, I'm going to have to lower the resolution. Now, I don't know much about LCD technology, but what I've heard is that how good the image quality is at non-native resolutions is dependent on the hardware in the LCD panel. From what I've heard, this is an excellent display, with all the latest bells and whistles.

So, my question, for anybody that has experience with this particular screen, or another like it, how does it handle non-native resolutions? Does it look good? Abysmal? Somewhere in between? And, if I'm going to play in a non-native resolution, I suppose my best choices would be 1920x1080 (3/4 res), or 1280x720 (1/2 res). Am I correct in that assumption?

 

[Poonaka]

You could always play in windowed mode at a lower resolution.

 

[layziegtp]

You could always play in windowed mode at a lower resolution.

That's actually a great idea. For the sake of immersion, is there an driver setting to change scaling for ATI cards? Like how Nvidia has the Change Flat Panel Scaling tab, with the option to 'Do not scale'? I assume there is, and that might be just what I need.

 

[TDHXXX]

You could always play in windowed mode at a lower resolution.

Is there anyway to black out the rest of the screen? That would be awesome if it were possible.


As for the OPs question, I tried out the Tomb Raider & Bioshock demos in-store at non-native resolution and they looked fine.

 

[ClivePwned]

black wallpaper and have your icons hidden by the game window?

or

does spaces do that?

 

[TDHXXX]

black wallpaper and have your icons hidden by the game window?

or

does spaces do that?

Making the wallpaper black seems like a bit of a hassle everytime I want to run a game.

 

[tarasis]

That's actually a great idea. For the sake of immersion, is there an driver setting to change scaling for ATI cards? Like how Nvidia has the Change Flat Panel Scaling tab, with the option to 'Do not scale'? I assume there is, and that might be just what I need.

I've asked that questions a few times and never got an answer.

Hope so.

Rob

 

[sammich]

When playing games with plenty of motion (ie the pixels change a lot), interpolation or using an LCD not at it's native resolution, the distortion is not at all apparent. It's like watching a movie, it's resolution is almost guaranteed to be lower than your screen but the motion renders the jaggedness less obvious and less important.

 

[sentros]

Making the wallpaper black seems like a bit of a hassle everytime I want to run a game.

You could use automator for that right?

 

[rrijkers]

Play Games in windowed mode is a nono. But non native resolutions are perfectly ok for playing games. As long as you pick a widescreen res that is

 

[juliancs]

I don't know, when I reduce the resolution on my Macbook Pro in bootcamp, the game becomes almost blurry. To be honest, I can't stand playing at a lower resolution, because of this blurryness. I'd rather have more pixelation..

 

[Shivetya]

You can dial back AA with the resolution this monitor affords.

 

[rrijkers]

This top GFX card is (as always in a mac) not a game card. As long as there is no 1GB sli+ options in Macs especially on these sick resolution, put the setting way down. Games you play on a PC or a console, not on a mac, period.

 

[sth]

1280x720 should interpolate nicely on that panel (no odd-factor scaling) and should also be quite fast for games since it's just 1/4 the number of pixels compared to the native resolution.

Anyone tried that?

 

[Transporteur]

1280x720 should interpolate nicely on that panel (no odd-factor scaling) and should also be quite fast for games since it's just 1/4 the number of pixels compared to the native resolution.

Anyone tried that?

A quarter is fine. I tried 1280x800 a few years ago when playing with a MBP and that's a good resolution for gaming with a "slow" graphics card.

 

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Making the wallpaper black seems like a bit of a hassle everytime I want to run a game.

This may be a bit of a hassle, but you can always create an Automater script that changes the background just prior to loading the game. I didn't have to change my background, but did create a script for both Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos and the follow-up, The Frozen Throne (I have the evaluation copies). The nice thing about Automater is that once your script has been set up the way you want, you don't have to go back to it - you just run it.