768p + 640m or 1080p + 650m?

[flaviowolff]

Good afternoon for all.
I am seeking a new laptop for gaming, after realizing I have an overkill desktop and only actually play Dota 2 and Black Ops II, lol.

My question is: which would have the most performance? a 640m with a 768p screen or a 650m on a 1080p screen? I actually prefer 768p on the 15" screen size I'm looking for.

Thank you !

 

[jaguarskx]

You'll get better performance with the 640m @ 768p.

However, I prefer to work with a 1920x1080 desktop I can have multiply windows open for easier multi-tasking. But when it comes to gaming the 650m @ 1080p will be worse than the 640m @ 768p.

Although you can lower the game resolution for better performance on the 1920x1080 LCD screen laptop. You can play at 1600x900 resolution. The 650m at that resolution will likely give the same level of performance as the 640m @ 768, or higher. And of course, you can always just drop down to 768p on a 1080p laptop.

 

[flaviowolff]

that would be perfect, except that a 768p game on a 1080p screen will always look like crap compared to a 768p game on a native 768p screen... i have already tested such scenarios on my TV (26 inch 1080p vs 26 inch 720p tvs, running 720p games).

thank you for confirming the superior 640m/768p performance!

 

[edit1754]

that would be perfect, except that a 768p game on a 1080p screen will always look like crap compared to a 768p game on a native 768p screen... i have already tested such scenarios on my TV (26 inch 1080p vs 26 inch 720p tvs, running 720p games).

thank you for confirming the superior 640m/768p performance!

There are problems with this logic.

5.6" 1366x768 displays tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast, whereas 15.6" 1920x1080 displays tend to have great contrast and quality. What this means is that despite the blur you get when running games in a non-native resolution, you'll likely find that games look better running in a non-native resolution on a 15.6" 1920x1080 display, than even in native resolution on a 15.6" 1366x768 display. And of course quality differences are there outside of gaming too, so by going with a lower resolution display you're not only killing usability of your computer, you're also killing image quality.

 

[flaviowolff]

There are problems with this logic.

5.6" 1366x768 displays tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast, whereas 15.6" 1920x1080 displays tend to have great contrast and quality. What this means is that despite the blur you get when running games in a non-native resolution, you'll likely find that games look better running in a non-native resolution on a 15.6" 1920x1080 display, than even in native resolution on a 15.6" 1366x768 display. And of course quality differences are there outside of gaming too, so by going with a lower resolution display you're not only killing usability of your computer, you're also killing image quality.

Thanks.
The logic was fine if the panels had the same qualities (contrast, brightness, etc). If you add other variables, logic is gone, yes.

As I'm not sure if the 1080p screen is actually better (contrast, brightness, etc) and I favor performance, I will stick with the 768p.

Thank you guys!

 

[edit1754]

As I'm not sure if the 1080p screen is actually better (contrast, brightness, etc) and I favor performance, I will stick with the 768p.

If you aren't sure, then you need to err on the side that it is. In the vast majority of cases, a 15.6" 1920x1080 display will be of substantially better quality than a 15.6" 1366x768 display. And any exceptions to this I could probably point out (such as with a couple of the older ASUS laptops that used the AUO B156HW01 V5 junk 1080p display). And as far as currently-selling laptops go, out of the ones I have seen, I have not seen a single exception to this. If you get a 15.6" 1366x768 display, the quality/contrast is going to be pretty bad. If you get a 15.6" 1920x1080 display, the quality/contrast is going to be great.

Plus, that aside, a lot of games are going to run just fine with a GT 650M on 1920x1080 anyway. Most will, and under decent settings at that. You're greatly underestimating the performance of the GT 650M. And having that faster GPU is going to open up more options to you, both in terms of currently-available games and in terms of future games. If a game is too intensive to be run on the GT 650M @1920x1080, you will still have the option to start running at lower resolutions. With the slower GT 640M @1366x768, you're worse off.

Buying a laptop with a slower GPU and a lower resolution + poor quality display, instead of a laptop with a faster GPU and a higher resolution + decent quality display, is a terrible idea in the vast majority of cases. There may be some cases that might make it better, such as an eyesight-related need for large text that cannot be accounted for by OS DPI scaling, but gaming isn't one of them.