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Forums - Gaming - 720p vs 1080p, Does Resolution matter? - A Utilitarian Perspective

Conina on 23 February 2014
alrightiwill said:

Just going to put this here as a mere point of reference.
NOTE: This chart is not an exact approximation nor an exact science, it's just a general guideline to where the AVERAGE person loses gains in higher resolution. If you beat the chart, well done. I myself can't but I do have poor enough eyesight

I agree to that chart for watching movies, where there aren't additional aliasing problems (jaggies, flickering borders). DVDs and Blu-rays are usually downsampled from higher resolutions (2K, 4K) to 640x480 (anamorph) or 1920x1080, so straight lines are already smoothed.

Games without perfect antialiasing show their deficits much earlier, so they need a higher resolution than movies on the same screen in the same distance.



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Mr Puggsly on 23 February 2014
Danman27 said:
Mr Puggsly said:


And as I said in my OP, higher resolution is obviously preferable. If I have both PS4 and X1, I would likely get the multiplat game that looks shaper and/or runs smoother.

Now you're implying you can easily tell when you're looking at 720p or 1080p. Perahps you've trained your eyes well, but you're not the average consumer.

Guessing if you're looking at 720p, 900p, or 1080p is difficult. But 480p is clear as day.


I acknowledge that Im not the same as the average consumer. But the difference is still very clear and apparent. 

Like I said again and again... if you're looking at a game in motion on a TV without knowing the resolution, its difficult to determine what resolution the game is. That alone makes clear and apparent the difference between 720p and 1080p is not as significant as some are trying to lead people to believe.



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MonstaTruk on 23 February 2014
Mr Puggsly said:
Danman27 said:
I think the difference between 1080p and 720p is incredibly easy to see.


On a massive screen, yeah.

Side by side, yeah.

But could the average person give a definite answer on a screen being 720p, 900p, or 1080p? No.

I have a 32 inch 720p TV and a 32 inch 1080p. I could easily fool people into believing my 720p screen is 1080p.

1) You're comparing two TV's picture quality, but the SOURCE (Xbox One game) doesn't reach native 1080p?

2) 32 inch?  I wouldn't tell too much of a difference, either...



brendude13 on 23 February 2014

Whether it matters depends on what console you own.



Mr Puggsly on 23 February 2014
ezmanga said:
And if resolution doesn't matter why bother getting a new console?

Play BF4 on PS3/360... then try on X1. That will make it very clear there is much more to graphics than resolution. Not only do the graphics look significantly better on the X1 version, but it does it while achieving 60 fps. That's a reason I bothered to get a new console.

While many games aren't and won't be 1080p on the X1, it should be noted it still offers vastly improved graphics and runs more games at 1080p and/or 60 fps than last gen ever did.

Dying Light and Sniper Elite 3 may achieve 1080p and 60fps on X1. So that shows progress is being made on the hardware.



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Mr Puggsly on 23 February 2014
MonstaTruk said:

1) You're comparing two TV's picture quality, but the SOURCE (Xbox One game) doesn't reach native 1080p?

2) 32 inch?  I wouldn't tell too much of a difference, either...


1) Uhhh.... I have X1 games that are native 1080p.

2) Even on a 60" inch it would be difficult to determine the exact resolution. That's why we wait for people on the internet to tell us.

I was playing Gears of War Judgetment on a 60+ inch recently, it actually looked great. Even though its 720p... for some reason it wasn't a jaggy mess.



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alrightiwill on 23 February 2014
Conina said:
alrightiwill said:

Just going to put this here as a mere point of reference.
NOTE: This chart is not an exact approximation nor an exact science, it's just a general guideline to where the AVERAGE person loses gains in higher resolution. If you beat the chart, well done. I myself can't but I do have poor enough eyesight

I agree to that chart for watching movies, where there aren't additional aliasing problems (jaggies, flickering borders). DVDs and Blu-rays are usually downsampled from higher resolutions (2K, 4K) to 640x480 (anamorph) or 1920x1080, so straight lines are already smoothed.

Games without perfect antialiasing show their deficits much earlier, so they need a higher resolution than movies on the same screen in the same distance.

You are very correct sir :) But I was trying to point out earlier that it's what composes the image that makes it look good rather than the resolution itself. A 1080p game with poor textures and low-polygon count with poor AA will look worse than a 720p with well, superior output.

From a sort of control method the best way to compare would be to have optimal settings of a game - max everything except resolution. Screenshot to exact same scenes, one at 720p another at 1080p, then upscale the 720p to 1080p, rename files and see who is able to spot the difference. Of course with close inspection you'd pick out the 1080p, but the differences would not be as glaring as you'd think, especially from a reasonable distance.



MonstaTruk on 23 February 2014
FATALITY said:
yikes!

And the image on the right is on a $100-less system?  Good grief... *smh*

In the words of Roberto Duran, "No mas!  No mas!"  



Goatseye on 23 February 2014

There's a reason why Watch Dogs was delayed when it was about to be released on GTA V launch window. Although it would have versions prettier than GTA it would've gotten mauled in contents and gameplay.



radiantshadow92 on 23 February 2014

i like to put it like this. if you are playing on a tv thats bigger than 42 inches then it matters