Opinions needed: low res with lots of AA/AF?

[Project86]

My friend just picked up a pretty nice 42" Samsung plasma TV, but it's only EDTV not HDTV. Which is fine because he mostly uses it for watching DVD's, and only has normal DirecTV (non HD). Looks really nice and clear to me.

Anyways. The question is this: since this tv only does like 800X600 resolution (not exactly but I can't remember), would it be worth it to use for gaming with the PC? We were thinking that AA/AF could be turned way high and that might help clean things up. He has a mobile XP OC'd to about 2.6 ghz, 1 gig hyperX PC3500,and a 9800pro with a decent OC. We figure he can run pretty much everything with this setup at get good FPS.

1. Are we wrong? Will the low res make things look crappy even with lots of AA/AF?

2. Am I also wrong in even thinking that his setup can run that res with AA/AF, or will that still choke the trusty 9800?

I also know about the burn in issues with plasma, but it wouldn't be a problem since it would be occasional use only.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Normal TV's do 640x480, IIRC. That res is way to low for any game to look good, which is why console games have never been able to look as nice as PC games. Don't even bother with it.

 

[BFG10K]

Will the low res make things look crappy even with lots of AA/AF?

Yes.

 

[kylebisme]

Don't knock it until you have tried it guys, I game on an ED plasma all the time and it is quite nice. The native resolution on mine is 852x480, but you can run just about whatever you want between 320x240 and 2048x1536 to in though a VGA cable and the difference in resolution is noticable way above the native res. I run most games at 1280x720 at least, if not 1600x900 or 1920x1080; but even 848x480 can look respectable from the couch as long as you can run x4aa. Also note that I have another computer hooked up to a 21" trnintron and I run that at 1600x1200 whenever I can, so it's not like I'm just used to low resolutions.

Oh yeah, as for burn in. I left my Panasonic on desktop overnight once on accedent and it didn't even phase it. It is supposed to be one of the better brands of glass when it comes to burn-in resestance, but I have heard they have all come quite a way from the days of easy burn-in.

 

[Project86]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
Don't knock it until you have tried it guys, I game on an ED plasma all the time and it is quite nice. The native resolution on mine is 852x480, but you can run just about whatever you want between 320x240 and 2048x1536 to in though a VGA cable and the difference in resolution is noticable way above the native res. I run most games at 1280x720 at least, if not 1600x900 or 1920x1080; but even 848x480 can look respectable from the couch as long as you can run x4aa. Also note that I have another computer hooked up to a 21" trnintron and I run that at 1600x1200 whenever I can, so it's not like I'm just used to low resolutions.

Oh yeah, as for burn in. I left my Panasonic on desktop overnight once on accedent and it didn't even phase it. It is supposed to be one of the better brands of glass when it comes to burn-in resestance, but I have heard they have all come quite a way from the days of easy burn-in.

Wait, I thought the EDTV rating meant that the max res it is capable of displaying is 852X480... Is it only the VGA input that allows you to run higher res? Or can you run like an HDMI or DVI as well? Either way, it seems strange that it would have a "native resolution" and yet be capable of displaying better. Why the 852X480 limit then?

Sorry I'm a bit clueless about these things, I still run a good old Sony Trinitron 27" CRT.

 

[kylebisme]

Yeah, HDMI, DVI and component are all options that support up to 1920x1080. The native resolution is how many physical pixels the display has, but the electronics in the display are capable of accepting much higher resolutions and down scaling it to fit the pixels on the display, effectively giving a supersampled image.

 

[Project86]

Oh I see, that makes sense. So it never really exceeds the 852X480, but looks better displaying a more detailed source input. That's cool, I think we'll hook it up and see.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Games on my projector at 480p via component with eye candy turned up look quite nice.

I get pretty nice framerates with my 6600gt that way

I've only tried farcry and CS:S actually at that res. The CS:S pics in my sig are actually 720p that was scaled down to 480p.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
Don't knock it until you have tried it guys, I game on an ED plasma all the time and it is quite nice. The native resolution on mine is 852x480, but you can run just about whatever you want between 320x240 and 2048x1536 to in though a VGA cable and the difference in resolution is noticable way above the native res. I run most games at 1280x720 at least, if not 1600x900 or 1920x1080; but even 848x480 can look respectable from the couch as long as you can run x4aa. Also note that I have another computer hooked up to a 21" trnintron and I run that at 1600x1200 whenever I can, so it's not like I'm just used to low resolutions.

Oh yeah, as for burn in. I left my Panasonic on desktop overnight once on accedent and it didn't even phase it. It is supposed to be one of the better brands of glass when it comes to burn-in resestance, but I have heard they have all come quite a way from the days of easy burn-in.

Exactly. I used to think it would look crappy like most people in this thread until I bought my X1 and tried it. Like TheSnowman said, don't knock it until you try it. It looks very very good even at the low resolution of 800x600 which my X1 runs at. My theater computer is similar to yours and has 9700pro and it runs everything perfectly at 800x600 with 4aa/8af. I've played FarCry, Vice City, Half Life 2, and other games and it looks great to me on my 100" screen. My Dreamcast, Gamecube, and PS2 games look great as well at 640x480. Sure it doesn't look crisp and nice as 1600x1200 or 2048x1536 but I'm also sitting like 14ft away looking at 100" screen. Distance and size cover up lot of flaws.