Better FPS at higher resolution? (a.k.a. computer illiterate poster)

[redeyesandlonghair]

I don't know computers... far as I can tell, there's some sort of magic that makes these things work, so if whatever answer you might have for me could be presented as if you were speaking to a half-witted child, that would probably be the most productive way to proceed.

 

Anyways, I've been fiddling with things lately to try to get Oblivion running more smoothly. Initially, I was kind of impressed with how well my laptop handled this game. Then I started downloading mods, and especially around the time that FCOM came into play, frame rates started dropping dramatically. I tweaked the .ini file, downloaded some performance-lite meshes and textures, and a few "change settings on the fly" type mods. It all worked great, don't we just have the world's best modding community?

 

Then the weirdness began. Up until very recently, I was playing on the lowest resolution, because I thought that that was the best way to get the game to play smoothly. However, a friend asked me to send him a screen shot of a, you could say "off color" mod in action, and so I decided that since I wouldn't really be moving I might as well up the resolution for the shot.

 

So I did. I went from the lowest resolution, to 1366 x 768, which just so happens to be my laptop's native resolution. At first I thought I must be drunk or something, but after checking my breath and verifying that there were no empty booze containers nearby, I realized it was true... the game was running smoother on 1366x768 than it had been on the lowest resolution (640x480 I think?)

 

Now the interesting thing is, this didn't scale along with the resolutions. After installing all those mods I decided to try 1280x720 (or whatever the first widescreen res is) thinking I might as well see if I could get some widescreen action. The game had worse FPS so I abandoned that notion. 800x600 also ran worse than the lowest res.

 

So, anyone know why the game runs smoother at 1366x768? Does it have something to do with that being my laptop's native resolution? Is this even possible? Should I call up my doctor to see if I suddenly had late-onset schizophrenia?

[Jagermh]

Always run things at your computer's native resoloution, thats what its made to do.

Using fullscreen at a different resoloution is like talking to it in mandarin.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Jagermh

[spiritshadowx]

Should I call up my doctor to see if I suddenly had late-onset schizophrenia?

 

No... Maybe your computer has schizophrenia?

[MarkInMKUK]

if you run at the native resolution, oblivion generates the image at 1366 x 768 and it displays with no more work.

 

If you run at a different resolution (say 640 x 480), your graphics chip then has to convert that to the full screen res (which is STILL 1366 x 768), by scaling the image, and calculating partial pixels where it's not an exact scaling match, and adding borders to fill the wide screen, which is extra work so slows stuff down.

 

Also the result of scaling lower res stuff looks horrible.

[redeyesandlonghair]

if you run at the native resolution, oblivion generates the image at 1366 x 768 and it displays with no more work.

 

If you run at a different resolution (say 640 x 480), your graphics chip then has to convert that to the full screen res (which is STILL 1366 x 768), by scaling the image, and calculating partial pixels where it's not an exact scaling match, and adding borders to fill the wide screen, which is extra work so slows stuff down.

 

Also the result of scaling lower res stuff looks horrible.

 

Can't disagree with that last senteance one bit... everything had rough edges on it... that's why I was so pants-fillingly overjoyed when I saw it run better at the native res. Thank you for clearing up the technical aspect in a way that I can understand. :laugh:

[roquefort]

Being stuck with native-resolution is true for flat screens generally. Us old-timers still viewing glass have more options in that respect :laugh:

[Striker879]

Ahh ... the joys of using ALL of the desk for display. I remember those days fondly (and I never ventured past 19").