Does the resolution and framerate matter to you as a gamer?

[CloudAtlas]

I wouldn't want to go below 1080p anymore. I'm used to playing on a notebook, with a pretty small screen, but even that had a larger resolution than 720p.

I also want to know if people can actually tell the difference between 720p & 1080p or 30fps & 60fps, because most people know what the resolutions and framerates of games are before they even see them in action so it's not a controlled test. We were told that the PS4 would be 1080p at 60fps and that the XBONE would be 720p at 60fps before we really even saw a game running on either of them. It makes me think that our eyes really can't tell the difference and it's our subconscious telling us that one looks better than the other because of our beforehand knowledge.

Do round edges look not quite perfectly smooth to you on 720p? Can you notice anti-aliasing at work when you pay attention on 720p? Do hi res texture packs improve the look of a game considerably for you (on PC)? If you can answer just one of these questions with yes, then 720p or 1080p makes a difference to you.

Now I'm a PC player myself, and I still find the anti-aliasing pretty noticeable (although admittedly my computer is not powerful enough to use the best techniques) even on 1080p, so even 1080p and 4K would make a difference to me. Which matches the reports from people who were able to already experience 4K first hand.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I have a 1080p monitor, I refuse to run games at less than that as nothing ever looks right on an LCD not running at native resolution.

As for frame rate, I prefer 60, and I do notice when it's lower.

However I'm more interested in a steady smooth frame rate. I'd (reluctantly) take a constant 30fps over 60fps which often dropped to 40 or lower.

 

[Hateren47]

Not really. I am physically incapable of seeing the difference with anything beyond ~40FPS. Everything looks the same to me at that point.

Even if we speed it up a bit?

http://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates&count=2&background=none&pps=720

At this speed it's very clear to me that the 32fps UFO (which is not far from being 40-ish) is only updating it's position on the screen half as often as the other one. It's also blurry and stretched.

But if you are a console gamer (and I assume you are because you linked your Xbox account in your profile)it's gonna be less noticeable when you play, any way. You'll be further from the screen, playing on a display build to display moving images well. Compared to a PC monitor that is right in your face and fundamentally build to display text well.

 

[Fijiman]

So long as the game doesn't look like complete ass and isn't constantly dropping frames I don't really care. Then again I'm still playing games on an old SDTV so what do I know?

 

[Itdoesthatsometimes]

These both matter, to me as a gamer and to the game industry as a whole.

Let me frame it this way. The color printing capabilities and texture of paper, do not make older comics' story less enjoyable. However they do effect the overall enjoyment. Imagine if the industry did not recognize that vibrant colors and paper's texture improved the fan's enjoyment. These things were not all that comics were, but they were improvements.

It all really does come down to what you can afford that gives you the most of what you want. The same to be said for the industry. Everything has a trade off. A bigger map is more of a load on a graphics card. That has it's cost.

The more FPS, higher resolution the better, always. But this must be tempered with it's cost. It's cost to the card, on both your end and the developer's end. And the cost of the card you can afford, be it high-end, low-end, or console.

Acceptance of this cost has it's cost as well, in not striving for more.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Nope I am all about gameplay and less about frame rates,graphics or story.

 

[BarkBarker]

I like a high framerate, but we only enjoy a high framerate because of how likely it syncs up with our eyes. I'd rather create a biometric system that allows us to only have to render 24 frames a second, but they are all synced to you so it looks like eternal bliss. Such a system would make all games a hell of a lot easier to make.

In terms of resolution, give me 720p and I'll be fine, but if its REALLY got some pop to the primary colours I'd rather 1080p. It also depends on what I'm playing as a game that has me up close to walls and floors all the damn time is gonna look a bit off if the high res textures can't be displayed properly. Elsewise it really doesn't affect me, games need to calm their shit on graphics because they are running their budgets into the ground and ruining a few keypoints in genres. I mean honestly, I wouldn't need such a high resolution to see people across the map if the lighting effects, jostling hud and kickback from gunfire wasn't fucking with me. the 7th generation is the generation of fucking radars in shooters and its mostly because I can't see a damn thing.

 

[mindfaQ]

FPS does matter, yes - below 40 FPS is really annoying.
I don't really need max resolution, although it sure can look nicer. But if it is at least 720p+, I'm normally fine with it.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Within reason it really doesn't matter to me as a gamer. This probably stems from the simple fact that when I started playing video games, frame rates were incredibly low. Couple that with the fact that when I first played online games I had to deal with a ping between 250 and 450ms and I find that as long as it stays above 20FPS or so, I'm perfectly fine.

I mean, I can tell the difference between 30 and 60 but I don't actually believe for a moment that it affects how well I can play the game and it's impact on how a game looks is minimal at best. It isn't like most games are animated well enough that the effect of low framerate is even close to the most significant flaw.

 

[Itdoesthatsometimes]

Frame rate drops are not the disease it is a symptom. A symptom of your game play being affected. You maybe well enough with your current set up to adjust to those affects just fine. I suspect that your graphics are not integrated. If they were integrated those affects would be felt more. So, if frame rate does not affect game play, then why do you have a dedicated graphics card?

 

[DSK-]

Depends, really.

# 800x600 @ 120 fps for multiplayer games OR at least 800x600/1024x768 at 70 fps
# 1024x768 @ whatever FPS for other stuff.

 

[direkiller]

depends

if the game has a wacky resluiton and looks weird because of it I tend to get annoyed. A square screen shoved into wide screen for instance.
and if the Frame rate spikes and dips to the point I notice then yes.

Most of the games I play it basically makes no difference, Kerbal space program is not going to looks rougly the same regardless of what res I use, the Game is simply not HD.

There is also some issues with older games where the game speed is tied into the frame rate(because of limited animations), on computers with a thousand times the ram in the GPU alone than what is needed for the game. You can get a very unplayable game if you let the GPU go hog-wiled.
For instance a computer AI in an old C&C game killed me in about 60 seconds due to an unchecked frame rate, but that's probably not the framerate issue you wanted.

there is a difference between 30FPS and 60FPS most who experience it can tell you, the problem is saying its for "artistic" reasons is BULLSHIT, bullshit of the highest order that people will spew so they feel validated in the framrates their systm can pull

Don't know if it counts for style or artistic choice, but there is one exception that I know of to this.
Stick of Truth locked everyone at 30FPS, as because the animations were frame by frame, running at 60 would speed everything up, or just double every frame which is kinda pointless.

but yea differences between PC,xb,PS versions in terms of FPS are not artistic choices, they are hardware restrictions.

 

[Weaver]

Here is the difference between 30 and 60 fps
http://gfycat.com/InbornFrequentJanenschia

I think it's pretty obvious, personally.

 

[Skeleon]

Yeah, although I'd say a fluid frame rate is more important than a high resolution, especially in shooters.
I have video recording software. It's amazing to see the difference between playing without and with recording on and how sluggish the movement gets in some games as the frame rate drops at the push of a button.
50+ fps is what I want. Under 40 fps is where it gets really noticeable.

 

[Calcium]

Yes, I suppose. I'm happy enough playing games at 720p but wouldn't be as happy playing a title capable of such at 240p. And as most others have said, stable framerate for me matters far more than how high the number goes.

It's always kind of... alien to me how some people can get so angry at the difference between 1080p and 720p. There's far worse things in life which I don't get anywhere near as flustered at.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Yes, yes it does.

If a game can't pull off 1080p and 60fps on PC, then it better have a damn good reason.

Everything is just better at those specs.

 

[Total LOLige]

Not really to be honest. 30 FPS is perfectly playable for me but anything lower is pushing it a bit. Since the HDMI on my 26" TV broke, I've been using the VGA output. The TV has a native resolution of 1366x768 and I can honestly say that the difference between it and 1920x1080 isn't hugely noticeable for me. Or maybe I'm not noticing because it's just been so long since I played in 1080 that I forgot what it truly looks like.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say how much the phrase "silky smooth like butter" pisses me off. It doesn't make any sense to me. I also hate it when people say gigs instead of gig or gigabyte.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Yes, of course. Resolution, not so much. 720P is good enough. Framerate is also at the point where 30 or 60 FPS doesn't make a big difference to me. The biggest thing I want is CONSISTENT framerate. I don't want 60 dropping to 50, cause I'll notice it and it bugs me. I don't want 30 dropping to 20 or below, cause that I will really notice. Drives me nuts. Having it stay 100% constant is all I really care about