Is 720P Gaming still alive?

[Loote]

I think I might go back to playing 720p. I recently went from i5-3350p(4x3.1GHz) to R5 3600(6/12x4.35GHz), I though my R7 260X was the bottleneck, but Doom 2016 was stuttering like crazy even on low settings and after changing CPU it's perfectly playable, making me think I can probably run most modern games on very low resolution and settings.
I am waiting for a GPU with AV-1 decoder that's available for no more than $400, so it'll probably take some time.

[8tg]

If you’re on a restrained older system you can get away with a LOT by dropping resolution hard.

I’m talking like GTA V is playable without too many other compromises on an 8800GT in 720p. 7 year gpu gap for a AAA game, in comparison that’s like the GTX 770 getting good results in Cyberpunk 2077.

 

I for one have a thinkpad X220 as my main machine, HD3000 with a 2nd gen mobile i5 in 1366x768. And it’s the primary reason I’ve held back on the 1080p display mod because a lot of games actually run on that hot garbage at native and are smooth and playable. Skyrim, TF2, Insurgency, Minecraft, just to name a few. And it looks ok for what it is, on a small display, Skyrim in 1366x768 all low with some render distance options pushed up a bit gets a solid 40-50fps on average and looks better than the Xbox 360 at the very least. Insurgency is about the same idea, Minecraft sits at 10 chunk render distance with fancy lighting and such and it’s smooth.

And I’m sure a lot of other people do the same and it’s probably why there’s so many people still gaming at 720/768p, old laptops are cheap and play old games fine.

[Mark Kaine]

Honestly if it's 720p native or at least close enough it's not too bad especially on smaller displays,  but for example 720 upscaled to a 27 inch 1080p monitor just looks awful (i can't stand upscaling/ dynamic resolution anyways, dlss might be good though haven't tested it enough to judge)

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to PC Gaming

[MadAnt250]

20 hours ago, The_russian said:

here they are for February 2021:

No stats for 1600 x 1200 resolution?  I do feel left out.

[Chiyawa]

I still run some games on 720p, even if I have 1080p monitor, not because my GPU doesn't have enough juice (using Vega 64), just that it gives me better fps. I usually opt for quality than performance, so I have to sacrifice the resolution if I crank up anti aliasing and quality of the graphics.

[Chiyawa]

3 hours ago, MadAnt250 said:

No stats for 1600 x 1200 resolution?  I do feel left out.

Yeah, 1600x1200 is non-standard resolution. Far worse, it is a rarity. I haven't seen a monitor with that resolution in my life. I knew they exist, but never seen one myself.

[MadAnt250]

19 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

Yeah, 1600x1200 is non-standard resolution. Far worse, it is a rarity. I haven't seen a monitor with that resolution in my life. I knew they exist, but never seen one myself.

I guess I am one of the lucky few.

[KrunchiZ]

If I wanted visual fidelity without sacrificing fps that much and to give my hardware easier time, 720p why not. I have no prob playing in windowed 720p on my 1080p 60Hz screen. Have not tried fullscreen upscaling though.

[GamerDude]

On 3/16/2021 at 5:06 AM, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Like his system will last him longer playing @1080 than @4k

Exactly! My main rig is in my sig, and the monitor I have is exactly half 4K (3840x1080), and although my GPU can handle 4K, at exactly half that, my GPU should last me a longer time since I can probably still max out rasterized games a year to two down the road.

[Giganthrax]

I had a 1366x768 res TV up until a year or so ago. It was perfectly serviceable. The only reason I switched to 1080p was because I wanted a (physically) larger screen.

 

My laptop is 720p as well. I watch movies and occasionally work on it. I don't really notice much difference in colors and image sharpness unless I put it right next to my monitor. 

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/16/2021 at 9:49 AM, Murasaki said:

Been on 1080p for awhile. I did get a 1440p monitor once and sold it a few months later. 1080p is enough for me and don't see myself going higher resolution even 10 years later! 

Lol, i got a 1440p monitor too and I hate it! Especially because the "gsync" refuses to work properly but i already didnt like it before, am now playing on my pretty old Asus MX279 again and I love it, especially the colors, but also everything else tbh, kinda suspected this before, 1440p  "downsampled" looks much better on a 1080p screen than native, less jaggies and stuff, it looks just smoother!

Now idk what to do with this 1440p monitor, probably RMA and then sell it, i simply dont want it…

 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Necro but i’d say not really at this point. 1080p is so achievable now that I think there’s no reason to play 720p unless you’re playing on quite literally a toaster

[Gagz9k]

There are this Nintendo Switch-look-a-likes, that are basically a handheld PC. That, paired with a nice 720p display I'd argue in favor of even a 1080p. Less demanding screen, better quality of the panel and more power to run the actual game.

 

So, IMO, for certain applications, specially on mobile PC gaming? Absolutely.

[YoungBlade]

I've technically never gamed at 720p. The lowest resolution I've used for gaming in the last 12 years was 1280x800 on my old Gateway T-6330U with the iGPU on a Pentium Dual-Core T3200. Before that, I was on an HP Compaq NC4000 with a 1.5GHz Pentium M. That one had a 1024x768 screen, which is also the resolution that my family's Me and XP desktops used.

 

The last time I gamed with a vertical resolution below 720 would've been around 2001 on my family's Gateway P5-200 running Windows 95. It could only handle the Sims in 800x600 resolution, not 1024x768, so that was how I played it on that machine. I think Shockwave Assault might have also capped out at 800x600 resolution.