Blurry image when playing at 768p on a Full HD monitor

Hi,

I'm planning to pick up a Dell XPS 15 with a GTX 850M 2GB graphics card, and I want to hook up a Dell Samsung Galaxy S21 monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution for gaming. I have two specific questions regarding how this will play out:

1. If I'm playing something like Call of Duty at 1600x900 or 1366x768, while the native resolution of my 23" monitor is 1920x1080,
how bad is the upscaling? I've read quite a bit about image blurring, and I'm wondering if it’s just a minor annoyance or if it'll be an eyesore that makes gaming uncomfortable.
I used to play on CRT monitors where resolution mismatches weren't really an issue, but I haven't dealt with this on LCDs before, so I can't quite gauge what to expect...

2. What's the best way to connect this monitor to the laptop? (Trying to be practical here, since the monitor seems to lack HDMI and only has VGA and DVI inputs.)
When this monitor was paired with a desktop, it used a DVI cable along with a USB connection per the manual, though I don't really get why a parallel USB connection is necessary if it's already running through DVI.

If this is more of a hardware discussion, feel free to move this thread, though I suspect seasoned gamers might have better insight into that first question...

Thanks in advance for the help.

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Maybe this belongs in a different section altogether... hardware? software? ...? 🙂

Regarding your second question—since I can see both that laptop and the monitor feature a DisplayPort, you’re definitely better off just using that to connect them.
That parallel USB connection was likely intended for linking those USB hubs built into your monitor, because neither DVI nor VGA can handle that kind of data transfer—it isn't needed for the video signal itself.
As for your first question, I’m not entirely sure I follow your train of thought there. Why would you even want to play at a lower resolution than the maximum that your monitor is actually capable of supporting?

Jonathan Mendoza17 said:Regarding your second question, both the laptop and the monitor have DisplayPort, so that’s definitely your best bet for a connection.
That parallel USB connection was likely just meant for using the USB hubs built into the monitor; neither DVI nor VGA can handle that. You don't need it for video signal.
I didn't quite catch your first point, though. Why would you want to play at a lower resolution than what the monitor actually supports?

Good call, it’s probably for those USB ports since the monitor has about two of them.
Thanks for clarifying the DisplayPort thing—so that’s a better option than using a VGA to HDMI converter and then running through HDMI?

I'd drop the resolution for heavy titles that struggle at Full HD. Older games might be fine, but Call of Duty 4 certainly wouldn't cut it. Most modern games would probably face the same issue...

Exactly—you aren't going to be running any of the latest titles at Full HD resolution because that card just isn't built for gaming. Besides, laptop GPUs and desktop graphics cards are two completely different animals (just so you know). If this is actually the laptop you're looking to pick up, check this out:

I noticed the video memory on the graphics card is running at DDR3 speeds, which isn't great. It really should have been at least DDR5 speeds if they wanted things to feel smooth and fast.
My personal take? I wouldn't buy this laptop if your main plan is to spend most of your time hooked up to an external monitor just to play games.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Exactly, you won't be playing any recent titles at Full HD because that card just isn't built for gaming. Besides, laptop GPUs and desktop ones aren't even in the same league (just so you know). If that's really the laptop you're looking to buy http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/example_link

I see the video memory on the graphics card is running at DDR3 speeds, which is pretty bad. If it had at least DDR5 speeds, things would be much better and faster.
My personal take: I wouldn't buy that laptop if your main plan is to spend most of your time hooked up to an external monitor just to play games.

On the contrary, the 850m is actually a solid card for gaming. Just not for Full HD. I definitely agree with you though—if you're buying a laptop specifically to plug it into an external monitor for gaming, then no, don't do it. But the 850m is more than decent for gaming, provided you use a lower resolution, of course. That said, the difference between the DDR3 and DDR5 versions isn't even that huge in this specific case. 🙂

Joshua Cook8 said:Hey there,

I'm looking at picking up a Dell XPS 15 with a GTX 850M 2GB card, and I want to hook it up to a Dell U2312HM monitor at 1920x1080 for gaming. I have two specific questions regarding gameplay:

1. I'd be playing stuff like Call of Duty at maybe 1600x900 or 1366x768, even though the native resolution of my 23" monitor is 1920x1080.
Since I've read a lot about upscaling and things getting blurry, can anyone tell me if that blurriness is just minor, or if it looks terrible and strains the eyes?
I used to play on old CRT monitors where resolution wasn't an issue, but I've never dealt with this on an LCD, so I don't know what to expect...

2. What's the best way to connect this monitor to the laptop? (Trying to be smart here—the monitor doesn't have HDMI, just VGA and DVI inputs).
It was connected to a desktop via DVI and USB per the manual, though I don't get why you'd need a parallel USB connection if you're already using DVI.

If this belongs in the hardware section, feel free to move it, but I figured experienced gamers might have better answers for that first question...

Thanks in advance.

I don't see the point in buying a $600$0.00 laptop just to plug it into a monitor for gaming.

If you already own a monitor, for that same $2000 you could build a total beast that would run games at 1080p on high or ultra settings.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Exactly. You aren't going to be running any modern titles at Full HD because that card isn't built for gaming. Besides, just so you know, mobile GPUs and desktop GPUs are different beasts entirely. If that's actually the laptop you're looking at, check this out: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/example_link...products_id=11802

I noticed the video memory on the graphics card uses DDR3 speeds, which isn't great. It would be much better if it had at least DDR5 speeds to make things smoother and faster.
My take: I wouldn't pick up that laptop if your main goal is plugging into an external monitor to play games.

That’s the machine, but I'm not buying it strictly for gaming. I want an all-rounder—something reliable for the long haul—that can still handle a few casual titles here and there, especially while it's still "brand new."
I'm planning to play some Madden NFL 2, 3, and 4, and down the road, if I have the time, I might just grab a console instead...

Is that GPU decent enough to run things at a lower resolution?
Also, what's the deal with the image blurring?

I might not be much help here—at my job, we have a few workstations where we have to drop the native Full HD resolution (1920x1080) down to a lower setting with the same aspect ratio. In macOS and basically all the supporting apps, there’s definitely some blurring—which personally really bugs me—but the users don't seem to care since they can just "use larger fonts and won't need their glasses." At home, when I launch games for the first time on my own monitor, the resolution is usually way lower than native (mine is 1680x1050, but it often defaults to 1280x800 on the first run). There's always some blurring there too, though it seems to vary depending on the game. I've noticed it's more noticeable in certain titles. So, I guess you'll definitely deal with some blur, but the real question is just how bad it's going to look.

CRT monitors used to have a whole different set of issues when it came to picture display—back then, if you changed the resolution or the refresh rate, you could actually fiddle with the geometry settings right on the monitor itself just to get the image to sit perfectly edge-to-edge. Those manual controls still exist on LCD monitors today, but people hardly ever touch them anymore—usually, everyone just hits an "auto-set" button and lets the screen handle the alignment itself.

You’ve been more helpful than anyone else so far 😬 and honestly, you just proved my point from the forums: nobody can actually know anything unless they’ve tested a specific setup in a specific game, since the whole thing depends on so many different variables...

That’s essentially just what resolution means—the higher it goes, the sharper and more detailed the picture becomes. I remember playing Call of Duty back in the day, and at lower resolutions, everything looks incredibly blurry because there simply aren't enough pixels to define the image. Personally, I never found that game particularly engaging, though I realize that's entirely subjective and everyone has their own taste.

Try running some tests using the games you currently have; compare how they look at your maximum resolution versus a lower one.

So, let me get this straight: you have a laptop with a 15" screen at 1920x1080, paired with a 23" external monitor that shares that exact same resolution, and your brilliant plan is to actually lower the resolution on the larger screen? And now you're wondering how the game is going to look? Well, it’s pretty simple... it’s going to look terrible. 😁 That said, I can tell you from experience that it won't be quite as disastrous as if you were messing with the aspect ratio—say, trying to force a 16:10 image onto a 16:9 monitor while simultaneously dropping the resolution. And of course, everything is going to look incredibly blurry if you downscale from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 and then try to upscale it; effectively, every single pixel becomes 1.2 times larger, leaving you with a jagged, blocky mess that looks like you've completely disabled anti-aliasing. If you drop it any further, you might as well just turn the whole thing into Minecraft.

Beyond that, looking at the graphics card you mentioned, Call of Duty 4 is averaging about 27 frames per second at 1920x1080 on high settings... if you just kill off a few of those demanding graphical options by switching to medium or low, you should be able to play without any real trouble.

Thanks for the feedback; I appreciate everyone weighing in.
I’m a little disappointed that we haven't heard from any serious players yet.
That said, my own schedule doesn't exactly leave much room for professional-level play, so I just hope this meets expectations. At my age, gaming shouldn't really be the deciding factor anyway 😛