Does running a LCD at lower than the native resolution affect picture.

[urouboros]

I am particularly interested if this has any effect on games.I've heard of friends with LCD lowering their resolution while gaming since the graphics card is unable to completely handle the load from such a high resolution.
Is this viable at all or am I being lied to? 😀

 

[strangestranger]

The picture will look worse if run at a non native resolution unless 1:1 pixel scaling is used but then the picture will also be smaller and have black borders.

How bad the image will look depends on the person and the game being played.

 

[jaguarskx]

You will loose some visual clarity because images will not look as sharp at less than native (or max) resolution. This is due to the process called interpolation which tries to place pixels in the most appropriate place to display the image.

The following is an example of "less than native resolution" interpolation for the BenQ G2400WT in games:

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2009/review-benq-g2400wt-part10.html#Games

Native Resolution of 1920 x 1200:

1680 x 1050

1440 x 900

1280 x 800