Refresh rates, resolutions, Xbox360 and PC

[spastic-nutcase]

Hi Guys,

I am having trouble figuring out optimal display settings for my PC.

40" Samsung LCD 1080p
I am using a HDMI cable
GTX 560 TI SLI overclocked.
Windows 7

The selections i have in NVidia control panel when i click change resolutions: (only including the relevant resolutions)

HDTV:

1080i, 1920 X 1080 30hz
720p, 1280 X 720 59hz

PC:
1360 X 768 (Native) 60 hz

From my knowledge:

1080p60Hz does not work. it reverts to 1080i30Hz
I am mainly concerned with gaming.

If i was to use 1080i i would be limited to 30hz and 30 FPS?!

If the above coment is true then the native 1360 X 768 @60hz seems more appealing.

My Xbox 360 has been running at 1080i this whole time. does this mean its been limited to 30hz and therefore 30 FPS?!
Because i have the option for 720p which im assuming would be 60hz and then 60 FPS.

After building this gaming PC (I am a heavy Xbox 360 gamer, add me: 'SPASTIC NUTCASE')

and coming to the above conclusions, a monitor/TV upgrade is being considered here.

I know some might say i should go with a 30" with a higher resolution, but the 40" gives me the "Home Theatre" effect that i desire.

Can some one help please im really confused. I just want a really good immersive gaming experience for both my xbox and PC

 

[Supernova1138]

Refresh rate won't make a difference with the XBox, most games on that system run at approximately 30 FPS due to the age of the hardware. Having the 60hz refresh rate will not give you improved performance except for maybe some of the really old games on that console.

720p is also the resolution most XBox games will run at, as the framerate would get unacceptably low if it tried to render games in 1080p natively. Anything higher than 720p is simply stretched to fill the higher resolution with the console.

As for which option, for the Xbox on the TV, choose whichever option gives you the best picture quality, the refresh rate is irrelevant. If you want to use the PC though, I would recommend you use the lower resolution with the higher refresh rate, as that would take better advantage of your graphics hardware. You could also turn Vsync off for your games on PC, but you'd almost certainly get a lot of screen tearing at a refresh rate of 30hz.

 

[yyk71200]

Consoles (including PS3, XBOX 360) typically render scenes at a certain resolution and then scale frames to the display resolution. Here is a list of many games' native resolutions: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46241

Now, GTX 560 TI SLI should rock through any of the resolutions you have written so you can set games at these resolutions. Your setup can most certainly deliver frame rates higher than 30 even on the highest resolution you have. However, your display will still be limited to their refresh rates. If you enable V-Sync, graphic cards will wait for the refresh rate and match rendered frames to it. This will prevent tearing effect which usually occurs when frame rate exceeds refresh rate. If you are OK with 30 Hz refresh rate of the monitor, use it and enable V-Sync. You still can have V-Sync disabled, so 560 Tis will produce higher framerate, but you still will see 30 Hz of your display refresh rate with tearing.

 

[spastic-nutcase]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your input.

As for the XBox 360, im fine with the way it is at the moment.
I have it set to 1080i (Which i've found out is the maximum for the TV. Someone at Bing Lee has some explaining to do since they sold me it as a 1080p full HD TV)

But with the whole PC situation, ive loaded up crysis with every setting set to very high, and the maximum 8x AA with resolution set to 1360 X 768 @60hz.
and the framerate never drops below 45 FPS.

The thing is, im only using one of the GTX 560's because the other one is being RMAed back to where i bought it from since its faulty.

I guess what im getting at is, if i've maxed out all the settings at this resolution and maintained a good framerate with one video card,
installing the second is not going to afford me anything extra? The only way for me to get the most out of my hardware is to increase my resolution, which i cant do on this LCD TV.

Is the above correct? If so i may need to upgrade

 

[Supernova1138]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your input.

As for the XBox 360, im fine with the way it is at the moment.
I have it set to 1080i (Which i've found out is the maximum for the TV. Someone at Bing Lee has some explaining to do since they sold me it as a 1080p full HD TV)

But with the whole PC situation, ive loaded up crysis with every setting set to very high, and the maximum 8x AA with resolution set to 1360 X 768 @60hz.
and the framerate never drops below 45 FPS.

The thing is, im only using one of the GTX 560's because the other one is being RMAed back to where i bought it from since its faulty.

I guess what im getting at is, if i've maxed out all the settings at this resolution and maintained a good framerate with one video card,
installing the second is not going to afford me anything extra? The only way for me to get the most out of my hardware is to increase my resolution, which i cant do on this LCD TV.

Is the above correct? If so i may need to upgrade

Yes. two 560s in SLI is definitely overkill for 1360 x 768, to get the most out of that setup 1920x1080 at 60hz would be the absolute minimum resolution I'd recommend. Hell, the two 560s could probably handle 2560x1600 fairly well for most games. A better display is certainly in order for that setup.