Gaming at 2560x1440

[Gruxxar]

vs standard 1080p, how many fps am I losing? By what % does performance go down?
I know this is heavily dependent on the system, but assume my Nvidia 670 2gig card with an i7 3930k 6 core processor.

Is it worth the dropped frame rates?

 

[okuutheyatagarasu]

It really depends on the game but I really think it's more important to judge with your eyes rather than by pure numbers. You can test how your system will perform at that resolution by downsampling (which is to render the game at a higher resolution then downsize it to your native resolution). You won't be getting a smooth 60 FPS a lot of the time in newer games but a smooth 30 FPS most of the time is more reasonable. As for me, I love 60 FPS but anything above 24 FPS (the framerate movie and TV plays at) is acceptable for me. I game at that resolution and I have a GTX 580 (1.5GB) and an i7-2600 (4 cores) AND I always enable 4xAA+4xTRSSAA (for most games) or 4xAA+4xSGSSAA (for mainly UE3 games) depending on the game and get playable framerates. I will wager that if you don't care about AA, then perhaps you can get 60 FPS a lot of the time at that resolution with no AA, but I'm only guessing. I don't play Metro 2033 but I would wager that that's probably the one game that you'd have a problem with and maybe BF3 (which I also don't play) assuming you're one who likes to crank everything up (like me). Other than that though, you should really have no problem considering you have better hardware than me. Just remember that you won't get 60 FPS all that often (or at least as often as @ 1080p) and that there will ALWAYS be stickler games like Metro 2033 and such so if that bothers you and/or if you're one of those people who HAVE to have a constant 60 FPS all the time, then you should reconsider gaming at that resolution or reconsider cranking everything up.

Word of friendly advice though; don't get too caught up in numbers. Many times, people will pass something up just because the numbers aren't to their liking and then pass up a great opportunity or experience. Do your own testing and trust your own eyes and don't gauge performance based on a game you don't play or don't play it nearly as often enough to have it be a major deciding factor. Believe it or not, some people will pass up gaming at high resolutions or pass up a good card because one game didn't perform great on it (ie Metro 2033) but they don't even own the game or they never even play it. Judge based on the games that you play most often because that's what you're going to be seeing most often. Being a performance nazi can more often hinder rather than help you when it comes to gaming because it often leads to (for example) 'if it's not a smooth 60 FPS then I won't play it!' and then you miss out a lot of cool games or the awesome experience of high resolution gaming.

My 2 cents, anyway. Take it however you will. Hope it helped though. =)

 

[jaguarskx]

For graphic intensive games like Metro 2033, Crysis, Battlefield 3, etc. you will probably see on average a 40% - 45% decrease in frame rates.

For less graphic intensive games like Diablo3, Civilization V and Star Craft 2, it might only be around 30%.

See following review for the GTX 670. Compare performance between 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 to get a rough estimate.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_670_Amp_Edition/

 

[Gruxxar]

Best answer selected by Gruxxar.