Better Performance using 1080p over 1400X900?

[aidy1972]

Hi, I'm at a bit of a confused state here.

The monitor I use regularly is a 19" widescreen with a 1400x900 native resolution.

The main game I play is Star Trek Online. I'm currently borrowing my friend's 24" Full HD screen and running at 1920X1080.

Here's the bit that's confusing me;

The game runs better at the higher resolution?! On the smaller screen, there's areas in the game that the graphics card does struggle with, nothing game-breaking but you can see a slight murmur from time to time. I do not get this at the high res, I'm even been able to play it with all the settings to max which I will have to lower slightly once I give the screen back.

My PC is getting on a bit now, using windows 8.1 64 bit with 8gig of RAM and an AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core @ 2.5GHz with a GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics card.

Currently using THIS motherboard and I can still go a bit further upgrade wise. I think I'll double the memory and get the highest available processor before considering an all new build.

But, back to original reason for posting, is this something normal or would it be game specific?

 

[mace200200]

There's zero need for you to go to 16gb memory for gaming, especially since the card and CPU you're using now is on the lower end. On AM2 socket there aren't really any higher CPU's you can get, the one you have now shouldn't be doing to bad with your 550 ti anyway. I'd look at getting a new board, cpu, and memory next.
As for the game, I've never played it, I don't know how demanding it is but maybe your plugging you normal monitor into your board which would mean your running the on-board graphics, and then you plug your friends into your actual GPU which then uses your GPU instead.

 

[ihog]

When you had the 1400x900 screen, did you have Windows 7 installed?

 

[aidy1972]

There's zero need for you to go to 16gb memory for gaming, especially since the card and CPU you're using now is on the lower end. On AM2 socket there aren't really any higher CPU's you can get, the one you have now shouldn't be doing to bad with your 550 ti anyway. I'd look at getting a new board, cpu, and memory next.
As for the game, I've never played it, I don't know how demanding it is but maybe your plugging you normal monitor into your board which would mean your running the on-board graphics, and then you plug your friends into your actual GPU which then uses your GPU instead.

I can actually go up to a Phenom II X6 @ 3200MHz on this current board, (It's actauly AM2+/AM2 with AM3 CPU ready after a BIOS upgrade, which is done) and once that's in I'm able to upgrade memory from current DDR2 800 to DDR2 1066. I intend to go as far as this board will allow me to, I've had it years now and it's never let me down... I'm sure the aforementioned future upgrades will give me a significant performance boost at minimal cost in comparison to a complete overhaul

As for where it's plugged in, it's always from the Graphics Card - both screens.

 

[aidy1972]

When you had the 1400x900 screen, did you have Windows 7 installed?

I still have the 1400x900 screen, this HD one is only here for a week and will be going back to it. So to answer your question; No, not where this question is concerned. I've used 7 64bit in the past but I found it worse than when I was using Vista 32bit!!

I would have never thought I would have said it after looking at the beta of Win 8, but it's made a massive difference performance wise on my PC that's for certain. Very happy with it. <waits for incoming "boos" and "hisses">

 

[mace200200]

oh yea so it does, my old AM2+ board was like that too and I ran a Phenom II 945 in it for a long time. A lot of AM3 CPU's use 125w so make sure your board doesn't have just a 95w TDP. I looked briefly at the link you gave us and didn't see anything about it's power.

 

[aidy1972]

oh yea so it does, my old AM2+ board was like that too and I ran a Phenom II 945 in it for a long time. A lot of AM3 CPU's use 125w so make sure your board doesn't have just a 95w TDP. I looked briefly at the link you gave us and didn't see anything about it's power.

Looking in the CPU support list, it would appear it supports 95's and 125w CPUs Nice to know after around 7 years it's still got a bit of grunt potential in it!

 

[mace200200]

Yea then I would see if you could find a Phenom II 965, those chips are still fast enough to run most single GPU setups, and then some more when you OC.