Will using lower resolution monitor increase performance on laptop?

[Kyle Lewis 97]

My laptop is built in with i7 processor and GTX 960M, with 1080p display. But most of the games nowadays can't even reached 60fps on lowest settings or they just looks really bad (no shadows etc.) So I'm play most of the game on 900p resolution but it really looks blurry.

Now I'm considering to buy a 1600x900 or 1366x768 resolution monitor in 18.5 inches and connect it to my laptop display for games. Do you guys think that it'll work? Will it look less blur?

 

[Kenton82]

First of all, no. The monitor will not increase the performance of your laptop. The monitor will only show the signal it is fed from the graphics card. Are you sure your resolution is set on the correct settings in display settings? And also, are you sure that your laptop's screen is not going wrong, as you mention it going 'blurry' ?
Hope some of this may help you.
K.

 

[Kyle Lewis 97]

First of all, no. The monitor will not increase the performance of your laptop. The monitor will only show the signal it is fed from the graphics card. Are you sure your resolution is set on the correct settings in display settings? And also, are you sure that your laptop's screen is not going wrong, as you mention it going 'blurry' ?
Hope some of this may help you.
K.

What I mean is my laptop cannot run most of the games at 60fps in 1080p and I always run games at 900p and 720p, which will boost a lot of fps in my games but it looks blur on 1080p display. So will it looks better in 720p monitor than 1080p display when I set my in-game resolution to 720p?

 

[Kenton82]

Well if you are sure that your laptop screen is working correctly, then the external monitor should technically look no different than what is displayed on your laptop screen, no matter what the resolution. Lowering the resolution in-game will naturally up the FPS in the game, but which display you are using is irrelevant. Sounds like a classic case of just lowering your resolution in-game to achieve a smoother game play. Some games are more cpu dependent, and others require less, but are very gpu hungry. What are the specs of your laptop? Can you post them here?
K

 

[Kyle Lewis 97]

I mean 720p in game resolution for 1080p built in display looks blur, will the external 18.5" monitor with max resolution of 720p looks sharper with 720p in game settings compared to 720p in game settings in 1080p 17" display? I'll change the display to the external one of course.

 

[Kenton82]

I doubt it, 720p is 720p, whatever way you look at it.... Is this motion blur you are talking about btw? If it is, you should be able to turn the motion blur down in the settings in the game?

 

[Kyle Lewis 97]

Let me put it like this: max resolution 1080p 17" display play 720p game VS max resolution 720p 18.5" monitor play 720p game

Sure there's a difference right?

 

[Kenton82]

If you set the resolution to 720p in game, and in windows/gpu settings, you will get 720p on any display connected, weather it is a 720p panel, or a 1080p panel. What you put into it from the gpu, you will get on the screen. unless it is a newer panel that can upscale somehow. 720p out - 720p on the screen.

 

[Kyle Lewis 97]

Since you don't even understand my question then I gave up

 

[Kenton82]

I clearly did not understand you, sorry i tried!...

 

[TJ Hooker]

@Kenton82 running at (lower) non-native resolution tends to negatively affect image quality. The display will try to interpolate the missing pixels, but it can't do a perfect job, so it may result in some blurriness depending on how good the interpolation method is and how well the lower resolution scales to the native resolution of the monitor. So 720p on a 1080p screen can look worse than 720p on a 720p screen.

@Kyle Lewis 97
You can try disabling display scaling (should be a setting called something like that in Geforce settings). This will cause lower resolutions to have black bars around the edges of the screen rather than stretching the image to fit the display. Not exactly an ideal solution though...

Regarding an external monitor, I can't really say how much it would reduce blurriness. Hard to say how much of the blurriness comes from stretching the image, and how much is just a result of lowering resolution while maintaining the same screen size (thereby lowering pixel density). Given that the monitor you buy will likely be larger than your laptop display, it's possible it could look worse because it would have even lower pixel density.