In the fact that he doesn't realize the option yes, but it is true, I do get better performance windowed.
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Not true, Limited, you must not realize that the native/highest resolution your monitor can go most games and renderers will render the full amount of pixels your screen has.
I don't notice any stretching or jagged edges when I play fullscreen simply because I'm using a resolution that uses my entire pixel space. If you are running at 800x600 then you will notice stretching when it is pulled over a larger pixel space. Increase your resolution when you go fullscreen.
I use 1280 x 720, and I do play windowed due to the artistic atmosphere I stick to. Whenever I use fullscreen I am sure to change the resolution accordingly. The workspace of mine is basically for comparison and a note taking that adapts over to my actual gameplay. lol, I'll usually be working in 3ds max, photoshop, or whatever else even when I'm playing a game.
Since my desktop resolution is set to 1280 x 1024, yep gay ol' 15 inch CRT monitor, the 1280 x 720 appears to be crystal clear.
Performance doesnt just mean how many FPS, it means overall look of the game. Speed is indeed part of it though.
Like you said "increase your resolution when you go fullscreen", that DECREASES my performance, therefore the counter of it, if I go smaller screen and windowed I get better performance :)
I realise it renders at max screensize and then shrinks to the game setting size, this is why it looks better at 800 x 600 in windowed mode rather than fullscreen.
Well, Limited, I guess each person's hardware set is the deciding factor upon performance.
I myself at whatever resolution I've tested have no decree in performance.
I perfer quality and playability with games, so finding a game that is smooth and pretty at the same time sometimes is quite a catch. Especially with the growing hardware needs. But that's just me, I guess.
Playing in windowed mode makes the game go slower for me. I'm weird.
playing in window has no effect whatsoever on the performance for me, except that the game obviously looks a bit better since I'm playing 1024 x 768 on a 1280 x 1024 monitor
Playing in a window means that the jaggies are not so obvious as when zoomed to fill the screen. Nvidia cards let you maintain the aspect ratio when stretching the game (meaning that black bars will display on the sides when you play a fullscreen game on a widescreen display), but it looks clearer when windowed.
I play FEAR at 1024x768 on highest with 2x AA in windowed, get 40-70 fps throughout. Although most of games can run comfortably at native res, the newer titles have to be windowed.
I think that for some games, windowed mode slightly reduces performance since the whole desktop is rendered at the same time.