TV as laptop monitor

[Marute]

Hi guys. I'm planning on connecting my laptop to a tv as a bigger monitor when I'm gaming and not watching tv (I don't really have room for two monitors and need a new tv, thinking about 22" to 25", but I'm not quite sure yet).

My laptop is a 15,6" 1366x768, Nvidia Geforce GT630M, Intel i5-2450M 2.5GHz (hyper threading + turbo boost to 3.0GHz), 4GB ram and supports HDMI and VGA (no DVI support). At the moment I mostly play Diablo 3 which runs at between 50 and 70 fps on highest settings.

Now, what I'd like to do is have the tv run in full HD 1920x1080 while being connected to the computer. So should I use the HDMI or VGA connection to achieve this? Will the sound come from the tv speakers or my computer speakers?

I know some members will claim that any game is unplayable unless you have SLI 600-series Nvidia desktop cards, but based on my own experience I disagree with this. :thumb: So what I'd like to ask is what kind of performance loss I can expect from running on a bigger screen with a higher resolution with my laptop?

Thanks guys, your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[dandelioneater]

You won't know how performance will be until you try it, but you may have to drop your settings in diablo 3 because going up to 1080p is double the number of pixels compared to 1366x768 - May have to set tv to 720p to play.:sad:
For hooking up to the tv, use HDMI and you will have video and sound and everything (not sure if you have to set the sound output through hdmi or if will autodetect.)

 

[Marute]

I see. But can the performance drop really be that serious?

Which is better to connect with? HDMI or VGA? What will the difference be?

 

[NI3]

It depends entirely on the performance of your system if the drop will be that serious. You do have double the amount of pixels on screen, meaning more to calculate, meaning harder to run.

As for VGA vs HDMI, I would go HDMI. If both your TV, and laptop can do sound over HDMI then it will output the sound on the TV. Pretty much all laptops and TVs made in the last 4-5 years do sound over HDMI. VGA would need you to run a speaker cable for sound on the TV.

 

[Dzzope]

Performance can take a big hit.. in some cases you could half or less your current fps...
It should be playable but either you'll have to drop the settings a little or live with it being less smooth or as said above just play in 720p.

As for the cable.. as said in both replies.. use HDMI..
If the TV doesn't produce the audio, right-click the speaker in your system tray, playback device, Select the HDMI option available (may be described as HD audio on nvidia something or the other)

 

[YukonTrooper]

You'll take a big performance hit if you output at 1080p. Having said that, if performance is hurting big time and lowering image-quality settings doesn't help that much, you can always output at a lower resolution and let the TV scale the image.

As for HDMI or VGA, definitely HDMI. Audio should automatically play through your TV's speakers, as long as you have the proper drivers installed and the settings are correct. If you use standalone speakers, you can pass-through the audio-feed to your receiver from the TV.

 

[Marute]

Cool, thanks a ton guys!

So just to be completely clear, what you are saying is that it should be completely possible to run the tv on 1920x1080 using HDMI even though the laptop screen is normally only 1366x768?

The reason I ask so thoroughly is because when I try it with my brothers pc and tv the screen flickers and shimmers, but perhaps something is wrong with the cable?

 

[Dzzope]

You will want to plug it in then set the right resolution once the screen has been detected.
Make sure your setting the resolution and refresh rate correctly for the screen otherwise it will glitch.

 

[YukonTrooper]

Cool, thanks a ton guys!

So just to be completely clear, what you are saying is that it should be completely possible to run the tv on 1920x1080 using HDMI even though the laptop screen is normally only 1366x768?

The reason I ask so thoroughly is because when I try it with my brothers pc and tv the screen flickers and shimmers, but perhaps something is wrong with the cable?

Not it should be. It is possible.

Something could be wrong with the cable, but more likely a setting is wrong somewhere. Sometimes there are incompatibility issues between components, but there's almost always a quick fix for those scenarios.