Counting pixels: GTA IV runs at 640p
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Apr 29th 2008 at 9:45AM }
Pixel hunters were enraged when it was discovered Halo 3 ran at a lower resolution on Xbox 360 than advertised. However, should people stay away from the PS3 version? Probably not. Many Beyond 3D users note that in spite of the lesser resolution, the superior effects of the PS3 version gives it the visual edge: "the PS3 version looks nicer IMO. Everything just blends in nicely and makes a seamless contrast between front objects and background objects," noted forum user Nebula.
[Thanks, ClarkyCat!]
[Update: PS3 runs at 640p. Xbox 360 does run at a higher resolution: 720p.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dspidey7 @ Apr 29th 2008 9:50AM
I'm wondering how many pixels does the 360 versionhave.
Ves @ Apr 29th 2008 10:23AM
According to some it runs at 720
Robert @ Apr 29th 2008 11:09AM
360 version runs at 720p.
It should be noted that the b3d has mostly concluded that the ps3 version is graphically superior.
The majority of reviews have come to the same conclusion.
Otsego_Undead @ Apr 29th 2008 12:17PM
Just because the TV displays 720p doesnt mean the actual pixel count is 720. It makes no sense that the PS3 version would have less pixels than the 360, since its the 360 that is at a disadvantage with shisty DVD drive... HALO 3 is prime example.
Zeus.:God @ Apr 29th 2008 4:25PM
Otsego_Undead?
Somebody likes Static-X...
Anyway, no, the 360 is not at any real disadvantage. After playing the game for a few hours, I must say that I have not witnessed any pop-up or framerate issues.
I can't say anything about graphics comparison, but the 360 version looks great. If the PS3 version looks slightly better- good for you. Glad to see that the PS3 version might have the upper hand for once.
However, I hear you guys are getting frequent freezes. Is that correct?
Andir3.0 @ Apr 29th 2008 10:03PM
Ah... at least Zeus.:God is back at his old trolling anything PS3. I missed you man... where have you been?
Still spinning that 360 favor?
AL7AIR @ May 1st 2008 9:47AM
@ Zeus.:God
http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=20012123
Nough said ... go troll elsewhere buddy! And if you think I'm here because I support the console in the URL you're wrong. I own both, as well as GTA IV for both. And I can confirm the pop-ins and hard texture transitions on the Xbox360 some reviews pointed out. I didn't drive down the freeway on the PS3 once at high speed just to see the street texture turn gray infront of me and skyscrapers in the distance being build in seconds by a miraculous constructions crew.
anthonyjh @ Apr 29th 2008 9:53AM
I'm a slobbering mess from having played this all night.
Maverick Saturn @ Apr 29th 2008 10:07AM
GTA hangover huh?
Gaucho @ Apr 29th 2008 9:57AM
Wow, does it really run at 630p? I thought i read on joystiq at some point that it was 720p native but could go up to 1080i.
Ysleiro @ Apr 29th 2008 11:47AM
HEY !
Just trying to get your ATTENTION.
Listen this forum (the source) is subject to some serious problems.
The images being compared from one console to another, how far are they from the cars being compared? Is the character the same distance from the cars on both systems?
We don't know that, and until we do how do we know the results are credible?
Noshino @ Apr 29th 2008 12:01PM
Ysleiro,
Quaz, the one that counted the pixels, is quite a reliable source.
Ishimaru @ Apr 29th 2008 10:09AM
Instead of counting pixels, how about we, uh...play the game? Shocker!
jae29one @ Apr 29th 2008 10:37AM
BTW can someone tell me why the F*%$ we have go to our email to post on this damn site.. This is some serious BS...
adolson @ Apr 29th 2008 12:07PM
READ the email that you receive... It tells you how to avoid that... Geez.
theb1rdm4n @ Apr 29th 2008 4:26PM
not always. it took me three posts until they finally sent me one with a password in it. all of the other ones just said click here to confirm or whatever and that was the whole email. no password so it all depends.
JoJo @ Apr 29th 2008 10:16AM
OMFGG i'm so mad, i won't be able to pick up GTA 4 til friday .. as in Next friday of May 9th....
I am broke from Prom. and my Paycheck is this commin friday!! RAWR!!! .....
Brodie-san @ Apr 29th 2008 10:18AM
@JoJo
I read that as "I'm broke from pr0n" and was nodding my head in understanding until I re-read it.
Gaucho @ Apr 29th 2008 10:23AM
thats what i read the first time too. Oddly enough I never went to my high school's prom because I stayed home watching prOn. my hand and I had a laugh about the irony of it all and well, one thing led to another . . .
Ed @ Apr 29th 2008 3:51PM
Best Comment Ever.
Dana @ Apr 29th 2008 10:30AM
At least you don't have to worry about getting jipped in the resolution department, Andrew!
Gaucho @ Apr 29th 2008 10:38AM
ooooh . . . snap!
chester @ Apr 29th 2008 10:37AM
thats not cool -- back of the game box says 1080p and its only 630p??
Popfrogs @ Apr 29th 2008 12:31PM
1080p = the PS3's scaler is being employed to allow higher resolutions. It's not like the PS3 is generating that image, kinda how all 360 games work...they're almost always less than 720p but upscale.
chester @ Apr 29th 2008 12:47PM
yeah after scouring the b3d forums and every other source, that was the idea i was left with.
5pm cant come soon enough....
Riley Freeman @ Apr 29th 2008 10:41AM
why do they all advertised HD and always low ball. is it that hard to run games at 1080? that is a serious question. im just annoyed everytime i see a game that SUPPOSED to be HD a few days later u see a report saying its actualyl running at a lesser thing. its annoying
Popfrogs @ Apr 29th 2008 12:37PM
"why do they all advertised HD and always low ball. is it that hard to run games at 1080?"
Answer: yes.
True_Darknight @ Apr 29th 2008 10:41AM
Oh who cares.. it looks god damn sweet!!! sweet!!!!
and it plays even better...
most people won't notice the diff anyways
now get on line and be the crook so i can hunt ya down!!
yes this is my PSN ID
thinkofmeasmra @ Apr 29th 2008 10:42AM
wow....they fully just pulled an EA on us....my feelings are kinda hurt...
davebo @ Apr 29th 2008 10:43AM
I thought the huge delay in the game was so Rockstar could really get a handle on development for the PS3. Instead I guess they had to make a serious compromise which is disappointing. Not that I'll really notice the difference, its just something annoying that MS fanboys will gloat over. I'll play it a bunch as I wait for the one true GTA4, the PC version.
Noshino @ Apr 29th 2008 12:05PM
gloat over what? they should actually just shut up as despite the fact that 360 version runs at higher resolution, the PS3 version has the best graphics, even all the reviewers agree on it...
True_Darknight @ Apr 29th 2008 10:47AM
so it gets upscaled... trust me when i tell ya.. its just sweet looking..
or you could have the one with the graphical problems (failbox).... This is just fine.
And the servers are not slow... heck damn multiplayer is too fun... so ofc its gonna take me forever to finish the story!!!
Brodie-san @ Apr 29th 2008 10:51AM
The above post is not actually clear if the 360 version is higher in pixels or not.
Robert @ Apr 29th 2008 11:08AM
It actually runs at 640p as described in the b3d thread.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46242&page=25
baby sea tuna @ Apr 29th 2008 11:39AM
Prepping my Class Action Lawsuit as we speak...
spaztic colon @ Apr 29th 2008 11:13AM
Well that's it.
No longer interested in buying this.
Hate it when developers don't deliver as promised.
x_Diesel_x @ Apr 29th 2008 11:40AM
If the PS3 looks better or just as good as the 360 with less pixels.. does that make the PS3 "better" ?..
anonim1979 @ Apr 29th 2008 11:56AM
It is 630p NOT 640p!
PS3: 1120x630 - 630p
It is 705,600 pixels vs. 921,600 in full 720p
Quaz51:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1153806&postcount=513
Some Sub HD games (pixel count):
Full 720p - 1280x720 = 921,600 pixels
Lair 800x1080 = 864,000
Metal Gear Online 1024x768 = 786,432 pixels
Halo3 1152x640 = 737,280 pixels
Dark Sector (PS3 only) 1152x640 = 737,280 pixels
Call of Duty 4 (PS3 and X360) 1024x600 = 614,400 pixels
Ysleiro @ Apr 29th 2008 12:01PM
HEY !
Just trying to get your ATTENTION.
Listen this forum (the source) is subject to some serious problems.
The images being compared from one console to another, how far are they from the cars being compared? Is the character the same distance from the cars on both systems?
We don't know that, and until we do how do we know the results are credible?
anonim1979 @ Apr 29th 2008 11:59AM
EDIT
Sorry my mistake
Quaz updated ant it is 1152x640p (and no AA)
vs
1280 x 720 2xMSAA on X360
Doug @ Apr 29th 2008 12:09PM
To answer the question of why games don't run at 1080p... the PS3 (and 360 for that matter) doesn't have enough power to run most games at this resolution.
If a game runs at, say, 1024x768, that's 786,432 pixels that need to be drawn for every frame of video. Running at 1920x1080 requires drawing 2,073,600 pixels to be drawn every frame... that's nearly three times as many!
With the amount of detail in the different objects being drawn on-screen, there isn't enough horsepower in the PS3 (& 360) to draw at full 1080p with decent frame rates. If the game were to try, frame rates would drop tremendously. Reducing the resolution is the compromise between high quality graphics and playable frame rates. Since our eyes are more sensitive to frame rate than resolution, it makes sense to drop the resolution to give decent playability.
Basically if a game has 3D graphics with high levels of detail in the on-screen objects, and especially if it uses special effects like fire, water, fog, etc., it can't be run on the PS3 at full 1080p... the graphics hardware just can't do it.
Another compromise that is made is not using anti-aliasing, which is something most games are doing these days. Anti-aliasing requires rendering objects at a higher resolution then scaling them down to the native resolution of the game... again, very computationally intensive, and if frame rates are bordering on being too low, disabling AA is one way to speed things up.
(Thank goodness Sony didn't release the PS3 with dual HDMI outputs... can you imagine how low the resolution would be if it had to drive two displays?)
jpneiswi @ Apr 29th 2008 12:12PM
Here's a good review as to why it's only at 640p
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=134736
jpneiswi @ Apr 29th 2008 12:15PM
oops...630p
xdonniex @ Apr 29th 2008 12:49PM
That seals it. The Xbox 360 version is better! (reading back on my comment, it seems sarcasm doesn't come across that well in text form.)
Edge @ Apr 29th 2008 4:26PM
"PS3 runs at 640p. Xbox 360 does run at a higher resolution: 720p."
As both a 360 user first and a PS3 user second, WHO F-ING CARES!? I don't give a rats ass. Just give me a game that runs at a consistent 60 fps and I'll be happy.
To me, the games are probably equal on both systems for all intents and purposes. You have a love affair with the Dualshock? Have a hard on for online gaming? Then your choices are clear, but don't start splitting pixels over something as stupid as this. For once, everyone can have their GTA and we have to resort to the smallest of details to tell the difference...
Dc4eVeR @ Apr 29th 2008 1:39PM
Ps3 runs 720p , My prove : http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=WCTh13c4QQE
Paul (PSN: heypaul) @ Apr 29th 2008 1:51PM
You have no idea what native resolution is, do you?
Derxen @ May 4th 2008 9:09AM
That's no prove... idiot. Your tv can't run at 640p, so it scales the 640p up to 720p ... but that doesn't mean GTA runs at 720p. Your TV runs at 720p.
RCoy @ Apr 29th 2008 2:12PM
Quick question to those who have the game...I have a 65inch Mits TV, that is approx 4 years old...It does the following resolutions: 480i, 480p, 1080i.....If I pop the PS3 version of GTA 4 into the PS3 am I only going to be running the game at 480p? I thought I had read that it was up to each developer (In this case Rockstar) to support 1080 upconversion for their game?? Case in point if I throw in Tiger Woods 2008, my TV auto senses the signal at 480p on my PS3, whereas on my XBOX 360, the game runs upconverted and my TV senses the signal as 1080....I am guessing the 360 version of Tiger is only 720p at best but since the upconversion mode is supported, it forces the TV to show 1080i and Tiger looks that much better....Can any PS3 GTA 4 owners with a similiar setup comment on this?
AzaMcWazza @ Apr 29th 2008 3:27PM
Doesn't surprise me. Just firing up the game you can see the jaggies everywhere. Strange people are touting this game a a graphical monster. I think it's pretty ugly actually.