When did 1080p become the standard for gamers?

[chctulc]

It seems to me that it had to be somewhere around the early 2000s. I remember there being all sorts of square-ish and wide-ish resolutions being used. Then suddenly, it seemed like 1920x1080 took over and everyone was using FHD displays. (My first one was a 32" FHD TV that sat unused. It had a HDMI input, so I used it for my monitor. It was great!)
Does anyone have a more exact timeline?

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

It depends on the exact location. In more minted areas (Swiss, Wall street, Luxembourg, etc), it could've been late 2000s, or very early 2010s. On average (lower tier 1st world and higher tier 3rd world), FHD became the standard by 2014 to 2017. In poor 3rd world countries, it might still be ongoing.

Early 2000s, however, were the time when you had to sell your car, house, wife, and all the rest of your family in order to obtain a 16:9 display at the very least. They did not exist on the mass market.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Gaming consoles attached to TVs.

 

[chctulc]

Yeah, I should have specified where. I was referring to the US. What rez were folks using then in the early - mid 2000's? I was using 1680x1050 and later 1440x900, but I was poor

 

[Ruru]

I played with PC at 1080p from 2012 to 2022, then I switched straight to 4K. Still have a 1080p TV though as I have just a PS4.

Yeah, I should have specified where. I was referring to the US. What rez were folks using then in the early - mid 2000's? I was using 1680x1050 and later 1440x900, but I was poor

1600x1200 @ 85Hz on my old 21" Trinitron CRT. Sucks that I threw it away when I moved together with my ex-girlfriend. :/

Then I had a 1280x1024 TFT before getting that first 1080p monitor in 2012.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

What rez were folks using then in the early - mid 2000's?

1024x768 / 1280x1024 on the lower end, 1680x1050 / 1440x900 on the higher end. By 2005, some people had the luxury of buying a 1920x1200 panel. But this is 16:10 and this was extremely expensive. I remember seeing those for over 3 thousand and asking my dad what these are for (I was 10 back then).

 

[dirtyferret]

define "gamers" and I assume we are talking about North America

are we talking console gamers with TVs?
PC desktop gamers with monitors?
PC gamers which includes laptop gamers?

If it's the latter then your best bet would probably be a STEAM hardware survey. For the other two it would probably be a year or two after 1080p became the dominant resolution sold by the TV & Monitor brands.

 

[Knight47]

I would say in 2007 when Xbox360(HDMI) and PS3 released it was already standard.

 

[thesmokingman]

Does it even matter??

 

[cvaldes]

I think I bought my first 1080p flat-screen LCD monitor around 2004; it was a 24" Dell which lasted 13 years. It wasn't cheap (may $700 which in 2004 dollars was a lot but boy did I ever get my money's worth out of 13 years of service).

If my memory is correct, it replaced a bulky Hitachi 21" CRT (1600x1200 resolution) from the Nineties.

I probably bought my first flat-screen television somewhere in 2006-2007. One thing I do clearly remember is that I never owned a 720p screen. 1080p FHD was already recognized as the "full fat" standard and I deliberated stayed away from 720p devices. I also know that I never owned a plasma screen.

In any case as mentioned before widespread public adoption of new technology isn't evenly spread throughout all geographic markets and across all sectors.

As usual adult entertainment is the often in the group of early adopters of new technology. They were shooting 1080p video while consumers were still on older television technology. So when Blu-ray discs started shipping, the adult entertainment was the first to take advantage of the 1080p resolution.

In the same way, only a handful of PC gaming enthusiasts would have been amongst the early adopters of FHD. We see the hardware popularity skew heavily to entry-level devices on things like the Steam Hardware Survey where the top-selling graphics card is invariably a low end model (Nvidia 2060 then the 3060).

It's a pointless exercise to try to pin down an exact year when 1080p became the "standard" for gamers. The best guess would be heavily tied to when the resolution was supported by PlayStation/Xbox (thus 2007 as pointed out earlier) but again, widespread adoption would trail the console hardware release date.

I remember in that era (late 2000s) that there were a LOT of people on the Internet (at sites like TPU) saying they couldn't see any difference between 480p and 720p (or even 1080i/p).

 

[Frick]

Standard, as in most used resolution for PC gamers, I'm gonna say 2013. Because at that point 1080p monitors were getting really cheap.

What rez were folks using then in the early - mid 2000's? I was using 1680x1050 and later 1440x900, but I was poor

I really don't think you had a 1680x1050 monitor around 2005, while being poor. Maybe later 2000s. Early 2000s LCDs were not common at all, and they weren't very good for games anyway.

1600x1200 @ 85Hz on my old 21" Trinitron CRT.

Such wealth!

I think I bought my first 1080p flat-screen LCD monitor around 2004; it was a 24" Dell which lasted 13 years.

That would be 1920x1200. Such luxury!

 

[64K]

I think it was 2011 when I got my first 1080p game monitor. I can't recall for certain but I'm pretty sure I was on 1024X768 back in the early 2000s. 1680X1050 after that until the 1080p monitor.

If I interpret "standard" as "mainstream" then 1080p wasn't mainstream at all in the early 2000s iirc

 

[freeagent]

Closer to 2010 I think is when 1080p was coming mainstream. Us grunts had to make do with 480p and 720p until screens started getting cheap.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Judging solely by personal experience, somewhere in the vicinity of 2010. I bought my first big-screen TV (a 1080p LCD) in '08, and PC monitors were cheap enough in 2011 or so to buy two for my then-wife's home office for less than USD200 each. I was rocking a 21" (or was it 19"?) CRT monitor until then.

 

[DaemonForce]

In 2004 I was on a 22" Flat-CRT that was doing QXGA resolution. That is 2048x1536.
Others were already on flat panels that were doing 1280x720 and higher. It was kind of normal during the XP era.
I didn't make the jump to a flat panel until late 2016 and it was the Nixeus NX-VUE24 that I still depend on today.
1920x1080 is a really nice resolution but that's not the reason I chose it. Low latency refresh plus 120/144Hz refresh options = fast af boiiii! (=ﾟωﾟ)

 

[Steevo]

2008 for GTA4, it was a lot of pixels to push at the time.

 

[tussinman]

Closer to 2010 I think is when 1080p was coming mainstream. Us grunts had to make do with 480p and 720p until screens started getting cheap.

100% spot on.

2010 was the year that 720p TVs plummeted in production, 1080p became the king on the TV front.

In 2010 1080p monitor production became cheaper than the short lived 16:10 panels and started to outsell 1650x1050 monitors. By early 2012 1080p officially overtook 1650x1550 as the most popular resolution on steam.

Judging solely by personal experience, somewhere in the vicinity of 2010. I bought my first big-screen TV (a 1080p LCD) in '08, and PC monitors were cheap enough in 2011 or so to buy two for my then-wife's home office for less than USD200 each. I was rocking a 21" (or was it 19"?) CRT monitor until then.

Absolutely. 1080p monitors started to hit mainstream prices back half of 2010 and went even lower in 2011

 

[Ruru]

Such wealth!

I actually got that for 20EUR. Had a 19" CRT before that.

 

[Blaeza]

2007 for me with my Xbox 360 Elite on a 42" Samsung 1080P. Where I got lost in Forza 2 and Skate, good times...

 

[cvaldes]

That would be 1920x1200. Such luxury!

Ah, you're right. It was 1920x1200, the 16:10 aspect ratio. And black bars when playing back 1080p content. Forgot about that, I never watched many movies or television shows on my computer monitors.

Television set screens are optimized for video playback and the optical drives are quieter than the PC versions. Watching films/TV on a computer still sucks rocks compared to the television experience. Today it's an LG C2 55" OLED for my content consumption.

My 27" LG 4K monitor is excellent for reading e-mails, working on spreadsheets, etc. It's completely inferior for gaming or content consumption. I will never buy another gaming monitor in my life, the LG C2 is 4K@120Hz VRR, way better for my gaming.

 

[Steevo]

I actually got that for 20EUR. Had a 19" CRT before that.

I got one of the premium Dell CRT's back in the day when a repair note turned into a nasty family fight over who was downloading porn on their family computer and getting it infected every week. Their final solution was no more computer and I got a sweet monitor.

 

[P4-630]

I have used a 1080p monitor on my main system from 2016-2017.
I think it was 2017 I switched to 1440 High-Refresh.

My latest Chromebook purchase has 1920x1200 (WUXGA).

 

[dirtyferret]

1680X1050 after that until the 1080p monitor.

I remember getting a 1440x900 19" monitor for WoW's launch and a 1680x1050 monitor (I think 22") for WoTLK. I can't recall the exact time frame for my 720p or 1080p but those two previous monitors I recall.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Ah, you're right. It was 1920x1200, the 16:10 aspect ratio. And black bars when playing back 1080p content. Forgot about that, I never watched many movies or television shows on my computer monitors.

Television set screens are optimized for video playback and the optical drives are quieter than the PC versions. Watching films/TV on a computer still sucks rocks compared to the television experience. Today it's an LG C2 55" OLED for my content consumption.

My 27" LG 4K monitor is excellent for reading e-mails, working on spreadsheets, etc. It's completely inferior for gaming or content consumption. I will never buy another gaming monitor in my life, the LG C2 is 4K@120Hz VRR, way better for my gaming.

16:10 is the superior PC monitor aspect ratio. One wouldn't think a few dozen extra pixels in the vertical would make much difference, but they really do. If 16:10 existed in affordable monitors with VRR and decent pixel pitch, I'd have bought one of those instead of a 27" 1440.

 

[Dr. Dro]

The standard took off when the Xbox 360 and PS3 came out, which coincided with the adoption and proliferation of the Full HD TV standard around 18 years ago. PC monitors have adopted console/TV-like resolutions for panel manufacturing convenience, and games naturally fit here since they were, and many remain, developed with consoles in mind first and foremost.

16:10 is the superior PC monitor aspect ratio. One wouldn't think a few dozen extra pixels in the vertical would make much difference, but they really do. If 16:10 existed in affordable monitors with VRR and decent pixel pitch, I'd have bought one of those instead of a 27" 1440.

While I agree and think 16:10 is useful for PC use, it causes letterboxing on most movies and also in many games due to the increased vertical estate. That plus the fact that it is easier to manufacture 16:9 panels (the lower vertical estate slightly increases panel yield) ensured 16:10 would go for good.