Anyone elaborate on this, and serious answers :0

Both versions are 720p.

They're both at 720p. Very, very, very, very, very, VERY few PS3 or 360 games are ever at 1080p and Skyrim is not one of them. When the back of a box says that a PS3 or 360 games "supports" 1080p, all it really means is that the console itself will upscale, or stretch, the game's 720p resolution to fit the 1080p resolution of a display device (in this case, an HDTV). That does not improve graphics and if not programmed into the game itself, the TV will most likely upscale the game for you. It does nothing other than ensure an entire 1080p screen is taken up rather than just part of it and the advertising on the box is just a clever ploy by console manufacturers to trick consumers into believing they're getting more than they get. The only 360 or PS3 games that are ever actually running at 1080p are a few arcade/PSN downloadable titles and some sports games, as they aren't too demanding.

Back of the game box claims 1080i functionality, but my full HDTV only displays it in 720p.

1080i is essentially the same thing as 720p. 1080p is different than 1080i. i = interlaced and p = progressive scan

I'm playing it in 480p.... That is when I can play it at least.

Looks likes blurry crap, but it helps with the overall framerate.

tbh, I'm asking myself nowadays why the f PS3 & 360 are so [censored] outdated. [censored] "Medium-graphics" compared to PC. Sure, a PC is stronger, but why don't they upgrade their platforms more oten than once every seven years? O_ó

Skyrim, 1080P on a 360? And exactly where do you think the storage capacity on the media would come from to store 1080p data on the 360's game disc? You do realize that Blu-Ray is exclusive to the PS3? Even then games for the PS3 don't come with native 1080 support because of processing power deficiencies (both consoles).

Most of the games aren't 720p native, they are rendered in sub-hd resolution and upscaled to 720p. The graphics chips are not strong enough anymore. I don't know a single ps3 or xbox game that renders in 1080p. Even the exclusives don't, at least Halo is sub-hd too. I can't tell if uncharted does the same ...

I know of one game on the PS3: Lair. It renders in 1080p. However, that's 1 out of about 50 games that I own.

Well, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Nonetheless, as you said, it is a vanishing minority.

you probably saw someone playing on pc with a xbox controller

Some PC players upgrade every 1-2 years. The fact is PS3 and Xbox tech was already not the top tech when it came out. So PC players already had an advantage over console users. Then there is the whole RAM issue. RAM is cheap as [censored] now, if I don't see at least 4GB's in the next console then I'll rage.

That's only the case for videos. There an increase in resolution results in an increase in file size.
But not for games. You can simply increase or lower the display resolution and the data on the disc stays the same.
And you don't need BluRay for 1080p games. PCs still use DVDs and you can (if your PC is strong enough) run every game in 1080p.
But you're right, both consoles just lack the hardware power to support modern games in 1080p.

"Most of the games" is certainly an exaggeration. There are of cause several games that render in a sub-HD resolution. But the vast majority has native 720p.

Gran Tursimo 5 = 1080p
Assasin's Creed Brotherhood = 1080p (must force)
Assasin's Creed Revelations = 1080p (must force)
Batman Arkham City = 1080p (must force)

My tv does not upscale to 1080p so I know what resolution my tv is receiving.
I heard that Xbox360's upscale all games to 1080p on HDMI.

I called Bethesda when Skyrim came out about the 1080i thing and they said
that they only played it in 720p, but "maybe their tvs and monitors only support 720p".
I also heard that the European boxes do not state 1080i as an available resolution.
They also tried to semi blame Sony, just like all of the game companies I've called
whose games that must be forced into 1080p.

At least GT5 doesn't render in 1080p native, but 1.280 x 1.080 with 2x QAA and uses an upscaler to output 1080p. However it is able to render 720p native with 4x MSAA (in the 720p mode).

The X360 doesn't have a single game in native 1080p. It can't handle it and/or it isn't supported. All games are upscaled to 1080p, but being upscaled they get the same image (or even worse, because it adds distortion) they would get playing at 720p. Still it is useful because some old tv only had 480p/1080p modes. In other words who own am X360 is better set the output at 720p. That gives the best result.

Different story for the PS3. It does support native 1080p and more than few PSN games use it. Flowers, Super Stardust HD and others. Also FF XIV is running at 1080p. But that should be native for FMV only, while the gameplay should (not sure) upscaled as well.

Here is a list of native 1080p PS3 games:

http://wikibin.org/articles/list-of-full-hd-1080p-ps3-games.html

They mention "includes Native 1080p and Upscaled 1080p", thus the list isn't exactly what you are talking about. But that's just a sidenote.

Forcing 1080p only means that instead of your TV the PS3 scales the image. The games still run in 720p and only stretch the image to the size 1080p without improving the image quality
Except fot GT5 which runs at 1280x1080. But on the other hand with 720p the game uses 4xAA, with "1080p" only QAA so 720p has a better image quality.

There are games on the 360 that run in native 1080p. Both consoles support this resolution although very little games use it.

The list in your link isn't really a list about native 1080p games, most of the games there are 720p games only upscaled to 1080p.

I would prefer this link with the actual resolutions:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?p=1113342#post1113342

Ooops. Sorry about that. I took the first I've found in google. They seemed a little bit too many indeed.

Another consideration: many 32" or less "Full HD" televisions like mine only have a 1366×768 display resolution. So, if it's true that at 1080p we get few more pixels the benefit isn't that high.

LOL when i am playing Oblivion it says 720p... and skyrim its 1280x720 ....

Actually 720p is IMO superior to 1080i as 1080i is actually only 540 lines of vertical resolution at any given time as it shows one set of 540 lines, then the other. But does it so fast that the eye cant tell. Thats interlacing. But with 720p you see 720 lines of vertical resolution at any given time. Progressive scan anything is always better than Interlaced. Unless you are talking 480p. then 1080i would be better.

This isn't 2005, stop pretending 1080i scaled is superior to 720p. It's embarassing

Not on LCD/Plasma screens though. What they do is to take the two frames of 540 lines each and build the single frame of 1080 lines. So what gets really cut is the frame rate. In half. So the 720p progressive is still better. Also because to see the difference between 720p/1080p one needs to be close to the screen. After few meters the difference has gone. There is a chart explaining it in this article:

http://mobilitydigest.com/why-1080p-doesnt-matter-get-over-it/

That goes especially for very high screen resolutions of PC games. Unless one sticks his or her nose to the screen they are perfectly useless. But true, many PC gamers do stick their nose into the (small) display. Pretty unhealthy.

Not on LCD/Plasma screens though. What they do is to take the two frames of 540 lines each and build the single frame of 1080 lines. So what gets really cut is the frame rate. In half. So the 720p progressive is still better. Also because to see the difference between 720p/1080p one needs to be close to the screen. After few meters the difference has gone. There is a chart explaining it in this article:

http://mobilitydigest.com/why-1080p-doesnt-matter-get-over-it/

That goes especially for very high screen resolutions of PC games. Unless one sticks his or her nose to the screen they are perfectly useless. But true, many PC gamers do stick their nose into the (small) display. Pretty unhealthy.