Recently DICE developer Johan Andersson let the community know that Battlefield 3 will be running sub-HD for better performance. HD is defined to be a minimum of 720 pixels in height, Battlefield 3 will be scaled to 704 pixels in height and 1280 pixels of width. The reasoning behind this is to save memory and to increase performance of the game. In June it was confirmed that Battlefield 3 would only be running at 30 fps on consoles. While the game's main competitor, MW3 would be getting 60 fps. Words have been exchanged between the communities, but BF3 is still on top. Battlefield 3 will be running at a resolution of 1280 x 704 pixels on the Xbox 360 and PS3. This is actually a drastic improvement over last years blockbuster, Call of Duty Black Ops. Black Ops ran at a resolution of 1040 x 608 on the Xbox 360 and an even lower resolution on the PS3, 960 x 544. Both games are technically sub-HD, but Battlefield 3 is still offering the best graphics and resolution, despite the 30fps difference.

To help get the point across, the difference between 720p and 704p is 16 pixels. You can see the difference in the screenshot. The difference is subtle and would probably go unnoticed unless someone actually dug into the details. This information does not effect the PC version of Battlefield 3 though. The PC version's will resolutions can be adjusted as needed. PC resolutions will include 720p as well as 1080p.
See more indept information here Battlefield 3 - BF3

i've always laughed at this whole framerate/resolution war...  People always think that more is better, but did you know that most hollywood movies are scaled back to 30 fps? the reasoning behind this (and this is just what i've been told by a movie reviewer friend) is that Joe Public has begun to view very high framerate video as amaturish, because home video cameras push 60fps and beyond.  So in order for something to look "polished" and "professional" in the eyes of the masses, they have turned the framerate down.  

and the thing about screen resolutions only matters to console.... heathens. We in the PC world can run native

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