Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm about to plunk my money down and pick up a 19-inch widescreen LCD - the Gateway linked below:

GateWay Link

The max resolution is 1440x900. My PC is an Athlon 64 3500 with a BFG AGP Geforce 6800 - but I plan on making the jump to a PCI-E SLI setup sooner or later ...

I know this is kind of a hard question to answer, but will 1440x900 seem too low resolution on my system once I get a better video card?

I'm used to gaming on my 19-inch CRT 4:3 Viewsonic monitor at 1152x864 and sometimes at 1280x1024 - how does 1140x900 compare to such resolutions?

1440x900 is a good res for gaming at if you don't have the most powerful card on the planet... but yes, I'll agree with you - once you've got a better system, you might find yourself wishing you'd got a higher res panel.

1440x900 and 1280x1024 are almost the same number of pixels (1440x900 is slightly <1.3MP, 1280x1024 is slightly >1.3MP)...

Yeah, I'd say you'd regret it. I went 1680x1050 while it's great for gaming... I want a bigger desktop resulution, I need the room. So make the choice count, and take into consideration all of the aspects not just gaming.

_________________
I still visit occasionally.

Go with a better monitor and higher res. Like maherie said bigger desktop resolution is awesome. My screens native res is 1920x1200 and when my system can't handle that res in the new games I just lower the res. My monitor has a good scaler so I don't mind playing some games in lower res to get those extra FPS. I love my 1920x1200 desktop.
If you get a bigger screen now you can still lower the res to 1440x900 or whatever to still get your FPS with your current system and when you have a new system up the res and enjoy :D.

1440*900 will be good for now, i can't complain about mine
keep it a few years and then upgrade when you REALLY upgrade that graphics card

you don't want to get a panel with 1680*1050 with the card you have now and end up have to really turn things down to play new games at a good framerate, or lower the rez of the games and deal with mediocre scaling on most lcd's

that's my opnion anyway

I'd say take your time - what's the rush? 8)

You might want to head out to your local Best Buy/Office Depot/CompUSA etc and check out the 19" widescreens they have there in person. Play around with them, ask questions, see how you like the size of the default resolution for text, webpages, documents etc, before making your decision.

You can always go bigger of course, but keep in mind your upgraded kit will be behind the technology curve in six months anyway, so you may end up appreciating the smaller screen. Also, if you do think you'd like to go bigger, demo those units in person too - try scaling the resolutions lower to get a good feel for 19-24" panels before you plunk your hard earned cash.

Best of luck dude!

Personally to me, I went with a 19" because Im only running a 9800 Pro and refuse to update to PCIe until the DX10 cards are out and tested. Im more than happy with it so far, especially coming from a 17" CRT.

Its really up to you if you feel it will be inadequate. Like Stretch said, try viewing some in person and see if you feel the resolution will be acceptable to you.

i would go for the biggest screen you can afford... the dell 24" scales really well and 1440 res is fine on it. i have a dell 20" and it scale fine down to 1280 res, not that i personally need to anymore

Thanks everyone for all your responses!

Here's where I am right now: I just bought a 19-inch Gateway FPD1975W monitor. I have an AGP Geforce 6800 card. Most games seem to run fine at the monitor's native resolution of 1440x900, with some exceptions - the frame rate on FEAR and especially on Elder Scrolls can chug, depending on what's happening onscreen.

A bigger problem for me, however, is that dark scenes can look washed out. I guess I'm too used to my 19-inch Viewsonic CRT.

So ... I'm faced with two choices:

A: return my 19-inch Gateway and get the 21-inch model for $250 more, which is supposed to have much better contrast (Gateway lists it at 1000:1 as opposed to the 700:1 for the 19 inch) and it also has a PVA screen as opposed to the 19's TFT screen ... and start saving for a faster video card down the road ...

Or

B: KEEP the 19-inch Gateway, live with the poor contrast, and get a PCI-E/SLI MB and a faster video card right now.

I'm leaning toward A, just because the monitor seems like the bigger long-term investment. BUT I'm worried about running games with my current card on the 21 incher's 1680×1050 native resolution ...

I guess my main question now is, will I see much visual distortion if I run games in a lower resolution than the native one?

I'd see if you can use one. I snagged a buddies 20" 4:3 monitor for 2 weeks. Right now I'm thinking 20" is pletty, (I sit pretty close to my monitors...)