I have a 20'.1 16:10 widescreen LCD, am I forced to only play at the one widescreen rez of1680x1050 *native* b/c i'd love to lower it to a lower 16:10 resolution for newer games like Fear/Oblivion *i'm a framerate freak* and if not will it look bad, what I mean is if I use a lower 16:10 widescreen rez besides my native rez will it be just as good. *besides the lower resolution offering less pixels,*
Why don't you just try it and find out?
You can play with a lower res than native the res. Info is all over the forum about that stuff, my posts above tells you how to add those resolutions.
I don't know how good the upscaling will look on your monitor as all panels have different qualities. Just try it, it won't damage your screen. Some monitors do great upscaling and some don't.