LCD PC monitor size advice

[jonnythan]

The developer doesn't have to "make" the game anything. Modern games are 3-D rendered in real time. F.E.A.R. can just as easily be rendered in 16:7 or 7:16 if there was a way to input that resolution into the engine. The aspect ratio is basically irrelevant. Virtually all modern games have a fixed vertical field of view and a variable horizontal field of view. Obviously, the vast majority of games (F.E.A.R, Supreme Commander, Call of Duty 2, Oblivion, etc) render equally well in 4:3 or 16:9.

The absolute bottom line is that a game rendered in 16:9 shows you more of the environment than a game rendered in 4:3. Playing a modern game that has the capability of rendering in 16:9 is putting yourself at a disadvantage by hiding a significant portion of the environment from you.

 

[Sheep]

Mike,

What games do you play, and what is in your rig (everything relevant to gaming performance).

SheepStar

 

[Wafflesomd]

Widescreen does not take more power to render than 4:3, just so you know.

 

[Sheep]

Widescreen does not take more power to render than 4:3, just so you know.

I'm not saying that. But LCD's should be run at native, and 1440 x 900 is not easy to run with graphics turned up, esp. with new games.

SheepStar

 

[jonnythan]

I'm not saying that. But LCD's should be run at native, and 1440 x 900 is not easy to run with graphics turned up, esp. with new games.

SheepStar

It's fairly easy to do 1440x900 with any decent graphics card. Turn the details down. For example, with my old 6800GS I can run the very demanding Call of Duty 2 at 1680x1050 at 40FPS if I turn AA off.

It's worth it to see more

 

[Sheep]

Yeah, but what does Mike have? I run an OC'd 9800pro and I need Carbon turned down to hold 1280x1024.

SheepStar

 

[jonnythan]

Yeah, but what does Mike have?

SheepStar

It doesn't really matter. Either he has the horsepower to run a game at an LCDs native number of pixels or not. Widescreen vs not is irrelevant.

 

[Sheep]

I would rather have him run his games so they look decent.

SheepStar

 

[jonnythan]

I would rather have him run his games so they look decent.

SheepStar

As do we all. Widescreen or 4:3 is irrelevant to having his games look "decent".

 

[mikeyj92]

What I have doesn't really matter, does it? We are talking about what would be best, and going forward, it seems obvious to me that a WS monitor would be most prudent.

Currently I have an old 9600XT and a 19" Dell ultrasharp, so PC-wise, I am not taking full advantage of the views available to me in alot of games, particular HL2eathmatch which I play with a passion.

On my PS2 and Xbox360, I got em both hooked up to my 56" Sammy widescreen and couldn't imagin any other way.

I have hooked my PC up to my Samsung out of curiosity just to see how it looks and it looks flawless, though I didn't play at the time do to time-constraints. I was actually quite please with how well it really looked...text was quite sharp.

I may try again, but it's a pain setting it all up and whatnot.

I can tell you this, my next monitor when I do my next PC upgrade (sooner this calendar year rather than later...I hope...) will have at least a 24" widescreen.

 

[mike c]

I could have any screen size I want, and I have a chance to spend time with different sizes at the office. It turns out I like the standard 17" display the best. Others at the office like the standard 19" better. We have one 24" wide screen, yuck, it's not for me. Different strokes.

Nick

correct, it depends on the usage, I need to see more of my document or surfing HTML in one go, I need the vertical size extension ... if I can find a locally available widescreen that can be rotated 90degrees (I know dell has one) now that would show me a bond paper sized page - full page.

 

[furrycute]

So your video card had no problems displaying pictures on a 56inch screen? I always thought PC video cards cannot handle those large displays.

 

[mike c]

would that be mikeyj or me mike?

just to be sure ...
I only play strategy games (95% of the time)
and use the PC for surfing

I have 1 gb ram
1terrabyte hard drive
core 2 duo 2.14ghz
7600GS 512mb vid card

 

[jonnythan]

So your video card had no problems displaying pictures on a 56inch screen? I always thought PC video cards cannot handle those large displays.

The video card has no idea what the size of the display is. It only knows its resolution - and my 50" plasma has a lower resolution than my 20" widescreen LCD.

 

[mike c]

So your video card had no problems displaying pictures on a 56inch screen? I always thought PC video cards cannot handle those large displays.

I have a vga splitter (a box that has it's own power supply) that sends the signal to my desktop LCD and then to my HT 40" LCD in case I want to watch something I downloaded (or pics to show a lot of people)

looks pretty good to me

 

[mikeyj92]

So your video card had no problems displaying pictures on a 56inch screen? I always thought PC video cards cannot handle those large displays.

No issue at all. I was initially expecting it not to work myself, but it worked just fine. heck, the ATI Catalyst Control center even recognized my Samsung HDTV and it's size and allowed me to select a 720p HDTV setting choice in the display manager of that tool. Screen looked pretty good, even from up close.