24" or 26" Is Bigger still better with same resolution

Dave Williamson

Dave Williamson

Dave Williamson

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Joined
17 Apr 2008
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30
Hi

I'm about to spend a lump on a whole new gaming rig, 8800GTX/Q6600 combo with related goodies, this will be used mainly for racing simulators and I'm wondering which monitor size to go for...

I'm currently bouncing around between the Hyundai W240D or the Samsung SM-2493HM

But!!! I'm wondering whether to splash out and treat myself to the Samsung SM-2693HM 26" Bad Boy!!

I'm thinking that the bigger screen will give me a greater sense of immersion when racing but my concern is.... will the picture look worse on a bigger screen which is still running at the same 1920/1200 resolution as the 24" would be..

I like the thought of having this great expanse of screen sitting just infront of my wheel but don't want to suffer from a reduced crispness because of the extra 2"

So I wondered if I could get some thoughts and advice off you guys, hopefully based on experience of using the larger LCD's.. This will be my first LCD and first widescreen, I'm currently running a DELL 21" CRT

Thanks in advance for any input gents

Regards
Dave.
 
The bigger the monitor running at the same resolution at a lower one, the higher the dot pitch will be, so the more noticeable the jaggies. AA will reduce this, but at the cost of frame-rates running at that resolution. It all depends on how sensitivce to such things you are.

I'd probably suggest holding off a couple of months until the new Nvidia GT200-based cards are released, that will double the GPU processing power and make your games look/run much better on displays of that size.
 
Cheers Rich

Although theres more chance of me growing a second head than waiting a couple of months, I've just gotten my hands on circa £1200-£1400 to spend on a new puter plus big monitor and I'm like a kid in a sweet shop....

For sure if I wait then life and bills will get in the way and I'll still be using my archaic good for nothing desktop thats struggling with even lowish settings.. :D

Good point on the dot pitch... Hmmmm.... I wish I could see both size monitors playing at 1920/1200..

Cheers fella

Dave.
 
If i was you, i would just get the 24". I have a 24" and i love it. In my opinion it's just the right size. From your 21" CRT to a 24" it might not sound a huge difference, but if you haven't used a widescreen LCD before then it will seem massive, but you soon get used to it.
 
Dave Williamson said:
Cheers Rich

Although theres more chance of me growing a second head than waiting a couple of months, I've just gotten my hands on circa £1200-£1400 to spend on a new puter plus big monitor and I'm like a kid in a sweet shop....

For sure if I wait then life and bills will get in the way and I'll still be using my archaic good for nothing desktop thats struggling with even lowish settings.. :D

Good point on the dot pitch... Hmmmm.... I wish I could see both size monitors playing at 1920/1200..

Cheers fella

Dave.
Click to expand...

Ok yeah, then just get a single 8800 GTX now and then save a few pennies to upgrade when the GT200 comes along. :D
 
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Get the Dell 2707wfp dont know what your missing, thats a better jump from 21 inch, I upgraded from my 20.1 vp201s Viewsonic. What a difference :-)
COD4 does look Sweet :-)
 
You can always use 1:1 pixel mapping if the GFX is not up to the job. On my dell 2407 if I want quality I use a 22"-19" res and the screen fills the surrounding with empty black space. If I want size, I turn the quality down and go full 1920x1200. It works well!

I would go for higher the res my self, since that is what you "work with" be it games or documents.

I went from a 19" samsung to a Dell 2407 24" myself and the difference was "wow!". Productivity doubled the least, and gaming is fantastic.

A year with 24" now, and I am starting to feel the urge to go 30" :p
 
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I have two 20" monitors and a 22" monitor (same resolution) and personally I cant really tell the difference between them apart from the 22" is obvious bigger!
 
well my 2p is that 1920 x 1200 on a 24 inch is too small and hurts my eyes when using apps - on a 26 inch though it would look better. for games its different not so much focus on small details is required
 
Superficial: Good point about apps bud, but as this is going to be sitting on my racing rig (yes saddo alert) and will be used predominantly for gaming I'll be ok on that score..

Thanks for all of the comments and advice fella's, I think I've decided on the Samsung SM-2493HM 24" as much as the thought of 26" is enticing I can't get past the feeling that things may not look as sharp while I'm racing so I'm bottling it and going for the safer option.

Thanks again

Dave. :D
 
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if your using a 4:3 21" crt at 1600x1200 just now, your current dot pitch is around 0.24mm...a WS 24" is about 0.27...i recently made that switch, and it was perfectly ok but i could notice the size diff, and obviously it was noticable when using both at the same time. You will never catch me using a 26/27 though, their dot pitch is anything up to a little over 0.3 hehe...thats just for blind people IMO :P

In the end i actually returned the 24, and ive been waiting on my 30" turning up ever since...damn 30" panel shortages, grrr :)
 
Superficial said:
well my 2p is that 1920 x 1200 on a 24 inch is too small and hurts my eyes when using apps - on a 26 inch though it would look better. for games its different not so much focus on small details is required
Click to expand...

:/ you shouldnt have problems like that. i sit about 60cm away from mine (same monitor) and have no problems using it.


going bigger while keeping the same resolution is a personal thing. you might like it, you might not. its normally not a problem going bigger, but i immensely prefect the sharpness of my 24" next to my old 22" that had a bigger dot pitch
 
Dave Williamson said:
1280/1024 on the 21" Dell CRT, that is about the right size text for my poor ol'eyes

30" Wide Screen!! You're just a greedy greedy man!!! :D :D :D
Click to expand...

Ah well in that case your gonna find the text on a 24" a bit smaller, a 26/27 would be about the same as what your used to.

And yes, yes it is...but im coming down from 19+22+19+28WS to 22+30WS
hehe
 
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