New monitor advice

Bowlo · 11 Jun 2006 at 22:06

well all the parts for my new system arrive next week but im stuck on choosing a monitor.
Ive still got my old 19" CRT which maybe I should stick with but thought all new system might aswell look at monitors.
Part of my system is:

ATI X1800 XT 256MB
AMD Athlon Venice 3500+
2GB Kingston 400 DDR 3200

I want to get a good monitor for gaming but also one that best fits with the hardware ive got so as not to go overboard with anything that I wont get the full benifit out of anyway.
I was also thinking of going over to widescreen if thats possible with the hardware I have. Read a lot of good things on the widescreen gaming forums but if its not for my system then id just go with a normal size.

The X1800 XT I bought was more to my budget as it was only £150 but id be looking to upgrade that sometime next year but will do perfect for now so maybe also a monitor for future purposes?
No competitor talk please!

Cheers

toM123 · 11 Jun 2006 at 22:30

I have a similer system to you, and the 19" acer widescreen i got last week is the best upgrade ive done for a while (not a sinlge dead pixel and no noticable backlight bleed

). The monitor you're looking at looks fine, and has the same spec as the acer. The acer was only £170 tho and its a bit of a better known brand.

Its a great upgrade for gamers

Bowlo · 12 Jun 2006 at 17:33

Cool. What resolution are you normally playing games at and how do you find it on the widescreen with the X1800 XT? Any problems?

Baddass · 12 Jun 2006 at 18:01

if you want to look for a model around the £200 mark and WS, then the Acer 1916W is certainly very popular. If you want t push the budget a fair bit then there are a LOT of nice 20"WS models out now which offer some excellent performance too. Check the stickies, they might help

toM123 · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:05

Bowlo said:
Cool. What resolution are you normally playing games at and how do you find it on the widescreen with the X1800 XT? Any problems?

None at all, playing at the default res 1440x900 (only playing oblivion atm

). the x1800xt handles widescreen with ease, remember 19" widescreen only has afew more pixels than a 17" normal tft so frame rates are the same.

wellibob · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:08

20" widescreen monitors (1680x1050) and the resolution they can display certainly strains the graphics cards gpu more than say a 19" widescreen (1440x900) does. Bear this in mind.

Bowlo · 12 Jun 2006 at 20:03

wellibob said:
20" widescreen monitors (1680x1050) and the resolution they can display certainly strains the graphics cards gpu more than say a 19" widescreen (1440x900) does. Bear this in mind.

Yea thats what I was thinking. Might be best to stick with the 19" WS for now and when its time to upgrade my graphics card I can look at bigger monitors then. The price for the 19" is also a lot less stress on the old purse strings

Cheers