new monitor help

duvet77 · 23 Oct 2007 at 14:34

i'm thinking of treating myself to a new monitor and gfx card for xmas but could do with a little help deciding what to go for. i currently have a 17" CRT and i mainly use my pc for gaming.

so a few questions:

1. am i right in assuming games need to be run in the native resolution of the monitor?

2. am i right in assuming all modern games support wide screen monitors?

3. what gfx card would i need to run modern games at 1680 x 1050 if i got a 20 or 22" monitor.

4. are the samsungs still the best option for gaming?

thanks

Baddass · 24 Oct 2007 at 09:14

1. am i right in assuming games need to be run in the native resolution of the monitor?

not really. You can play at a lower resolution and the screen will interpolate the image to fill the screen in most cases. The standard of this interpolation varies from one screen to another. Some screens support aspect ratio control / 1:1 pixel mapping as well which can be handy. Check out this widescreen monitor guide and these details about 1:1 pixel mapping. should help shed some more light

2. am i right in assuming all modern games support wide screen monitors?

most new ones prob will, but it's not guaranteed.

3. what gfx card would i need to run modern games at 1680 x 1050 if i got a 20 or 22" monitor.

it depends on what games you're playing, how intensive they are on GFX/CPU etc and what settings you're using....

4. are the samsungs still the best option for gaming?

i wouldn't say there's ever been a 'best' as such. Samsung make some good gaming monitors for sure, but there's plenty of others around too. In the 20" sector, the NEc 20WGX2 is highly regarded and offers S-IPS panel technology rather than the normal TN Film which many others use. I'd recommend reading up on panel technologies as it will help you understand what is on offer. For 22" models, the Samsung SM226BW is a good choice

duvet77 · 24 Oct 2007 at 11:21

thanks for the links just been reading through them. it seems you have to pay quite a bit more for the s-ips technology so that is probably out of the question for me. I do a bit of photoshopping but not professionally so the colour accuracy isn't vital to me.

i've sort of got my eye on a 20" samsung as i don't really want to spend more than £200 on a new monitor, and the response times look good.

Games wise i play first person shooters, CoH and footy manager. Obviously i like as much eye candy as possible. i was thinking of buying the cheapest 8800 card i can find. i assume this will run 1680 x 1050 with good settings on modern games. i suppose it depends on the game.

Baddass · 24 Oct 2007 at 11:56

yeah will depend, but prob should be ok

The Samsung SM206BW is a good bet, or if you want larger, the SM226BW

duvet77 · 24 Oct 2007 at 12:02

Baddass said:
yeah will depend, but prob should be ok The Samsung SM206BW is a good bet, or if you want larger, the SM226BW

now thats the other thing i'm not sure about. 20" and 22" both have the same res, so for extra money you're getting extra screen size but no actual extra real estate in terms of useable desktop area. so are the icons and fonts on 20" too small to read or are the icons and fonts on 22" big and blurry?

i suppose i need to step away from my computer and go to a real world shop and have a look!

melbourne720 · 24 Oct 2007 at 13:41

I found the transition from 17" to 22" seamless. The icons look roughly the same size, just more space. I got a Samsung 226CW (review coming) and would recommend that or the other Samsungs

duvet77 · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:09

i've used the tv calculator to work out the pixel densities of the different size monitors and a 20" (1680x1050) widescreen gives the closest match to the 1600x1200 on the 21" crt i use at work.... so i'm going for a 20" ws.

Is there the same cafuffle over panels with 20" samsungs the same as 22"?