[Diabetic]

Hey all, I'm soon going to be coming into a wee bit of money with it being Christmas and all (and well, because its pay day tommorow, which strangely enough always seems to provide...).

With this money I want to buy a new monitor, as my current one is a bit small to look at from a distance, which makes watching films whilst lounging on my bed a little difficult. The current monitor I have is 17", and I want to buy a 19" (which although is a small step up, is a step up none-the-less). The problem is that I'm torn between standard resolution or widescreen. So, if you could answer the small number of questions I have it would be grand! So, on with the questions ^^

(1) If I buy a 19" widescreen LCD would I be able to use standard 1280 x 1024 resolutions in games and it still look good (many games do not support wide screen resolutions)?

(2) If I buy a 19" widescreen will I be able to keep my 17" standard LCD hooked up and use them both in a dual monitor config? (I have a 7900 GT that I think supports dual monitors)

(3) If a 19" and a 17" DONT dual monitor together would it be worth simply getting a second 17"? I do a lot of 3d work where I can imagine having a completely seperate viewport open on different monitors would be a god send.

Thats all I can think of for now. Cheers in advance!

[Trotter]

I dunno what your budget is, but if you plan on getting a widescreen, shoot for 19+. Prices have dropped down to reasonable levels (if you look hard enough).

A 20"-22" will be super-sweet for movies. The resolution won't be any better than a 19", but that's the price you pay.

[Trifid]

Trotter, your sig is too big - the 2 images come to 131 pixels high. (Excluding the folding.) Talking about sigs, my quote has gone.

Most games have mods or guides on how to force it to widescreen if it doesn't support it natively. What I would do if you are on a strict 19" budget is get the best 19" widescreen and keep the 17" anyway. Keep in mind the 17" will be taller so if you are a perfectionist you will not really like them side by side.

You will need to use this for having different resolutions: http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

[Vormund]

1. Not too sure...although I know some do indeed support 1280*1024...probably most?
2. Absolutely, dual screen should work great.

This may be just me, but I honestly hate the wide screen... I recently purchased a 20" LCD, and decided to go with dual screens, and figured what the heck, so I got the same 20" model in widescreen - for movies, it's decent...

But for working on, I find it very annoying. In general, the screen is already wide enough, and I find myself wanting the height (browsing websites, text documents/coding, and occasionally it gets annoying for 3DSM (for the same reason)) - so all in all, if this is primarily for movies, great! Otherwise...I'd think twice!

Also, regardless of which type (wide or standard), I would suggest moving up 1", as then you can get the 1600*1200 or 1680*1050 resolutions, which I find quite handy...

[Diabetic]

I think i'm gonna go with the 19" widescreen. I cant really justify spending more than like £250 on a monitor when I have more important things to buy i'm afraid.

As I will be running the two monitors at once if I find the widescreen is not 'working' for certain programs I can just transfer back to my 17" whilst I work with that 'certain program'.

As always , cheers for all your help folks.

[Trotter]

Trotter, your sig is too big - the 2 images come to 131 pixels high.

One of the perks for being a mod.

[talldude123]

Originally posted by Trotter
One of the perks for being a mod.

Lucky you

Soon enough you'll need to get a 1600*1200 resolution monitor just to see the screen

[Trifid]

I'll be fine at 2048*1536. I just can't read the text.

[Diabetic]

Hmm, I just had a thought.

Would running two monitors at the same time result in an increased strain upon the graphics card? For example, if i was playing say Battlefield 2 and the image was displayed on both screens would my graphics card have to work twice as hard?

[Trotter]

I don't think BF2 will allow you to do that. I could be wrong, though.