I currently have a standard 19" LG LCD that I bought a couple of years ago. Still works fine, but I've noticed that prices have dropped for wide screen LCD's, and I have my $300 stimulus money that I would like to spend.
I'm on NewEgg's site and looking at this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824001268
How are widescreen LCD's for gaming? Any advantages or disadvantages?
Widescreen LCD for gaming
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Executioner
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MegaVectra
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I have that monitor and I am very happy with it. got it for about the same ## at an OM friends and family deal about 8 mos ago.
almost no ghosting
good color
goes up and down and tilts
3 yr mfgr warranty
when I needed another monitor I got a a 21 samsung 0 doiesn't go up and down but the picture is excellent. I think you'll like it a lot. Movies also look very good on this.
almost no ghosting
good color
goes up and down and tilts
3 yr mfgr warranty
when I needed another monitor I got a a 21 samsung 0 doiesn't go up and down but the picture is excellent. I think you'll like it a lot. Movies also look very good on this.
<a href="http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=123" target="_blank" >Heatware</a>
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FlyingPenguin
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Only one real "disadvantage"... maybe two. They're minor, but you should consider them.
There aren't as many default widescreen desktop resolutions as there are 4:3 ones. So one issue I run into (especially with clients that have poor vision) is that if you don't like (or can't use) the native res, you often can't find a lower res that doesn't look blurry AND maintains the proper aspect ratio. All widescreen LCDs I've ever seen do 1024x768 just fine with a sharp image since that's still a defacto standard, but then everything will look fat.
With a 4:3 display this isn't a problem: don't like 1600 x 1200? Drop it down to 1280 x 1024 or 1152 x 864 or even 1024 x 768 and it usually still looks just fine on any modern display.
Sure, you can fiddle with the Windows desktop settings to make your fonts and icons bigger but under XP you still have some issues with small text in some dialogs, and even Vista hasn't impressed me much with it's scalable desktop resolution (fine idea, but many apps don't support it properly).
With games this can also be a problem. One way to improve performance in a game is to drop the resolution. For instance if you're playing on a 4:3 monitor with a native res of 1600 x 1200 and Crysis runs slows as molasses (which it does anyway) you could bump the res down to 1024 x 768 and improve performance. You may not have that option on a widescreen display unless you choose a 4:3 resolution and live with fat enemies.
This consideration led me to purchase dual 19" widescreens with native resolutions of 1440 x 900. I really can't fit monitors any larger than 20 or 21" on my desk. I would have loved a 21" but most 20 and 21" displays have native desktop resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and that would have been a squint job for me on the desktop having used that monitor on client's PCs. I love my 19" displays - the desktop fonts are perfect on default and I don't have to change my font size in Firefox to read comfortably, which often screws up the text layout on a web page.
The other fairly minor issue is older games that don't support widescreen displays so you wind up shooting fat people. Some games may not support it in the display settings but can be hacked. For instance SWAT4 doesn't support widescreen modes but you can go into the INI file and manually set a widescreen resolution.
This also influenced my decision to go with 19" 1440x900 displays. At that resolution games look just fine, but that res isn't stressing the vid card as much as a higher res would so as this system ages I should be able to continue play newer games at the native res.
My rule of thumb to people who buy LCDs is to try buy the a bigger available size at whatever resolution you're looking at (not necessarily the biggest or you'll see pixelization). Seems almost a waste to get a 20" monitor at 1680 x 1050 that you'll be squinting at when you can get a 22" in that same resolution.
There aren't as many default widescreen desktop resolutions as there are 4:3 ones. So one issue I run into (especially with clients that have poor vision) is that if you don't like (or can't use) the native res, you often can't find a lower res that doesn't look blurry AND maintains the proper aspect ratio. All widescreen LCDs I've ever seen do 1024x768 just fine with a sharp image since that's still a defacto standard, but then everything will look fat.
With a 4:3 display this isn't a problem: don't like 1600 x 1200? Drop it down to 1280 x 1024 or 1152 x 864 or even 1024 x 768 and it usually still looks just fine on any modern display.
Sure, you can fiddle with the Windows desktop settings to make your fonts and icons bigger but under XP you still have some issues with small text in some dialogs, and even Vista hasn't impressed me much with it's scalable desktop resolution (fine idea, but many apps don't support it properly).
With games this can also be a problem. One way to improve performance in a game is to drop the resolution. For instance if you're playing on a 4:3 monitor with a native res of 1600 x 1200 and Crysis runs slows as molasses (which it does anyway) you could bump the res down to 1024 x 768 and improve performance. You may not have that option on a widescreen display unless you choose a 4:3 resolution and live with fat enemies.
This consideration led me to purchase dual 19" widescreens with native resolutions of 1440 x 900. I really can't fit monitors any larger than 20 or 21" on my desk. I would have loved a 21" but most 20 and 21" displays have native desktop resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and that would have been a squint job for me on the desktop having used that monitor on client's PCs. I love my 19" displays - the desktop fonts are perfect on default and I don't have to change my font size in Firefox to read comfortably, which often screws up the text layout on a web page.
The other fairly minor issue is older games that don't support widescreen displays so you wind up shooting fat people. Some games may not support it in the display settings but can be hacked. For instance SWAT4 doesn't support widescreen modes but you can go into the INI file and manually set a widescreen resolution.
This also influenced my decision to go with 19" 1440x900 displays. At that resolution games look just fine, but that res isn't stressing the vid card as much as a higher res would so as this system ages I should be able to continue play newer games at the native res.
My rule of thumb to people who buy LCDs is to try buy the a bigger available size at whatever resolution you're looking at (not necessarily the biggest or you'll see pixelization). Seems almost a waste to get a 20" monitor at 1680 x 1050 that you'll be squinting at when you can get a 22" in that same resolution.
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“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
Just saw this if you haven't already taken the plunge. Free shipping too. Looks good to me.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... lid=680413
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... lid=680413
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FlyingPenguin
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Executioner
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smb
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I use this one for gaming. I have my XBox 360 connected via the VGA cable, and I play WOW on it too. It has no ghosting, and has pretty no input lag.normalicy wrote:Just saw this if you haven't already taken the plunge. Free shipping too. Looks good to me.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... lid=680413
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MegaVectra
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