1440x900 Good Enough for Gaming - Or Will I Regret It Later?

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 04 Jul 2006, 18:44

I'm about to plunk my money down and pick up a 19-inch widescreen LCD - the Gateway linked below:

GateWay Link

The max resolution is 1440x900. My PC is an Athlon 64 3500 with a BFG AGP Geforce 6800 - but I plan on making the jump to a PCI-E SLI setup sooner or later ...

I know this is kind of a hard question to answer, but will 1440x900 seem too low resolution on my system once I get a better video card?

I'm used to gaming on my 19-inch CRT 4:3 Viewsonic monitor at 1152x864 and sometimes at 1280x1024 - how does 1140x900 compare to such resolutions?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 04 Jul 2006, 18:54

1440x900 is a good res for gaming at if you don't have the most powerful card on the planet... but yes, I'll agree with you - once you've got a better system, you might find yourself wishing you'd got a higher res panel.

1440x900 and 1280x1024 are almost the same number of pixels (1440x900 is slightly <1.3MP, 1280x1024 is slightly >1.3MP)...

Post by **maherie** » 04 Jul 2006, 19:20

Yeah, I'd say you'd regret it. I went 1680x1050 while it's great for gaming... I want a bigger desktop resulution, I need the room. So make the choice count, and take into consideration all of the aspects not just gaming.

Post by **BongoTrumman** » 04 Jul 2006, 20:58

Go with a better monitor and higher res. Like maherie said bigger desktop resolution is awesome. My screens native res is 1920x1200 and when my system can't handle that res in the new games I just lower the res. My monitor has a good scaler so I don't mind playing some games in lower res to get those extra FPS. I love my 1920x1200 desktop.
If you get a bigger screen now you can still lower the res to 1440x900 or whatever to still get your FPS with your current system and when you have a new system up the res and enjoy :D.

Morabu · Post by **Morabu** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:43

1440*900 will be good for now, i can't complain about mine
keep it a few years and then upgrade when you REALLY upgrade that graphics card

you don't want to get a panel with 1680*1050 with the card you have now and end up have to really turn things down to play new games at a good framerate, or lower the rez of the games and deal with mediocre scaling on most lcd's

that's my opnion anyway

Post by **skipclarke** » 05 Jul 2006, 21:13

I'd say take your time - what's the rush? 8)

You might want to head out to your local Best Buy/Office Depot/CompUSA etc and check out the 19" widescreens they have there in person. Play around with them, ask questions, see how you like the size of the default resolution for text, webpages, documents etc, before making your decision.

You can always go bigger of course, but keep in mind your upgraded kit will be behind the technology curve in six months anyway, so you may end up appreciating the smaller screen. Also, if you do think you'd like to go bigger, demo those units in person too - try scaling the resolutions lower to get a good feel for 19-24" panels before you plunk your hard earned cash.

Best of luck dude!

Microtia · Post by **Microtia** » 05 Jul 2006, 21:50

Personally to me, I went with a 19" because Im only running a 9800 Pro and refuse to update to PCIe until the DX10 cards are out and tested. Im more than happy with it so far, especially coming from a 17" CRT.

Its really up to you if you feel it will be inadequate. Like Stretch said, try viewing some in person and see if you feel the resolution will be acceptable to you.

ajg · Post by **ajg** » 05 Jul 2006, 21:56

i would go for the biggest screen you can afford... the dell 24" scales really well and 1440 res is fine on it. i have a dell 20" and it scale fine down to 1280 res, not that i personally need to anymore

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 06 Jul 2006, 03:01

Thanks everyone for all your responses!

Here's where I am right now: I just bought a 19-inch Gateway FPD1975W monitor. I have an AGP Geforce 6800 card. Most games seem to run fine at the monitor's native resolution of 1440x900, with some exceptions - the frame rate on FEAR and especially on Elder Scrolls can chug, depending on what's happening onscreen.

A bigger problem for me, however, is that dark scenes can look washed out. I guess I'm too used to my 19-inch Viewsonic CRT.

So ... I'm faced with two choices:

A: return my 19-inch Gateway and get the 21-inch model for $250 more, which is supposed to have much better contrast (Gateway lists it at 1000:1 as opposed to the 700:1 for the 19 inch) and it also has a PVA screen as opposed to the 19's TFT screen ... and start saving for a faster video card down the road ...

Or

B: KEEP the 19-inch Gateway, live with the poor contrast, and get a PCI-E/SLI MB and a faster video card right now.

I'm leaning toward A, just because the monitor seems like the bigger long-term investment. BUT I'm worried about running games with my current card on the 21 incher's 1680Ãƒâ€”1050 native resolution ...

I guess my main question now is, will I see much visual distortion if I run games in a lower resolution than the native one?

skeeder · Post by **skeeder** » 06 Jul 2006, 03:28

I'd see if you can use one. I snagged a buddies 20" 4:3 monitor for 2 weeks. Right now I'm thinking 20" is pletty, (I sit pretty close to my monitors...)

Morabu · Post by **Morabu** » 06 Jul 2006, 03:33

the answer is.........in short YES you will see a degredation in video quality, however small, depends on the quality of the lcd in question

but i must say that a 700:1 contrast ratio is pretty good for a 19 inch tft display imho!
my Viewsonic is only 500:1 and i feel like i can easily live with the black levels i get, but that is all in the eye of the beholder

my personal plan is to stick with my 19 inch until i can get a nice dx10 card and vista, then i will upgrade to a 20-24 inch monitor

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 06 Jul 2006, 13:39

the answer is.........in short YES you will see a degredation in video quality, however small, depends on the quality of the lcd in question

but i must say that a 700:1 contrast ratio is pretty good for a 19 inch tft display imho!
my Viewsonic is only 500:1 and i feel like i can easily live with the black levels i get, but that is all in the eye of the beholder

my personal plan is to stick with my 19 inch until i can get a nice dx10 card and vista, then i will upgrade to a 20-24 inch monitor

Morabu - someone on this site told me that there is no fixed standard for such specs - in other words, 700:1 is whatever Gateway chooses to say it is. Thus it's possible that your Viesonic has the same or even better contrast than my Gateway. The LCD I had before this was a Mag, which claimed a 500:1 contrast compared to the Gateway's 700:1, and I think the Mag had a better picture ...

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 06 Jul 2006, 13:42

Yeah, I'd say you'd regret it. I went 1680x1050 while it's great for gaming... I want a bigger desktop resulution, I need the room. So make the choice count, and take into consideration all of the aspects not just gaming.

Maherie - you're saying it IS great for gaming, right? Or are you saying it's not so great for gaming, but there are other aspects besides gaming that you use it for?

Post by **maherie** » 06 Jul 2006, 16:39

I was saying that it's great, but my system specs (back then) limited me going bigger. I Really Really need a 24" + screen for the desktop rez.

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 09 Jul 2006, 06:53

A little update everybody:

I ended up taking the $260 19-inch Gateway back and emptying my piggy bank to get the $500 21-inch Gateway ... and ...

I think I made the right decision. It's not so much a matter of bigger is better, but the quality of the picture is much, much better, at least in terms of clarity, sharpness, detail, blacks, etc. Text is much easier to read. Games definitely look better, even if I have to lower the res to play them ...

It's not perfect by any means - there is serious "screen flash" with this monitor, which is a big drawback, and I am missing that faster video card, but I still think I made the right choice.

Full review to come!

Thanks again everyone who weighed in.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 09 Jul 2006, 09:47

Screen flash?

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 09 Jul 2006, 19:01

Screen flash?

Yeah, I don't know where I came up with that one :) ... The term I was looking for was "color wash," not "screen flash" ...

My understanding is that this is a problem common to S-PVA screens. When looked at straight on, the way you would normally do with an LCD, the center of the image is much darker than the sides, meaning you lose a lot of detail in darker images. If I open up a dark window and then move it around I can see the image becoming brighter/clearer as it gets closer to the edge of the screen.
If you look at the monitor from the side, the image is even, but who wants to spend all their time looking at their monitor from the side?
Also, gray/darker images can have a kind of "glittery" reflective look to them which proves distracting.

Several posters at the hardforum describe the problem with this monitor/screen here

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=960883&page=1&pp=20

EDIT: Yikes. I just noticed that on gray colored web pages, I am also getting an effect that I would describe as "screen flash." I'm going to post about it in the hardware forum, since I seem to be drifting away from the topic of gaming ..

rosoboy · Post by **rosoboy** » 11 Aug 2006, 04:20

Glad to hear you're enjoying your fpd2185w. I have the fpd1975w and I experienced the dark effect you described as well, at first. I used the color calibration tool that came with my video card (nview component) to calibrate the image and it resolved the issue. Now its quite enjoyable to look at.

So cool that you could raid the piggy bank and pick up the 21" model, though. :D So many wonderful inputs.

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » 11 Aug 2006, 06:02

Glad to hear you're enjoying your fpd2175w. I have the fpd1975w and I experienced the dark effect you described as well, at first. I used the color calibration tool that came with my video card (nview component) to calibrate the image and it resolved the issue. Now its quite enjoyable to look at.

So cool that you could raid the piggy bank and pick up the 21" model, though. :D So many wonderful inputs.

Well, rosoboy, I raided the piggy bank, then went back and raided it again ... I ended up buying a 20-inch NEC, far more money than I ever expected or wanted to pay ... It's like an addiction, this stuff.

As for the color wash (color shift?) issue with the Gateway - that only affects the 21-inch Gateway, because it is an issue with PVA panels. The 21-inch Gateway has a PVA panel, but the 19-inch Gateway is a TN panel, so you should be spared from having to deal with that particular problem ... That doesn't mean you didn't improve your image/black levels with that calibration tool, however - the factory default settings usually need to be tweaked anyway..
The screen wash effect with the 21-inch model that I mentioned, can be lessoned slightly, but it will always be there: it can never be completely tweaked away.

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