Native resolution question.

bretttp1

Hi all,

I am thinking about buying a 20” widescreen monitor, curry’s are doing a deal at the mo on a Phillips for €329 (100 off in the sale) or this.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=324783

What I was wondering was will my graphics card be able to handle it?? I have a 6800gs 256mb pci ex, and if not would it be worth it buying a second 6800gs and running in sli?

How exactly is downscaling my resolution to something my card can handle going to effect viewing on one of those monitors?

I’m not sure about all this native resolution info but the LG’s is 1680x1050 how do I find out what my graphics card can handle?

System spec:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 1MB
EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLI,nForce4 SLI,Socket-939 ,ATX,S-ATA2,GbLAN,Firewire,DDR, PCI-Ex16.
PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB Kit w/two matched Value Select 512MB
NorthQ 4775-500, ATX 500W, 4xSATA, SLI, 20/24pin
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Samsung DVD±RW burner, SH-W162L, 16x, Dual, LightScribe
Dell DVD±RW burner
POINT OF VIEW GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 425Mhz/1GHz

Saruman

Do you mean in general or for games? In general your card should be able to handle it fine.. however in games its a different story and you will have to down the res.

bretttp1

yeah thats what I was concerned about ! I'm playing Oblivion at the moment on a 17" CRT and having no probs with frame rates etc.
Would there be a drastic drop in frame rate (that is unplayable)?
Would going sli solve this?

8T8

The 6800GS wont be good enough for the native 1680x1050 resolution expect on older games or if you sacrifice detail.

Another 6800GS to go SLI might do the trick as a stop gap but enabling AA would not be recommended for some games at least though you should be able to keep the details high.

The question is how cheap can you get another 6800GS if it approaches anywhere near the cost of a current entry level high card then it is probably not worth it.

For example on Komplett new a 6800GS costs about €215 so you would be better of selling your current 6800GS and buying a better high end card.

The best deal on a 6800GS I can see is in the clearance section on Komplett there is a 6800GS going for €141 that is your best budget buy to increase performance.

bretttp1

What would be the max monitor size for my current set up?
I'm guessing that I'm already at my limit with a bog standard 17" CRT but would a 19" widescreen be any better than the 20"?

Clutching at straws here:)

8T8

Yes there are widescreen displays with a 1440x990 resolution which is much more manageable for your GPU without having to go SLI or get a better one.

This 19" Acer display is a generally good all rounder.

If you want something slightly better with DVI connection this 19" widescreen Samsung is also worth considering or this BenQ.

In terms of 20" displays this Samsung model or this LG model are worth going for both have 1400x1050 resolutions which is still within the zone of performance for your GPU.

As for which to get well I'd probably go for the 20" Samsung.

But if budget permitting I would get the 19" Acer & use the remaining cash to get the clearance 6800GS for SLI to bump performance even further.

bretttp1

Thanks for all the info 8T8 (once again).

would this be suitable:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/709546

19" with 1280 x 1024 resolution.

8T8

Looks okay but that's no better than what you already have & that isn't a widescreen display.

I would not jump from CRT to LCD for that, CRT stil lhas advantages over LCD thse can be countered with a good LCD display but a cheap one is not worth it against a CRT.

This BenQ 19" LCD is considered one of the best in it's class and is a 1280x1024 display same dimensions/resolution support as your CRT I imagine but definitely better.

bretttp1

Well I really want to go widescreen thats why I was interested in the phillips as its on sale in PC World, but if its not up to the job I'll look elsewhere.

thanks again.:)

bretttp1

Right I bought the second 6800gs and am currently running in sli, any suggestions as to the optimum lcd widescreen display for this set up?

I'm guessing 19"/21" supporting at least 100Hz refresh rate at 1600x1200.

8T8

LCD's have a fixed refresh rate of 60Hz (there is one bleeding edge Samsung LCD HDTV that does 100Hz though).

1600x1200 is a 4:3 resolution think the regular square display, wide screen equivalent is 1680x1050.

I still think this Acer 19" wide screen with a 1440x900 resolution is the best bet because the resolution is not too low or too high allowing you to make the most of the SLI setup in terms of graphics details and image quality enhancements like AA & AF (AA murders performance at high resolutions). Plus it's not bad on the bank account either with a very reasonable price & the display has good picture quality.

FYI I'm running a 7800GTX SLI setup on a 1680x1050 display. If you are set on a 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 display just be aware that not all games even with the 6800GS SLI will be playable with AA enabled.

bretttp1

Would this one : http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=319692 be an option with 1400x1050,(8T8 suggestion in previous post).

Do you have to match exactly the resolution of the monitor to your graphics card?
I hear this causes tearing of the image, which sounds painful.:D

Another thing how do find out what your resolution is on two 6800gs in sli mode?

8T8

Yes that Samsung display will do just fine as well though be aware it is slightly more pixles in resolution.

Tearing is a visual phenomena associated with all LCD's displays if you disable v-sync. While turning off v-sync is normal under a CRT in an LCD this causes the image to have a brief split with the previous frame causing a tearing effect.

The reason why tearing happens is a complicated one but the only sure fire way to eliminate tearing is to enable v-sync which means you have to be able to render 60fps at all times (same as refresh rate) this of course is not possible in all games and can seriously impact performance in others unless you have the processing power to do so.

Also not everything is the same in causing tearing for example Warcraft 3 would see little tearing but Quake 4 causes it a lot in my experience. Also some displays are technologically different and can handle tearing better than others it gets awfully complicated at this point. Some people don't even notice it in the first place...

Resolution and graphics card are independent of each other however if you want to play games at the native resolution of the display you will need the processing power to do so which can affect your purchasing decision, for example a 7300GS cannot render current games at 1680x1050 but could definitely run that resolution on the desktop or render basic 3D programs/games at that resolution.

Like wise using Warcraft 3 again as an example you would have no problem playing that at 1400x1050 or higher with a 6800GS SLI setup same goes for F.E.A.R initially but start to go higher with F.E.A.R and performance will definitely drop as it is much more demanding visually.

It varies from game to game but as your not using bleeding edge hardware I would stay away from the displays that use 16xx or greater resolutions as the performance requirements to render at that resolution is too much unless your willing to sacrifice details.

Exceptions;
If all you play is Counter Strike Source for instance then sure go for a 16xx display the game is so well optimized that you will have no issue running it at high resolutions.

You can always forgo running games at that native resolution of the panel even if you get a 16xx or greater display the image wont be as crisp as the native res but some people aren't too bothered about this these days as resolution scaling has gotten a lot better.