widescreen for gaming

[razrbld]

I was thinking about buying an lcd monitor. Will a widescreen b good for gaming. Or should i just buy a normal LCD??? which one will b better? I mostly use pc for gaming. Need suggestions. Which type has the most advantages than the other?

 

[nECrO1967]

The current crop of LCD's are fine for gaming. Response times have fallen to close to that of CRT's and prices are great as well. I am currently using an Acer 24" LCD and could not be happier. I play BF2, FEAR, UT2K4, Quake 4 and HL2. As for Widescreen, thats a matter of preference. Many games do not support it and in some cases this may affect gameplay. I would suggest trying to find someone with an LCD to watch and see what you think.

BTW, take the manufacturers numbers with a grain of salt as there are many testing methods and not all are good. READ REVIEWS! HTH

 

[fredgiblet]

If you play lots of old games then you probably shouldn't go widescreen as most of them don't support it. If you only play new games then a widescreen will likely be supported but it's still a personal preference issue, I'd say that if ou play shooters in multiplayer and they support widescreen it mught be worth it, otherwise probably not.

 

[pelagius]

I have a 22" widescreen and I like it quite a bit.

I have only played a few games on it like WOW,TES:IV,Guild Wars, BattleFront II. But I find that the widescreen is actually more ergonomic to the eyes for playing games. Its nice cause you get a wide view of the area around you. Of course if the game doesnt support the res then its prob gonna look like crap, however I think if the game supports it widescreen is better. Also if you watch any media on your computer chances are that the format is in widescreen and they look a lot better when they dont have those damn black bars on the top and bottom.

 

[purdueguy]

I have a 22" Viewsonic widescreen. I wouldn't go back to a "normal" screen for anything. It's 1680x1050 bliss. Yeah, grant it "old" games might not support this resolution but you'll want something for "new" games anyway.

If you get a monitor that supports higher than 1280x1024 resolution, you will probably want to get a video card at least as powerful as an X1950Pro or preferably an X1950XT unless you already do.

Now, if I can only convince the wife that the 30" Dell Ultra Sharp 2560x1600 is necessary.

 

[i8blarg]

Now, if I can only convince the wife that the 30" Dell Ultra Sharp 2560x1600 is necessary.

if you figure out how to win that argument let me know

 

[darkwire]

same here

 

[yakyb]

widescreen gaming is the way forward its awesome you will not regret it!

 

[RamboMadCow]

Now if only GPU manufacturers would support up to 3 wide screen monitor resolutions...I think we'd be great to go.

 

[nECrO1967]

All these comments pretty much mirror my feelings. BTW, if BF2 is one of the "old" games you are playing, there is a way to trick it into displaying whatever resolution you want. Follow the link below. There have been a very few ppl who have complained that this makes the game unstable. In most of those cases, the systems were short on RAM IMO. Also, if you try to apply a patch, you will need to undo and re-do this as the patch will not install properly. HTH

http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78473

 

[dobby]

sure on one of my rigs i have a 19" LG flatron widesceen @ 1440 X 900 (WXGA+) however for serious and online FPS i would stick with a regual screen as you can take more of it in, and you get a whole range of reses and the extra Frames Per Second

 

[Opterondo]

Widescreen is great just make sure your video card can support the WS resolution and DVI. And remember you lose 17% surface area because of the aspect ratio. ie. a 19" standard LCD 5:4 = 20.1" WS LCD 16:10

 

[baddad]

I have a 24" widescreen and play all my games in widescreen. All of them are run in 1920x 1200.

 

[billdcat4]

I have a square-screen Dell 2001FP 20" inch 1600x1200 LCD back from the day when it was king. I find its native resolution of 1600x1200 perfect as it is supported by all new games and most old ones as well. You cant say that about 1280x1024 (ahem BF1942 and BFV ahem.)

My friend recently bought a 19" Rosewill 4ms display and is very happy with it.

I would check out resolution support in games as well as workarounds for them. I hear that FEAR also has a workaround for some resolution limitation.


My family is still using a 15" CRT that is over 10 years old. Its not from their current PC, a Dell 2400, the previous one, a P2 Dell, nor from the one before, some Win98 Compaq, but from the 1st pc that they got a Win95 machine.

Hell, its still chugging along. Just is really dirty under the screen and makes a loud whining sound sometimes.

 

[ira176]

I had that thought in mind as well, when deciding which components to buy to build my computer, and what monitor I would use. I played alot of BF2, HL2, BF1942, NFS, and RTW. All worked great on my old 15.7" CRT, but would they work on the widescreen lcd?
I finally decided on the Viewsonic VG2030WM, which is a 20.1" wide screen lcd. I needed to make sure the system would be able to churn out good game play at the very best of 1680x1050. So I went with cross fire 1950 pro's, 2GB mem. and X2 5200+. Granted, with this much power I should be able to play current games at the highest resolution with most or all details on.
I put the system together and loaded up some of the previously listed games, and I found out that not all will run at the monitor's native resolution. The good news is, is that they still worked great and looked good even with the games limited choice of resolution. I also got Guild Wars which does work at the monitor's native resolution, and that looks spectacular! I've recently picked up BF2142, which doesn't work at the monitor's native resolution, but still looks great none the less.
I think that most newer lcd's are able to scale down better than a few years ago, so even though some games can't operate at the highest resolution for a given monitor, they still look good. Pixel response times are generally better, and specifically with my lcd monitor, I have not noticed ghosting at all.
I think that you'll be happy overall with a widescreen monitor, just make sure that if you get a larger panel with a higher resolution, your current system will be up to the task. Good Luck!

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

For those of you who are having trouble with games that don't support wide aspect ratio resolutions, check out Widescreen Gaming forum. They have guides for getting just about any game to work in widescreen, including BF2/BF2142, Halo, and others.

Fortunately, most games today do support it. Hitman (well, at least Blood Money does, dunno about the others), World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike: Source, UT2004, Fable: the Lost Chapters, etc. support at least 1680 x 1050. I know Halo does 1440 x 900, but there is a hack to get it working in 1680 x 1050.

I highly recommend a widescreen monitor, it's way, way more engrossing.

Oh, and if you get your wife to let you buy a 30" display, let me know so I can try and adapt the strategy for my folks! :lol:

 

[williamfontaine]

I've been replaying Deus Ex (yeah, the original) for the past week on my 22" Acer and it's fantastic. I'd hate to go back to a 4:3 monitor. Widescreen is easily the best upgrade I've ever made.

 

[nECrO1967]

The guy that said most games look good even if your game doesn't support your monitors resolution is mostly right. The only exception I found to this was BF2. And that was only because I play the sniper kit 99% of the time. Problem was before I applied the workaround running the games resolution on my 24" Acer caused it to stretch a bit, making it harder to dial in on someones head and get the "head shot" I was looking for. Even with this, i wouldn't go back to 4:3 for anything. I think seeing more on each side is an advantage. Stretching or not.

As for that Dell 30", I am still waging an internal war with myself over that baby. It's the only Dell product I have EVER lusted after. No wife, just common sense vs I want it.

 

[scubageek]

As for that Dell 30", I am still waging an internal war with myself over that baby. It's the only Dell product I have EVER lusted after. No wife, just common sense vs I want it.

Same here..

I currently have the Gateway 24" and I don't regret it one bit. Of course, I used a Dell 24" at work, and fell in love with it, so that led me to get the Gateway 24" Monitor.

I would LOVE to have the 30" monitor, but honestly, currently I can't justify the cost. When it comes down a bit more, we will see.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

It's really sad that the best monitors in just about every size and resolution.......


...are Dells.

 

[ches111]

razr,

Checkout HERE:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

To see if the games you normally play are widescreen capable. Then see if they play well in WS.

Chances are nearly everything you play these days will support the WS format. In fact some support quite well and give a larger/wider FOV which could be an advantage.

 

[nECrO1967]

It's really sad that the best monitors in just about every size and resolution.......


...are Dells.

Yeah. If they could do that well with PC's, HP wouldn't be eating their lunch right now.

 

[jaguarskx]

It's really sad that the best monitors in just about every size and resolution.......


...are Dells.

Not in the 22" LCD category:

22 inch LCD monitors: The second coming!

And not in the 24" LCD category in the following limited review:

24" Monitor Showdown

 

[RamboMadCow]

I'm a little upset that the reviews for the 24" screens said they all had an issue with ghosting except one. I myself was looking at getting the Dell but as I do play games from time to time I definitely don't want any ghosting. Ahh well, I guess I'll have to wait for a few months before they get that down a little more.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Ghosting depends on how you see it, reviews for that tend to be very subjective. A lot of harcore CRT users when they switch to an LCD think, "OMG, this thing ghosts like crazy!" People who've used mostly LCD screens for the past few years won't see nearly as much, if at all.

My Viewsonic 20" LCD is an 8ms panel, and the only time I've ever noticed ghosting was in Oblivion. Games like InstaGib UT2004 with the gamespeed cranked have never ghosted for me on this screen.

Try it out first, you should always do that with an expensive screen. You'll be staring at it for the next few years, most likely long after you upgrade your PC, so make it a good one.