16:9 vs 4:3 vs 16:10 for Gaming

[kubes]

What is your opipions on a gaming monitor ratio, 16:9 vs 4:3 vs 16:10. I'm currently in the market for a new monitor as my 28" hanns-G monitor blew (was 16:10) and was interrested in others opipions.

Side question:
I've always thought that 16:9 looked distored but after doing some research it sounds like it just takes time to adjust. Is this true? (when going from 4:3 or 16:10)

 

[coldsleep]

I have a 16:10 monitor myself, but they're dying out of the market. 16:9 is becoming the defacto standard, and they tend to be a little less expensive than 16:10 as well.

I'd just go with 16:9. If you decide you want to upgrade to a multi-monitor setup later, it will be easier to match or find your monitor still in production.

There's no reason to get a 4:3 monitor these days.

 

[kubes]

I personaly have two cons with the 16:9.

1) overall smaller area than 16:10.
2) It has always felt a bit distorted.

I'm mostly concerd with the distortion. Is this something that just takes time for your eye to adjust to or is it something to just deal with? Anyone else make this jump and have insight on this?

 

[LeMajor]

Hello, I am aware that this is an old post, I stumbled here while looking for 9:4 ratio (namely 3600x1600 or three 1600x1200 monitors flipped on their side.

But as for the original question, games from 5 years ago and older were rarely coded for supporting wide resolutions, so, if you are to play BF1942, Call of Duty 2 or SWAT 4 extensively, you may be better with a 4:3 or 5:4 ratio (5:4 is the ratio for 1280x1024 screens, usually 17 to 20 inch only).

Newer games are mostly coded with 16:9 in mind (since a lot are direct ports from consoles) the FOV is usually engine dependent but mostly, they adjust correctly for the appropriate screen ratio, I tried 2600x400 once on an UE3 based game and the FOV scaled accordingly, I could see nearly 360 degrees.

16:10 is a better choice if you work on a lot of documents (it can scale two letter format pages side by side) and 16:9 is the best choice for entertainment (movies and games)

As for my original statement, three 4:3 monitors on their side (flipped in portrait mode) would give a 9:4 ratio which would be awesome for vehicle games (racing, flight...)