I have enough money to blow on a 16:9 LCD monitor but I have not heard how well games support such a resolution or how many offer an 16:9 option. I've tried looking for support but found nothing. Does anyone use a 16:9 monitor to play games or is this primaraly used for extra workspace? (eg opposed to two monitors in photoshop, so many toolbars) I'm worried that after spending X ammount of dollars with the result of my games looking stretched and distorted.
In my experience it depends on the game. all the games ive seen won't say 16:9 ratio in the video tabs, but they will have resolutions that are effectively the same thing. here's a nifty little list although it doesn't show anything about 16:9 aspect ratios Hitmill.com - Monitor Screen Resolutions Hope that helps
Unless the games support 16:9 ratio resolutions, depending on the type of monitor and your GFX card's settings the screen will either be streched or scaled down to the chosen resolution giving you black borders around or on the side of the screen. The most populair games don't always support widescreen resolutions sadly, Greetings Marcus
I'd just get a 1280x1024 (17" or 19") one, which is a 5:4 aspect ratio, or a 1400x1050 or a 1600x1200 one, which are both 4:3 aspect ratios and come in either 20" or 20.1" sizes. (20.1" are always 1600x1200 as far as I've seen but 20" can be both: some are 1400x1050 while others are 1600x1200). Personally, my favorite is the 20" with a 1400x1050 res. but I couldn't find one like that with a really good response time. =\
the highest resolution i've seen in any game is 1680x1050, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio. TV and computer for whatever reason never seem to have the same aspect ratios, anways thats what i'd go with, you can get a really nice 20'' widscreen with 8ms response time or so for under $300
Mostly depends on what games you play. Battlefield two will stretch, because it doesn't have the right resoplution settings, while Half Life 2 will look fine because you can choose between the wide and standard aspects. So look up the games you play the most and see if they support widescreen.
why would u want a widescreen anyway? I seriously can't understand why people like them. Is it just to be able to watch movies in widescreen?
well i've thought about that to, but think about the world, we see things wider than tall. Plus you get more of an image in a space, and most movie now adays use a widescreen format. Also you got more on the screen at once in a game which is a huge help as you don't have to look around as much to find out where some one is shooting you from or where the freakin lever is
Oh ... so games are adopting this feature? Didn't know that. That is indeed pretty neat i guess. Still, only a few support this as of now, right? P.S. is enabling this feature in a game a big hassle for the programmers?
I dont think the programmers would go through the hassle of giving you more viewing area side-to-side, they probably actually cut the top and bottom off, giving you less viewing area.
well from what i've seen you get the wider viewing format, i can't vouch for every game but i know Simcity4 takes advantage of the wide format. Honestly thats all i can think of at the moment, but i know theres other, i just can't remember exactly. Even then its more likely that games will incorporate support for widescreen displays, so its a good investment.
