I need to get a new monitor and I am thinking about getting a 19" widescreen. I don't watch movies on my computer...I use it mainly for surfing the internet, ocassional gameing, and mostly lestioning to music useing Winamp. Would a widescreen be good to have or would I be better off with a normal monitor?
Full Version: Should I get a widescreen monitor?
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QUOTE(David Nordin @ May 30 2006, 21:57) 
In my opinion, 16:9 or 2:35 is not only interesting because of the fact movies are made in these formats.
It's moreso that it suits the way you see better - the eyes have better bandwidth horisontally than vertical.
I agree with David - I find my widescreen laptop much more pleasing to work on than my 4:3 monitor, even for tasks where I wouldn't expect this to be the case, like programming or word processing. Personally I'd rather save up a bit more and go for a 20" though, as the resolution is better (1440x900 @ 19" adds up to around 90 dpi vs the 100 dpi of a 20" monitor @ 1680x1050). However, if you use it for gaming I guess the fewer pixels to process the better :-)
At least I like widescreen monitors. They allow me to keep a web browser open on the left and messenger contect list on the right. 
I have 20" widescreen LCD, with an aspect ratio of 16:10.
Unusually, I orient it vertically, not horizontally. I don't play games or watch movies on my PC, but I do use a browser a lot and read a lot of documents.
I love it.
PS: I also use ClearType.
Unusually, I orient it vertically, not horizontally. I don't play games or watch movies on my PC, but I do use a browser a lot and read a lot of documents.
I love it.
PS: I also use ClearType.
QUOTE(qristus @ May 30 2006, 13:09)
QUOTE(David Nordin @ May 30 2006, 21:57)
In my opinion, 16:9 or 2:35 is not only interesting because of the fact movies are made in these formats.
It's moreso that it suits the way you see better - the eyes have better bandwidth horisontally than vertical.
I agree with David - I find my widescreen laptop much more pleasing to work on than my 4:3 monitor, even for tasks where I wouldn't expect this to be the case, like programming or word processing. Personally I'd rather save up a bit more and go for a 20" though, as the resolution is better (1440x900 @ 19" adds up to around 90 dpi vs the 100 dpi of a 20" monitor @ 1680x1050). However, if you use it for gaming I guess the fewer pixels to process the better :-)
I wanted to get a 20" but there is a steep price difference and it goes way over my budget. Is there that much of a physical difference between the 19" and 20"?
I believe your gaming performance will be considerably worse if you use widescreen monitors and enable that feature in games.
From what I recall, widescreen resolutions stress your GPU much more than traditional gaming resolutions.
I guess you can always disable the widescreen mode if you're video card is struggling too much. But don't take me for granted, I'm not sure of any of this
Personally I'd love to have one
From what I recall, widescreen resolutions stress your GPU much more than traditional gaming resolutions.
I guess you can always disable the widescreen mode if you're video card is struggling too much. But don't take me for granted, I'm not sure of any of this
Personally I'd love to have one
QUOTE(darin @ May 31 2006, 20:15)
I wanted to get a 20" but there is a steep price difference and it goes way over my budget. Is there that much of a physical difference between the 19" and 20"?
Size-wise not so much, pixel-wise you have about 36% more screen real-estate with the 20". If there's a big price difference it might not be worth it though. I'm still on a 17" myself, so that's also a factor - if I'm going to upgrade I want a noticable difference in the pixel count, not only the pixel size.
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