Wide Screen, Native Resolutions, and Video cards

[SurfD]

Here is a question that popped into my head while i was looking through the Dell Monitor thread.  Got me to looking around and comparing specs and stuff on other widescreens, but I have to ask:

Say a monitor has a native resolution of:
1920 x 1200 (24 inch dell i was looking at, and drooling over)
1680 x 1050 (average for 20.1 inch widescreens i believe)

From what I understand, native resolution is what the monitor displays its picture best at.

Exactly what kind of videocard am i going to need to get the best performance out of one of the above mentioned monitors?  I am willing to bet that my All in Wonder 9800pro cant even hit the 1680 x 1050 resolution level, let alone the native rez of that 24inch beast.

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

Also, since most everything I look at has SVid or other secondary connecters: what native resoluton does a Playstation 2 run at, and would the picture look terrible if i connected one directly to the monitor?

[Trippy]

Here is a question that popped into my head while i was looking through the Dell Monitor thread.  Got me to looking around and comparing specs and stuff on other widescreens, but I have to ask:

Say a monitor has a native resolution of:
1920 x 1200 (24 inch dell i was looking at, and drooling over)
1680 x 1050 (average for 20.1 inch widescreens i believe)

From what I understand, native resolution is what the monitor displays its picture best at.

Exactly what kind of videocard am i going to need to get the best performance out of one of the above mentioned monitors?  I am willing to bet that my All in Wonder 9800pro cant even hit the 1680 x 1050 resolution level, let alone the native rez of that 24inch beast.

Many of the hardware review sites now test at very high resolutions (e.g. Toms has a recent review that goes up to 2560 x 1600) so you can get an idea from reading those, though of course those benchmarks are typically done with the fastest CPUs as well so if you are only thinking about upgrading your video card and not your CPU it can be hard to extrapolate to what you might expect on your setup.

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

It depends on how good the resizing algorithms are in the monitor but I would expect most do a pretty good job these days (in the old days some monitors didn't even bother trying and you ended up with a pixelated mess).

Also, since most everything I look at has SVid or other secondary connecters: what native resoluton does a Playstation 2 run at, and would the picture look terrible if i connected one directly to the monitor?

If you are connecting the PS2 through your video card then the video card will handling the upscaling to your display resolution which should look fine (the bigger problem is the mismatch between a PC display's color gamut and NTSC/PAL's color gamut). If you are connecting it directly to your monitor then it depends on your monitor settings and whether or not it does any upscaling. For an NTSC PS2 the native output resolution is I believe the standard NTSC 702 x 480.

[Tale]

Exactly what kind of videocard am i going to need to get the best performance out of one of the above mentioned monitors?  I am willing to bet that my All in Wonder 9800pro cant even hit the 1680 x 1050 resolution level, let alone the native rez of that 24inch beast.

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

I own the Dell 24" (revision A02, they're now at A03) and it handles lower-than-native resolutions remarkably well, especially in games that don't support widescreen. It's not as crystal clear and sharp as the native resolution, but it's passable.

However, I still wouldn't buy such a monitor if I was going to be running non-native resolution for any length of time. LCD panels are purpose-built for their native resolution and do not behave like CRTs. Think digital: 800x600 digital photos can't be resized into 1600x1200 high resolution images. A 1024x768 desktop is going to look crappy when it becomes a 1920x1200 picture.

I'm running an AGP 6800GS 512Mb card in a Core 2 Duo system with 1Gb DDR333 (whacky ASRock motherboard that lets you do this). It visibly "paints" the image across the screen when alt-tabbing from a game to a windows desktop, or opening a new browser window. Other than that it's fine for the monitor. WoW runs at an easy 60fps on high settings in 1920x1200.

[bhodi]

Same as tele, I have the dell 24" one revision back. I'm only running a P4 3.2 w/ Geforce 6800GT, but WoW and most games run fine. I run WC3 in 1024 for the faster mouse, for DotA, and it runs fine. I think that the higher the native resolution, the better lower resolutions will look. But I can't bring math to back that up. I would personally buy a monitor that runs a native res for playable games; 2nd gen or lower games I can play fiine, and I figure my next machine will have no trouble at all in that resolution, so that's why I picked it up.

[Morfiend]

I was wondering about this also. I am planning on building a new blazing fast rig, and getting a Dell 30inch. Is that going to make it look not as good for high graphic games if I have to downrez from native? Since the 30s native is like 2500 some thing I think. I have wanted a 30 inch monitor for a long time, but I dont know if I am shooting myself in the foot getting one.

[SurfD]

Another question i am considering:

What is the price flexability of these monitors?  Unfortunately, the widescreen LCD monitor market is not something I have been paying attention to.

Since the dell 24 inch is currently on sale for 200 bucks off retail (699 CAD till Jan 4th) normally 899 cad, Im trying to justify buying one of these things to replace my rather old, though still functional, 17 inch Optiquest tube.

I am planning on upgrading my PC in a little while, so the question becomes: am I likely to see a drop in price of 200 or more on the dell 24 inch between now and say, mid june / july (which i highly doubt) or will i be kicking myself for buying it now, only to see something comparable / better come out at a similar price point once i bring my rig up to par in the summer.

[Yoru]

It's possible, but that'll be dependent on when Dell plans to introduce their next model upgrade to the 24xxWFP line. The 05 model was the 2405, the 06 model is the 2407 they're selling now. However, I have no idea if they're planning to release a 2409 in 2007.

That said, I just noticed that Dell's cut the prices on them to USD$715 over here. Not quite as great a sale as the Canadian onel, but still pretty good. I'll probably get around to picking mine up in February at this rate.

[Sir Fodder]

I have an older 24" Dell widescreen and consider it (along with a Pentax super focus SLR bought in 82') the best consumer type purchase I've ever made. I've got an old 27" tube TV so I use the Dell for watching movies in widescreen and its great in that role too, I'm trying to get an over the air HD adapter set up this weekend, looks great so far. Not sure about the Canadian rates but 200 off sounds good, I kept an eye on the slickdeals website and pounced when it went down to around $600 USD.

[Tale]

Yeah the price for the Dell 24" bounces around all the time. They rarely have it at the supposed "normal" price. Dell Australia does much the same thing and I waited until they dropped to their lowest price. Then I applied a discount coupon code obtained on a forum from someone who receives them in a fax. It was accepted.

I then bumped the warranty up to 5 years from the standard 3 years, which basically cancelled out the coupon code discount. So I got the monitor at Dell's lowest price with a 5 year warranty. Can't complain.