Which Screen size is recommended?

Hey all-

My almost 4 year old dell has done me good. But last falls crop of games I have to play at low levels, so that means I won't bother playing this years until I get a new system. On my budget, an Inspiron 1520 works with the 256 nvidia. The question now is what resolution to get. I'm used to 1280x800.

I'm basically asking that to play a game, say Bioshock, at max settings with that nvidia card (not sure if thats even possible, but if not, close to max), would it have to play at 1280x800, or can you play it with good framerate at the higher resolutions? What are the advantages to the higher resolutions? I remember that the higher the resolution, the more detailed the gameworld BUT the interface shrank (I like large fonts, easier on the eyes). We are talking a $50-$100 difference. I'd rather not spend the money just for bragging rights.

Being a gamer among non-gamers, I can't even compare the different resolutions, so I have no idea how much better looking a game is on a higher resolution.

Regardless, if the current 1520 can play current games at high resolutions ONLY if you turn the graphic settings down, than forget it. I would like to have max graphic settings first with playing at higher resolutions second.

Anthony

 

I run all the games i play at max on 1680x1050 res (HL2, TF2, etc.), but they aren't super new games (though TF2 uses the updated engine)...

Generally speaking though... The lower the rest the better a graphics card will perform and teh 8600 is a good card imho.

 

Theoretically the 1440x900 should be the best of both words. You will have plenty of space on your desktop and can play games at this res (ok, Crysis won't run on 1440x900, but most stuff will), but beware that about 50% of the panels in this resolution are grainy.

With the 1680x1050 panel everything will be small like flees and hard to read...its definitely overkill for a 15,4".

On the other hand 1280x800 is not very good if you use your notebook for a lot of office work, as you won't have much space.

 

Depends on the person... IMHO 1680x1050 is too big for a 15" i REALLY miss the late 90s when you could get 1600x1200 (UXGA) in a 15" notebook...

But then again my handwriting is about 1/8th of an inch in height so I have a heavy bias towards small

 

i miss those days, i had an inspiron 8200 with 64mg card, i paid £1150 for that baby and it lasted me years,that had a wuxga screen 1600x1200 and the screen as amazing, i remember the day i got it we put battlefield on it, and full settings and it blew us away, that lasted me a few years, i loved that machine !!!

im gonna purchase a new dell in the next day or so, just doing my research and reading a lot on here and deciding, my main must is vista home premium, and a 8600GT and 2048 ddr, i been thinking about the WUXGA 17" , and a inspiron 1720 or a vostro 1700 , probably a 2.0ghz model , will these run the lastest generation games on full settings in the 1900x1200 on the 17" ???

 

It depends what you like to play...but I would say as general...no! Inspiron 1520&1720s (Vostros are the same) can run latest games (ie. Crysis, Oblivion) at 1280x800 to 1440x900 at medium to high settings depending on the game. The Crysis Demo for example runs on my 1520 with medium settings at 1280x800 without lag...but there is no much power left for a higher resolution. The 1720 you described has not much more power.

For the best of the best you will need an XPS 1730 or something similar, but that will be at least twice as expensive.

 

ok thanks man

i posted a thread -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188912


basicly ive just sold my acer that had a turion and 128mb ati x700 2g ddr

, and ive got £600 budget, want something to last me 2/3 years with direct x 10, im not a great fan of the bioshock type games, i play pro evoloution soccer, battlefield 2 and i want to play call of duty 4 etc

i have a 30" hdtv, that worked the acer best in 1024x768 for games, it cant run 1200x800 or 1900x1200 , so when the laptops plugged in that i have to run the lower 1024 res anyway ,would the 8600GT run full settings on games in that res or high settings on the new stuff ? or woudl i be better getting a 15.4 screen that runs everything better in the res`es it has ?

where ive been a bit out of touch the last 6 months with the new games and machines and dont know anything about direct x 10 and vista etc, i need to make the right choice !!

 

reading about the screen resolutions has me a little confused..
if you went with the highest resolution capability buying a new 1720, would you even be able to use the high resolution if you didn't have the hd dvd drive?
i guess the question is whether it would be useless or not to upgrade the screen. i can't see small icons being much of a selling point. what am i missing?