widescreen and resolution, important, input please

To my surprise, at best buy, I noticed that on a 17 inch widescreen the only resolution that worked well was the 1400X900. The other resolutions did not fit the widescreen properly. The other reolutions "squared" the screen and the desktop did not fit the screen.

I was thinking of buying the true-life desktop for the added resolution (for programming), but if it doesnt scale to fit the screen then whats the point.


So can anyone confirm that even with the true-life screen the only resolution with the proper aspect ratio is 1400x900.


Thankyou

 

14x9 is the "sort-of" equivalent of wxga on a 17". going down from 14x9, you will see other resolutions the card will output... some are widescreen 16:9 or 16:10 and some are plain old 4:3 (1024x768, 800x600, etc.)

if you set the res to a non-widescreen resolution, it will "stretch to fit" or "black bar" to fit... that's a BIOS setting.

the ultimate answer to your question is the that w/s displays will display widescreen resolutions w/out stretching or black-bar'ing. additionally, only the native resolution will look good.

 

I believe that the 17" 9300 with any graphics card also has 1900x1200 or something like that which fits.

I have the NVIDIA one and that's what I use. I *think* I could also scale to something like 1600 by xxxx or 1400 by xxxx and those are also widescreen. I'm not at home so don't remember all the resolutions exactly but 1900x1200 or whatever it is is definitely widescreen and the higher resolution you're looking for. There's also lowers ones with widescreen which you can pick but I liked the highest setting.

Check dell's website and where you can select graphics card, click tell me more or help me decide or something like that. It'll tell you the max resolutions each graphics card can handle. I think all 3 for the 9300 supports up to the 1900 one.

 

Ok, thanks for the feedback, so let me just ask you guys is 1900x1200 a good resolution? That is, do you find this resolution comfortable to work with?


Ive never seen a 1900X1200 resolution up and running properly so Id appreciate your feedback.

EDIT: Just to make sure, the default screen on the 9300 (the non-trueLife) only supports 1400X900 max, no matter what video card 64mb,128mn,256mb, I choose correct?

Thanks

 

its 1440 not 1400 ... ie 1440x900 which is exactly 16:10

Not sure what you are exactly asking. but why would you want to buy a wide screen and then use a 4:3 res? Anyway ATI drivers as far as I know have an option to either scale the image (stretch it) or just add black bars on the sides when you use standard resolutions. But stretching will just make the image very blurry and annoying to work with, especially text!

 

this is inaccurate. the 9300 comes in two flavors; the wxga (1440x900) and the wuxga (1920x1200). those are the the native resolutions, respectively. either card can output lower resolutions, but not greater.

if you have the wxga, the highest res you will get is the 14x9. if you have the wuxga, the highest rest you will get is the 19x12.

screen res comes down to personal preference. i have the wuxga on a i6000 and i love it. however, many people find the fonts, images, etc. too small. it comes down to what you prefer and are comfortable with.

 

Yea, the wxga+ only goes to 14x9.

Sorry if my post was confusing. I answered only for the wuxga screen since you said you wanted the TrueLife one which is on the wuxga screen.