dv9500t screen resolutions

What are folks' thoughts on the choices HP offers for screen resolutions in the dv9500t? WXGA+ (1440 x 900) comes standard, WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) is an extra $50, WXGA+ "Ultra" (1440 x 900) is $125 more than the standard. Is the "Ultra" enough of an improvement to justify the additional $125? Is getting the better resolution of the WSXGA+ a better bet?

I'd be getting the 8600 GS GPU, so I'd want to take advantage of that as much as possible.

 

go for the higher res, more room on the screen. Ultra just adds another bulb which makes the screen even brighter.

 

I have the 1680x1050 and glad I chose it. I'm not a big gamer though. Very GPU-intensive games like Doom3 are a little slow at that high res, but it's a great res for desktop tasks, much more usable than the 1440x900 is IMO.

 

Thanks to both of you. Lupin3, have you tried playing games in a lower resolution? I'd be curious as to whether 1) graphics quality drops when you move to a non-native resolution and 2) if doing so makes a big difference performance-wise.

 

i play HL2 and counterstrike on 1680 with options up and get an average of 40 fps. I play wow on the same resolution with everything maxed and get 30-40 fps.

Tried oblvion and had to really downgrade the resolution and effects. It looked ok but still played slow.