1600x900p monitor, or 1080p monitor

[notneps]

I'm building a sorta budget gaming PC for someone, it needs some moderate-to-high CPU power, and minor-to-moderate gaming power:

An i5-4460
MSI H97I (Mini-ITX)
8GB Memory
GTX 750 Ti
520W PSU
120GB SSD
1TB HDD

My question is this. I don't have a monitor for this setup yet, and will need one. The person who is going to use it says she doesn't really need 1080p, and in fact finds it somewhat overwhelming sometimes with desktop applications.

However, I was wondering if games are "optimized" for 1080p because it's a much more common resolution, in the sense that they might run better on 1080p than on the lower resolution 1600x900p (even though that doesn't make sense at all in my head, more pixels=more power need, duh right?).

If 900p is a bad idea, I'll get a 1080p monitor instead of a 900p. The two choices for monitor I have (long story, let's just keep it simple) are a 19.5" 1600x900 screen, and 21.5" 1080p monitor that is about 50% more expensive (retailing practically the same price as the GTX 750 Ti).

Will going for the 900p monitor make gaming performance suffer extremely? Or will it be just fine, as long as games run on the monitor's native resolution?

TL;DR version:

Running an i5-4460 and a GTX 750 Ti, is it okay to pick a 900p monitor over a 1080p monitor that is 50% more expensive?

 

[delellod123]

going to depend on which games. And settings. more eye-candy more power. With that GPU, she will def get higher frame rates at 900p. Beside gaming, what else will the computer be used for, beside internet browsing and word processing.

 

[fnmeo]

Yes if it is a budget system 900p is a good place to start. They wont tell much of a difference on the monitor. I however would recommend if you have not bought the gpu yet to buy the 270x it is close to the same price but still much better.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Games will give you the option of playing at any resolution that's supported by both the monitor and the graphics card, so 1600x900 won't be a problem at all. In fact, the lower resolution will translate into a better frame rate, giving your friend a smoother gaming experience. However, bear in mind that with a 1080p monitor, your friend can still play games at 900p. What she can't do is play at 1080p on a 900p monitor, obviously.

 

[renz496]

^ lol i would not play the game if the resolution is below monitor's native res

 

[notneps]

Thanks for all your answers! But what I'm trying to say is, will games render "funny" at 900p compared to 1080p? I mean, are games optimized for 1080p (what seems to be the most common resolution for gaming) or something?

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Ideally you want to game at the native resolution of the monitor, but if the aspect ratio of the game resolution matches that of the monitor, the game won't look odd.

Both 1080p and 900p use 16:9 aspect ratio, so you've nothing to worry about whichever monitor you buy.

 

[renz496]

Thanks for all your answers! But what I'm trying to say is, will games render "funny" at 900p compared to 1080p? I mean, are games optimized for 1080p (what seems to be the most common resolution for gaming) or something?

well no. personally i'm using 20 inch monitor with such res right now. everything look just fine. but rather than 1080p many games actually optimized for much lower resolution. take mass effect for example. the texture was made for 720p res (because of console) and Bioware did not make any HD texture for the pc version of the game. the low res texture was very visible especially during dialogue session between characters.