I am tempted to buy myself a nice, big widescreen 24" monitor. However my concern is the following. Please let me know if I am talking out of my ass...
1) LCDs don't look as good when set at anything but their native res;
2) you need a pretty high native resolution to get a good video definition and avoid a grainy effect on a 24" (more than 1680x1050);
3) Having a higher resolution will not make it look that much sharper since you are running it on a larger monitor;
4) The higher resolution means your hardware is finding it harder to cope faster (it means you need a SLI solution for sure, or even a Quad SLI)
5) Therefore you may need to turn off some Graphic Quality options in order to get the desired FPS, whereas you may not have to on a smaller monitor running a lower resolution.
In conclusion, on a 24" you need a higher resolution which will not make it necesseraly look sharper since your monitor is bigger. In the end, the image quality may be less than a solution with a smaller monitor since it is easier to run high graphics settings at a lower resolution. Newer games coming onto the market with more demanding vid requirements means I might feel compulsed in the future to upgrade my rig more often and spend at the top of the cost ladder more often since I am "stuck" with running games at 2048x1536 or 2560x1600.
These charts illustrate: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/08/08/get_quad_sli_before_it_is_hat...d_uk/pa
Comments?
1) LCDs don't look as good when set at anything but their native res;
2) you need a pretty high native resolution to get a good video definition and avoid a grainy effect on a 24" (more than 1680x1050);
3) Having a higher resolution will not make it look that much sharper since you are running it on a larger monitor;
4) The higher resolution means your hardware is finding it harder to cope faster (it means you need a SLI solution for sure, or even a Quad SLI)
5) Therefore you may need to turn off some Graphic Quality options in order to get the desired FPS, whereas you may not have to on a smaller monitor running a lower resolution.
In conclusion, on a 24" you need a higher resolution which will not make it necesseraly look sharper since your monitor is bigger. In the end, the image quality may be less than a solution with a smaller monitor since it is easier to run high graphics settings at a lower resolution. Newer games coming onto the market with more demanding vid requirements means I might feel compulsed in the future to upgrade my rig more often and spend at the top of the cost ladder more often since I am "stuck" with running games at 2048x1536 or 2560x1600.
These charts illustrate: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/08/08/get_quad_sli_before_it_is_hat...d_uk/pa
Comments?