Need 1600 x 1200 resolution....

mattp_3

hi

I would like to get 1600 x 1200 res on my desktop i am planning to upgrade to a 19" TFT but my display settings only allow me to go up to 1280 x 1024 with my current 17" CRT - will I need a new graphics card to do this or just a new monitor?

CHeers
Matt

squirrelz

19" TFT's only do 1280x1024 to get to 1600x1200 you need to go up to a 20" panel, and you'll find they're a lot more expensive.

To tell you whether your graphics card can do that resolution, we would need to know what card it is.

Toxteth_OGrady

The native resolution of most 19" TFTs is 1280 x 1024 but you can run them at higher res.

If you have a half decent video card you shouldn't need to replace it. What card do you have?

:cool:

TOG

mattp_3

Thanks

I have a 17" CRT at work which does 1600 res - would be be cheaper to go down that route as 20" TFT are silly money?

My graphics card at home will be cheap and nasty as its the standard Dell one from a Dimension 3000 (pretty basic pc)

Cheers
Matt

wolfman

As mentioned above you will need a 20" tft. 19" tft's have a native resolution of 1280x1024. If you can, running a 19" tft at a higher resolution will result in a loss of sharpness, and text will look blurry. Tft's are really only designed for their native resolution and not resolutions that are higher or even lower.

I can't remember the model number but if you search the forums there is a good Philips 20" tft for around £280. It uses the same panel as the highly rated Dell 2007FP (which is £308 from Dell, but was recently on a Grab-It for £280).

I'd imagine your graphics card will support 1600x1200, most have for quite a while. To be on the safe side I'd check though.

You could probably pickup a 20" or 21" CRT for under £100. They're absolute beasts though, my brother has my old one. I'm more than happy with my 17" tft in comparison just because of the space saved. Plus CRT's in the long run cost quite a bit more to run, so you may as well get a tft if you have high usage. My advice would be to save a little longer and get a 20" tft, or go for a 19" tft but have to settle for a lower resolution.

How come you need such a high resolution if you don't mind me asking?

Toxteth_OGrady

Best thing to do is go into a shop and see if you like the look of the resolution of a 19" TFT running at 1280 x 1024.

Comparing the resolution numbers of a crt and tft is apples and oranges.

:cool:

TOG

culpepper

mine is a Mitsibushi diamondPro 17" CRT and can do 1600.
Im using an NVidia graphics card which is a cheapo card from maplins.
The Driver is the thing which makes it able to do the higher res though as before installing the new drivers on linux it cant get that resolution.
TFT use a maximum amount of pixels for the resolution so even if you up the resolution,the screen can only handle the native amount of pixels(hope that makes sense) .OH works in digital imagery and they use 17" and 19" CRT on PC's and Macs.

Little_John

A reasonable graphics card will go up to that resolution. I just checked and my 32MB matrox G450 which is really old about 5 years will go up to 1800x1440 that is on a 21" CRT monitor i run itat a lower resolution as I use VNC on a lower resolution laptop.

The resolution that your limited to at the moment could be due to the monitor settings if you have a monitor that has a limit then the display options usually only allow you to go to that limit. unfortunatly you wont find your limit untill you plug a monitor capable of dislplaying that limit. Older versions of windows would allow you to go over the limit and you usually had to reboot in safe mode and reset the screen as you just got a blank screen.

As squirrelz said 19" monitors dont go up to that resolution you need a 20" to go so high.

mattp_3

think i'll have to settle for 1280 as I cant afford 20" but thanks for all your help