• Welcome to Poasters Computer Forums.
 

Is a 24 inch widescreen text size larger than a 19 inch standard monitor text?

Started by halokid, November 28, 2008, 03:15 hrs

Previous topic - Next topic

halokid

I really want to buy a new monitor but I'm starting to wander about all these
wide screen monitors.. it seems like they are mostly  giving you more "viewable desktop space" rather than increase in size of actual stuff being displayed. any thoughts?

Buffalo2102

You are right.  A larger screen generally runs at a higher native resolution which means that the items on the screen are generally the same size as they would be on a smaller screen.  However, this means that the larger screen gives you more room for other things, e.g. it is great for working where you can have two documents open side-by-side, for instance.  If you multitask, you can keep all the windows open on screen and don't have to minimize them so you can see what's going on.  If you watch TV/videos on the monitor it can show widescreen programming without letterboxing.

You should also bear in mind that if you get a larger screen and you run it at a higher resolution, your graphics card may start to struggle with games and applications that it used to manage fine.  That monitor can become pretty expensive if you find you need to upgrade the graphics too.

Having said that, I do recommend a widescreen monitor if you don't already have one.  I bought one some time ago and could never go back to 4:3 now.  If you have a 19" 4:3 then changing it for a 19" widescreen won't make too much difference to the graphics card.  If you go larger then it will.

Buff
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

scuzzy

I have both a standard 4:3 20" monitor, as well as a 19" widescreen for a secondary computer. Of course, the 20" has much more real estate than the 19", and it also has a higher resolution (1600x1200 vs. 1440x900). However, I really enjoy using the 19 widescreen and I will eventually replace the 20" with a 24" widescreen model. I will probably look for a 1920x1200 native resolution.

As Buff pointed out, it will put a strain on the video card. So, I figure it will be a good time to update the 7600GT to a 9800GT.
Antec Performance TX640B Case | WinXP Pro SP3 & Win7 64-bit | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale LGA 775 3.16GHz Dual-Core | 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 G-Skill RAM | eVGA 7600GT 256MB PCI-E | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 16MB Cache | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 8MB Cache | 320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 16MB Cache | External 640GB WD Caviar SATA 32MB Cache | Sony DRU-V200S DVD/RW | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W | Samsung SyncMaster 2494 (24") LCD Monitor | LG Flatron W2361V (23") LCD Monitor

pat

I'm using a 22 inch Samsung wide screen that supports a native 1680x1050 resolution. I have two systems connected and am using a KVM to switch between them. One system has an nVidia 7600GS and the other is using a nVidia 9600GT. Both cards do a good job with the display.

I do find that the Vista system with the 9600GT seems to do a better job with the display, it just seems to be better looking and easier on the eye. This is true also on the system with the 7600GS that I dual boot with Vista and XP, when I boot into Vista on the system the display is just cleaner looking. One thing I found I had to do was to increase the font size a bit. It was just to small for me to see comfortably at the higher resolution. Also on the XP system, enabling Clear Type fonts made for a better looking display. 
SeaSonic S12 550W, Athlon 64 X2 6000+, Asus M2N SLI-Deluxe, nvidia 9600 GSO, 2x2 gig Crucial Ballistix, LG DVD/RW, 2x Western Digital Black Edition 640gb,  SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22", Canon PIXMA MP600,  Logitech X-230 speakers, Logitech Comfort Duo keyboard & Mouse, Windows 7 64 Home Premium & Vista 64

Buffalo2102

I believe that most 22" and 24" monitors use the same native resolution (1680 x 1050) so I guess you would get slightly larger text on the 24".

Buff
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.