Can my old video card handle my new monitor?

[Staz]

I am getting a Dell 2005FPW for Xmas and I am not sure my older video card can provide good frame rates at this monitors native resolution of 1680x1050. My current card is a Nvidia FX5700 (not U or LE, just standard) with 256MB of memory on it. I mainly play 3D games with it, and my current game is World of Warcraft. My concern is that this card is simply not powerful enough to provide me with playable framerates in this game and other games at my new monitors native resolution. My option would be to get a Nvidia 6600GT-AGP, but really don't want to buy a new video card just yet unless I feel I have to. Thoughts?

 

[miri]

Can you not just run in 1600x1200 on your current monitor to test frame rates? Performance at 1600x1200 should be similar to 1680x1050.

 

[Staz]

Can't, my current LCD monitor maxes out at 1280x1024.

 

[Hikari]

I don't know how this compares...

But, I can't really play HL2 using my laptop's Radeon Mobility 9600 at 1680x1050. Luckily, the monitor scales down to 1280x768 resolution (still widescreen) just fine, and doesn't look horrible when you do so. My nvidia 6800 has no problems at 1680x1050...

WoW probably isn't as intense as hl2 though I guess?

 

[Staz]

So that begs the question, how similar in preformance is the ATI Mobility 9600 (128MB?) vs my Nvidia 5700 w/256MB.