Error in AnandTech article: The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple

[Ibrin]

I'm a BIG supporter of widescreen gaming, and I want to make sure that Kristopher Kubicki's otherwise stellar article doesn't turn people off from getting a widescreen monitor. In his article he states, "Very few games support 1680x1050 as a resolution (with the exception Half Life 2 and Far Cry), so no matter what you play, you will be playing on a scaled signal."

I am here to tell you that this is simply not true.

While there have been notable exceptions in recent releases (including WC3, Pirates!, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and SW: KOTOR2), most new games support widescreen resolutions either natively or through easy hacks/tweaks. Recent major releases with native widescreen include: NWN, COH, WOW, EQ2, Guild Wars, HL2, GTA3 (+VC), Doom3, Sims2 (though a hack is needed for any res above 1600x1200), Warhammer 40k, UTk4.

Recent releases that are hackable (by an .ini, registry or commandline tweak) include America's Army, Battle for Middle Earth, COD, MOH, XIII, Painkiller, Rise of Nations, Elder Scrolls 3, Splinter Cell, C&C: Generals, and Star Wars: Republic Commando. In addition, anything built on the Quake 2 or Doom 3 engines also supports widescreen, with simple tweaks

In addition, some "old school" favorites such as the original Command & Conquer series (including RA, RA2, and Tiberian Sun), RTA2, Homeworld, Mehcwarrior 4, Doom I & II, Quake 2, Dungeon Keeper 2, and Max Payne support widescreen either natively or by hack. And, some enterprising folks have hacked Sim City 4, SW:KOTOR, DAOC (pre-Catacombs, as Catacombs added widescreen), Myst: Uru, Tiger Woods PGS Tour 2004, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, to get widescreen support.

The bottom line is that most current games support widescreen, and the releases that don't are dwindling. Many upcoming games such as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/) and Pyschonauts will support widescreen.

The difference in many games can be amazing. COH and WOW not only look more cinematic, but you can move tool bars and UI mods to the sides, freeing up screen real estate. In NWN, you can keep character sheets, quest logs and "paper dolls" open, withou obscuring the game. I'm not here to recommend any one manufacturer of displays, just major manufacturers make a good widescreen, whether it is 20", 23", 24" or 30". I will tell you that once you go widescreen, you will never go back.

-Ibrin

 

[NiKeFiDO]

hackable => game companiest want you to do it = >anandtech wont officially say its an option
or anandtech just doesnt go looking for such stuff because they have so many other things to do with their reviews.


this is a small error on their part overall, although this is very good information to know.


all and all, good post OP

 

[bendixG15]

Great first post
What you gonna do for second post ?

 

[Ibrin]

Not sure. Could be like that Seinfeld episode - "End on a high note." About the only other thing I could do is pimp my site, but I wouldn't think that's really smiled upon. Outside of that, I could post any major widescreen updates we find, and link back to my site. But again, that would probably be close to site pimping.

 

[SVT Cobra]

or just hang around and inform us of wide screan updates to improve our gaming experience m8.

 

[Ibrin]

Originally posted by: NiKeFiDO
hackable => game companiest want you to do it = >anandtech wont officially say its an option or anandtech just doesnt go looking for such stuff because they have so many other things to do with their reviews.


this is a small error on their part overall, although this is very good information to know.


all and all, good post OP

Just for the record, I didn't intend my original post to slam AT, and in fact I first emailed the author, in case he wanted to post an update to the article. The one thing I will say is that a quick Google would have brought up a wealth of resources (my site is currently listed at #4 for a "widescreen gaming" search). ExtremeTech did that in their article on the Dell 24" monitor - http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1764462,00.asp

My real goal here (besides getting the word out on my site), is to help evangelize widescreen gaming and let people know how feasible it is, and how much better it is.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Ibrin

Originally posted by: NiKeFiDO
hackable => game companiest want you to do it = >anandtech wont officially say its an option or anandtech just doesnt go looking for such stuff because they have so many other things to do with their reviews.


this is a small error on their part overall, although this is very good information to know.


all and all, good post OP

Just for the record, I didn't intend my original post to slam AT, and in fact I first emailed the author, in case he wanted to post an update to the article. The one thing I will say is that a quick Google would have brought up a wealth of resources (my site is currently listed at #4 for a "widescreen gaming" search). ExtremeTech did that in their article on the Dell 24" monitor - http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1764462,00.asp

My real goal here (besides getting the word out on my site), is to help evangelize widescreen gaming and let people know how feasible it is, and how much better it is.

<typical ATOT respons to anything even remotely christian>
GAH! Stupid people trying to force their beliefs onto us.
They should all be banned and stop molesting children.
</typical ATOT response to anything even remotely christian>

What's the typical widescreen res? Is it 1680x1050 or thereabouts?
And how do most graphics cards seem to handle it (compared to say 1280x1024)?

 

[Ibrin]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
What's the typical widescreen res? Is it 1680x1050 or thereabouts?
And how do most graphics cards seem to handle it (compared to say 1280x1024)?

It really depends on the screen size. Widescreens first made headway in notebooks. A 15.4" widescreen would give you a 1280x800. A 17" widescreen will run either 1440x900 or 1680x1050. The 20" are typically the 1680x1050, and the 23"/24" are 1920x1200. There are hi-res versions of the smaller screens. A couple of people make a 1920x1200 17" screen that is used in some laptops.

Overall graphics cards handle everything just fine. Say you normally game at 1280x1024, that's about 1.31M pixels. A 1440x900 screen is right a 1.29M pixels, so your framerates should be right in line with each other. My HP laptop has a 17" 1440x900, with an Nvidia 5700, and I pull 40fps easily in WOW. I don't play FPS games, so I can't compare there.

To compare higher resolutions, 1600x1200 is 1.92M pixels, and 1680x1050 is 1.76M pixels. ; 1920x1200 is 2.3M pixels. We've had people on the forum with X800s and 6800GTs that don't have any complaints at the 1920x1200, and the folks with SLI rigs are beyond that. Any recent video card should be able to push 1680x1050 without any problems. All the way back to a 5700-era should handle that res fine, though you may have to turn down the AA and AF (depending on the title).

The one place we see a real difference is on how the different cards and screens handle a 4:3 resolution. Nvidia has traditionally done a much better job of supporting and handling "native scaling." For me, that would be taking a 1024x768 image and stretching it to fill the 1440x900 screen, but maintaing the 4:3 aspect ratio - giving me black bars on the side. This is sort of a vertical letterboxing. Some people don't mind playing 4:3 games stretched (Warcraft 3 and Pirates! don't look bad stretched), but some people want to maintain the accurate ratio.

Some of the new panels (like the Dells) offer some intelligence in the panel on how it handles a 4:3 ratio signal. Does it stretch to fill, or stretch and maintain the aspect ratio? I've never had to deal with that because my machines are a 17" HP notebook and a 20" G5 iMac (screens aren't stand alone).