Help with my monitor/gfx card setup please

[sjuk]

Hi all - I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice please?

My setup is a Dell Studio 1749 with an i5-M540 @ 2.35Ghz / 8Gb RAM and the inbuild GFX card is an ATI Radeon HD 5650 with 1Gb of RAM.

I run it, basically, as a desktop connected to a keyboard/mouse and 2 monitors.

I need the two monitors for my work (I am a software developer).

Both monitors run at their native resolution of 1920x1200 and my Win 7 (64bit) desktops flows across them horizontally.

I do some light gaming (I am currently playing Bioshock Infinte on and off) and lots of code editing, web broswing, graphics editing etc...

Now here are my questions if anyone could help please :

1. When gaming, I like my games to run at the native res of the monitor. So, when playing a game I run it full screen on my primary monitor at 1920x1200. My secondary monitor is usually left just showing the feed from my IP Camera so I can see if anyone is at the front door. Will I get better framerates if I disconnect the secondary monitor and reboot so there is only one monitor connected to the system ?

2. I am thinking of upgrading my primary to either a 2560x1440 27" or a 2560x1600 30" - The extra desktop real estate would be great but I am wondering if the resolution increase from 1920x1200 will have a terrible effect on gaming (bearing in mind I like to run games at native res) ?

Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated.

 

[toyota]

that gpu will struggle at 1920 with low settings in most cases and stands no chance at 2560 for modern games. heck many games will not even be what I consider playable on gpu like that even at 1280. for some perspective your mobile 5650 would probably be about halfway between a desktop 8600gt and 9600gt.

 

[sjuk]

that gpu will struggle at 1920 with low settings in most cases and stands no chance at 2560 for modern games.

That's what I thought Any ideas on my first question ?

 

[sjuk]

Just wondering if anyone can answer question 1 above for me please? Am I effectively asking the graphics card to run at 3840x1200 when I am gaming on my primary monitor but still have my secondary monitor on?

 

[sjuk]

Any ideas on question 1 please ?