Video Card for new gaming PC at 1280x1024

[kalrith]

Right... but that doesn't really have anything to do with what I posted. Selecting an optimal pairing of size and resolution is separate (at best, tangential) from the consideration of selecting an optimal pairing of size in relation to viewing angle. I think you got sidetracked in your reply, because in both cases you must first determine viewing distance.

toyota is making an excellent point. At the OP's current viewing distance, he has a 19" 1280x1024.

Actually that has everything to do with what you posted. There is not some perfect pairing of size and resolution, otherwise you would not have a 21.5" screen and an 82" screen both with 1920x1080 resolution. If you take viewing distance out of the equation, then you could choose whatever screen size arbitrarily. There seems to be a good pairing of screen size to resolution, because the manufacturers are taking the average viewing distance of the consumers into account. However, that doesn't apply to every situation, which is why I wanted to know the OP's viewing distance (which we still don't know).

He has a 17" 1280x1024 monitor (which he failed to mention until the end of the thread), which has a DPI of .2634mm. If he had gone with the 23" 1920x1080 monitor I posted, he would've had a DPI of .2652mm. Obviously the 22" 1680x1050 will have a larger DPI, which some people like. However, he'll be looking at a much smaller view of his games at the 18% lower resolution.

However, none of this matters since he already ordered the monitor.