WoW and SC2 - is a bigger monitor better or not?

[VirtualLarry]

I've got a friend whom is a hardcore WoW player, and has started playing SC2. He currently has a 19" 1280x1024 LCD 4:3 screen. He plays pretty seriously, he's a competitive gamer.

I was thinking of getting him an upgrade, there are two LCD monitors on sale starting Jun 6 at Staples. They have an e-machines 21.5" 1920x1080, VGA-only, and they have a 25" 1920x1080 Hannspree with VGA and 2x HDMI (no DVI, sadly).

I was just thinking, higher resolution requires more GPU horsepower (he currently has an E5200 and a GeForce 9600GSO 96SP), but can give a wider FOV (depending on the game).
But there are perception limits, and because he sits so close to the screen (desk), a bigger screen at a higher resolution might not be as good as a smaller screen at that same higher resolution.

I have a 9800GT, with VGA, DVI, and HDMI outputs available. Do you think that this gfx card, combined with a new monitor, would be a worthy upgrade? Or would he be better off sticking with his screen?



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[Anubis]

yes bigger is better,

wide screen is much better then 4:3

you will prob need a new card if you jump up to a new 24in mon running 1920x1200 unless you want to dumb down the quality
actually truth be told a CPU upgrade would give better performance in wow then a GPU one

 

[onza]

dang how good a friend is he ?

 

[Jschmuck2]

Note to self: get more friends like you.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, it's less of him being a good friend, although on the whole he is (but he's been a jerk to me several times too), and more of me needing an excuse to get in on a hot deal and spend more money.

That and I don't want him to have "screen envy" any longer, I have two 26" LCDs, and our other mutual friend also has one.

 

[styrafoam]

For WoW a bigger monitor is one of the best upgrades you can get. Being able to move all of your chat windows down out of your FOV and still have the text be readable is nice. Having more room to arrange your UI addons so they arent cluttered around your character is nicer. If i had my pick of the 2 you listed i would get the Hanspree just for the fact that the emachines is vga only.

 

[Scotteq]

For WoW, a bigger monitor is definitely better. Looking for an excuse to move from my 24" one to a 30".. But I'm insane like that.

 

[Binky]

Larger is better, but it needs more CPU and video card power to drive it properly. Also, I think the 16x9 ratio is too damned wide. The 16x10 ratio (i.e. 1920x1200) is better for WoW, in my opinion.

 

[faxon]

my friends all have screen envy over my 28" Hanns-G, great gaming monitor. if the 26 inch you listed is of similar quality i would hop on that. you will want a better graphics card to drive it though

 

[Voo]

Larger is better, but it needs more CPU and video card power to drive it properly. Also, I think the 16x9 ratio is too damned wide. The 16x10 ratio (i.e. 1920x1200) is better for WoW, in my opinion.

What? How in gods name should 16:9 ever be better than 16:10 in games that support widescreen properly like WoW?

 

[pmv]

What? How in gods name should 16:9 ever be better than 16:10 in games that support widescreen properly like WoW?

You seem to be angrily agreeing with the poster you quote! He says 16:10 is better than 16:9 and you ask how 16:9 can be better.

To OP, not that I play WoW, but subject to desk size bigger is surely better?

And I don't see why its 'unfortunate' to only have HDMI inputs, you can get DVI to HDMI leads for the same price as DVI to DVI ones. Unless I'm missing something, that's surely a non-issue?

 

[BenSkywalker]

I have a 9800GT, with VGA, DVI, and HDMI outputs available. Do you think that this gfx card, combined with a new monitor, would be a worthy upgrade?

Yes, it should run rather smoothly too. You should be able to max everything outside of shadows(which are CPU dependant in WoW) and run with 2x AA easily(4x outisde of raids/Dal should be fine). I have a machine here using a 1080p display that runs a 250GTS and that can handle 8x AA outside of raids/Dal- 4x everywhere(250GTS isn't much faster then a 9800GT).

What? How in gods name should 16:9 ever be better than 16:10 in games that support widescreen properly like WoW?

That depends on your class and UI. Particularly if you are a healer and if you run more mods up the sides of the screen then top/bottom it can be rather advantageous to have a 16:9 monitor over 16:10 in WoW at least.

 

[Senrie]

 

[MagickMan]

Wow, that's rather deceiving. 16:10 is taller than 16:9, and I like the added height in gaming.

 

[toyota]

and thats why I love 16:9 for gaming.

 

[toyota]

Wow, that's rather deceiving. 16:10 is taller than 16:9, and I like the added height in gaming.

16:10 is NOT taller in gaming. if properly done 16:9 just adds more to the sides.

 

[MagickMan]

24" 1920X1200 (16:10) or 24" 1920x1080 (16:9)

Same width in pixels with more vertical screen real estate.

 

[toyota]

24" 1920X1200 (16:10) or 24" 1920x1080 (16x9)

Same width in pixels with more vertical screen real estate.

come on you have to be kidding? the gif he post is 100% correct for properly done widescreen. its the aspect ratio not the number of pixels that determine fov in a game. 800x600 has the same viewable area as 1600x1200 because they are both 4:3. and something like 1280x1024(5:4) is actually less width than 1280x960(4:3). 16:10 leaves the same viewable height as 4:3/5:4 but adds more to the sides. 16:9 just adds more to the sides of that.

I guess you are one of those people that watches a widescreen movie and complains they cut off the top and bottom? lol

 

[MagickMan]

So, there aren't 120 more pixels in resolution (and height) at the top of a 1920x1200 monitor compared to a 1920x1080? Granted, by skewing the height they get more width, but they DO lose height. It's a marketing scam to use panels that are less expensive to manufacture. Then they slap "TRUE HD" all over the box, so that the unwashed masses can feel better about what they buy.

And yes, I do understand movie aspect ratios. I was buying "theater aspect" TVs when I collected laserdiscs in the 80s and 90s.

 

[manimal]

I do not play wow but I downloaded the streaming trial to see what the game looked like on my projo and my eyefinity setup. I had a friend come by who plays wow religiously and he almost crapped his pants. He ended up spending the night playing around with both setups and ended up getting more monitors for eyefinity.

BTW wow is very cpu limited so going to a bigger monitor shouldn't be a problem with either the gso or the 9800gt. If his CPU isnt overclocked that would do more for him so buy him a cheap aftermarket HSF if he doesn't have one.


Maybe I am old school but 16x9 gaming looks like crap to me too 16x10FTW!

 

[toyota]

So, there aren't 120 more pixels in resolution (and height) at the top of a 1920x1200 monitor compared to a 1920x1080? Granted, by skewing the height they get more width, but they DO lose height. It's a marketing scam to use panels that are less expensive to manufacture. Then they slap "TRUE HD" all over the box, so that the unwashed masses can feel better about what they buy.

And yes, I do understand movie aspect ratios. I was buying "theater aspect" TVs when I collected laserdiscs in the 80s and 90s.

you are NOT losing any height in a game on properly done widesceen. I just told you its the aspect ratio NOT the number of freaking pixels that determines what you see. sure a 1920x1200 has more lines and height for desktop use but NOT for games. games and movies fit into their aspect ratio. one day you will figure it out and realize how silly what you are saying is. again his gif shows you exactly how properly done widescreen simply just adds more to the sides.

 

[MagickMan]

Yeah, it's very CPU limted. A 4GHz i7 with a 4870 is gonna smoke a 3.5GHz C2D with a GTX 480 in WoW, where it counts (in raids and large scale PVP). For best performance it goes like this: CPU>SSD>GPU.

 

[MagickMan]

you are NOT losing any height in a game on properly done widesceen. I just told you its the aspect ratio NOT the number of freaking pixels that determines what you see. sure a 1920x1200 has more lines and height for desktop use but NOT for games. games and movies fit into their aspect ratio. one day you will figure it out and realize how silly what you are saying is. again his gif shows you exactly how properly done widescreen simply just adds more to the sides.

No, WoW will add content to fill the increased resolution on a 1920x1200 monitor compared to a 1920x1080. I've actually seen it myself with 24" monitors sitting side-by-side. The 16:10 had more actual content vertically, while the 16:9 had a little more width. Again, there is more game content, it isn't stretching the game vertically to fill in those pixels. Look at similar class monitors (24" for instance), one at 16:10 and the other 16:9, and see for yourself.

If you want to scream about this some more I'll be back tomorrow evening.

 

[pmv]

you are NOT losing any height in a game on properly done widesceen. I just told you its the aspect ratio NOT the number of freaking pixels that determines what you see. sure a 1920x1200 has more lines and height for desktop use but NOT for games. games and movies fit into their aspect ratio. one day you will figure it out and realize how silly what you are saying is. again his gif shows you exactly how properly done widescreen simply just adds more to the sides.

Well, no, because that gif is quite deceptive. It ignores the physical size of the screen (for the same price point you get different vertical sizes for each aspect ratio) and it ignores the loss of vertical resolution.

I mean, following the logic of those gifs, a resolution of 1920000 x 1 would be awesome. Can't you see the fallacy that reveals in your reasoning? There's a trade-off, and people can disagree at exactly which point the trade-off becomes less-than-ideal for them. Between 16:10 and 16:9 is probably mainly down to what you are used to, but 1200 does objectively have more pixels in total.

Edit- in fact, come to think of it, if you claim 1920x1080 is better than 1920x1200, by the same logic 1920x800 is better still and 1920x1 would be best of all.

 

[BenSkywalker]

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?b8e67d378e78edadb470e480c0bada47

How many times have people seen WoW used to show off Eyefinity? How many times have people seen people take the option of stacking monitors three high? In WoW, width matters a lot more then height.