WXGA vs. WSXGA+

[Hello3]

Posting this in the video section instead of the notebook section because I assume you guys know more about LCD screens than those notebook guys =). I'm planning on purchasing a laptop soon and need to decide on the type of screen I need for a 14"/15.4" laptop.

I know that a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen is better for running applications since you can view/read more on screen. My dilema comes for gaming. Most games will not run smoothly at the native resolution even with a decent video card (go7600/x1600), especially newer first person shooters. So I'm wondering how games will run at a lower WXGA (1280x800) resolution on a hi-res WSXGA+ lcd.

The purpose of this laptop will be for school (word processing, spreadsheeting, some other applications) and gaming (any and all games I can get my hands on). The screen resolution won't greatly affect applications, since they'll run fine either way so it's less of a problem. If games won't look that great on a WSXGA+ lcd I might as well save a $100+ and get the lower resolution WXGA screen? Please help me decide.

 

[Slitherythesnake]

Hmmm, I don't know if this helps, but I know with newer Dell laptops, there's this resolution key that switches from native res (ie. 1680x1050), to an extrapolated setting for a non-native res (ie. 1280x800 stretched to fill the entire screen), and to a non-native res (ie. 1280x800 centered) during applications and games. I've ran BF2 on my dad's laptop (Dell Latitude D820) with the non-native res stretched to fill the screen, and while some will disagree with me, it looked quite good. The non-native reses stretched don't look as good as the native res, with some loss of clarity, but I hardly noticed it b/c I didn't have time to stop and nitpick the flaws (especially during rounds). Playing games with a non-native res which is centered in the middle of the screen works, although I have sub-par eyesight which is why I play non-native stretched.

However, I don't know if this resolution key exists on all new laptops or just Dells. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Arkaign]

Yes, save your $$ (or put it towards something like more memory!)

1280x800 is MUCH better suited to the kind of video solutions that are in notebooks. If you get mobile 7800, sure, but even then :

At a 17" Wide LCD, 1680x1050 is spectacularly tiny. I have a 1440x900 19" Viewsonic, and it's about perfect for looking at a couple of feet away and still being perfectly legible. If it were on a 15.4" panel, 1440x900 would be too damn small to read without bumping up the font size.

It's funny, because back in the CRT era :

15" was best suited for 800x600/1024x768 sometimes
17" was best suited for 1024x768/1280x1024 sometimes
19" was best suited for 1280x1024/1600x1200 sometimes
21" was best suited for 1600x1200/2048x1536 sometimes (miss my P1230!)

Since you are planning to game, 1280x800 will run decently, and it is definitely still good enough for word, excel, email, coding, etc.

 

[Lord Banshee]

i have a 15" 1400x1050 screen Laptop and i have no problem reading it. My Friend has same screen res on a 14" and again there is no problem reading the text.

I am planning on getting a new laptop soon with a 15.4" 1680x1050 screen and i am excited about it ... But i do not play games with my laptop, but if i did just make the same center so you have black bars on the right so you get a 1280x1024 screen or less.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Hello3
Posting this in the video section instead of the notebook section because I assume you guys know more about LCD screens than those notebook guys =). I'm planning on purchasing a laptop soon and need to decide on the type of screen I need for a 14"/15.4" laptop.

I know that a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen is better for running applications since you can view/read more on screen. My dilema comes for gaming. Most games will not run smoothly at the native resolution even with a decent video card (go7600/x1600), especially newer first person shooters. So I'm wondering how games will run at a lower WXGA (1280x800) resolution on a hi-res WSXGA+ lcd.

The purpose of this laptop will be for school (word processing, spreadsheeting, some other applications) and gaming (any and all games I can get my hands on). The screen resolution won't greatly affect applications, since they'll run fine either way so it's less of a problem. If games won't look that great on a WSXGA+ lcd I might as well save a $100+ and get the lower resolution WXGA screen? Please help me decide.

You're wrong: screen resolution WILL affect the applications the most, because they will benefit from additional available screen estate.

As for games,you know yourself that 7600 Go will be obsolete (and you can't replace it) in 6-12months, then you will be able to run only old games.

and I have 1680x1050 and no problem reading it with regular font size.

 

[kmmatney]

I have a 1280 x 800 notebook for work (15.4" screen), and find the screen resolution extremely limiting for everyday work. I normally hook it up to a larger external LCD, but I travel a lot and its annoying working with the screens limited real estate.

Laptops usually have smaller pixels than standard LCD monitors. This actually helps out, as LCDs with smaller pixels do a better job of scaling to non-native resolutions. Your games will look fine scaled to 1280 x 800 on a 1680 x 1050 display. Go for the better screen and enjoy it for gaming and everyday work.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Yes, save your $$ (or put it towards something like more memory!)

1280x800 is MUCH better suited to the kind of video solutions that are in notebooks. If you get mobile 7800, sure, but even then :

At a 17" Wide LCD, 1680x1050 is spectacularly tiny. I have a 1440x900 19" Viewsonic, and it's about perfect for looking at a couple of feet away and still being perfectly legible. If it were on a 15.4" panel, 1440x900 would be too damn small to read without bumping up the font size.

It's funny, because back in the CRT era :

15" was best suited for 800x600/1024x768 sometimes
17" was best suited for 1024x768/1280x1024 sometimes
19" was best suited for 1280x1024/1600x1200 sometimes
21" was best suited for 1600x1200/2048x1536 sometimes (miss my P1230!)

Since you are planning to game, 1280x800 will run decently, and it is definitely still good enough for word, excel, email, coding, etc.

I have a 22" LCD at 1680 x 1050 resolution, and yeah, a 17" with that will have very tiny pixels, and might be something to consider. My wife has a 19" widescreen LCD and that pixel size is very comfortable at 1440 x 900 resolution.