OK...so here are my thoughts...

Most everyone knows that higher screen resolutions require better graphics cards to get the same performance. Many people stay behind the times on gaming to be able to play them on the latest resolutions. WHY I ask??

I mean really...why not just play at a lower resolution? Now the main answer I've heard to this is "A higher resolution is sharper". I call shenanigans!! Now at the same physical screen size, yes a higher resolution is sharper...HOWEVER here are the findings I just discovered:

1920x1080 on a 23" screen has about 95 pixels per inch.
1280x1024 on a 17" screen has a bit more than 96 pixels per inch. (This is what I have)

SO the lower resolution is actually SHARPER! Now I don't know about the rest of you...but honestly for gaming 17" is fine. Sure it'd be NICE to have a bigger monitor...but DEFINITELY not necessary.

So...long story short my $800 build will be able to play Crysis 3 on max settings with my monitor. If y'all want to spend $1,500 a year to game at higher resolutions go right ahead...I just have no idea WHY you would want to!! lol


/end rant.

:)

I always like it when people rant on higher standards that the lowers standards are "nice" and "just fine". If we would think they were just fine or enjoy good enough-mark people wouldn't bother with better luxuries.

I for one wants a 30" screen with 2560x1600 (100 PPI) but those are expensive and I would require a bad ass GPU as well. My 23" with 1920x1080 is "just fine" though, people draw the line differently. Also, 1280x1024 is a 4:3 format. That format sucks from both an aestetic and technical point of view. :P

Resolution is the last thing I lower in games to get increased performance too, it's such a down hill going from your native to something less when you're used to it.

I was with him, until he mentions his specs. Full Screen with only a 17" monitor. I play most of my games on a 14" laptop, but it is at most a foot away. And I will not game on anything but a widescreen (older games not included) from here on out.

The only problem with gaming on a 17" monitor is that you still need one hand to hold up the opera binoculars.

I read of a study some time ago where people were shown a movie from a large screen and a small screen. Image on the small screen was much sharper than on the large. After the viewing the people were asked which one they preferred. A big margin said they preferred the bigger screen and didn't mind at all of the less sharp picture.

There's an optimal screen size and screen distance for PC gamers, considering their field of vision, and thus also an optimal resolution for that screen size (against cost). At some point bigger is not better.

I agree about bigger is not better at a certain threashhold but I disagree that 17" is an optimal screen size. If people could choose without a money issue I bet that most people would choose a larger one with relatively high PPI for a sharp image.

The only reason to pick a smaller is if you're tight on space and/or lack money (IMO).

Why stop at gaming? It always amuses me when somebody says he has a better picture on his 50 inch LED screen than on 40 inch LED screen.

Bitch, both screens use 1920x1080 resolution, so the image actually looks crispier on a smaller screen. Also, your room is 16 square meters, so why do you need a screen this big? :P Why stopping there, again! Why not buying a 150 inch projector ! :P

Bigger is better, is what men and only men always think... :P

If you have a bigger screen, you have to watch it from a bigger distance, your area of view is exactly the same, so if you sit like half a meter from your screen, 17 inch panoramic screen is enough.

I agree with this.. ..but I disagree with this. A 17" screen is not enough. Also, again, it's 4:3 format which is stupid (IMO). :P

Well, I have an 17 inch laptop, and I'm sitting half a meter from a screen and it's perfectly fine for me. 3 inches more and I would have to wander with my eyes on a screen.

If i sat a meter away, a bigger screen would be cool, of course.

A laptop is different though, at least for me. They are more expensive so the standards are different but I would still prefer widescreen, something like 1366x768.

Well, as far as console gaming goes, I have a small tv and a large tv (both old-school flat screens but still boxy in the back). With the large tv it's hard to read smaller text in games and I have to constantly screw with the settings. Of course, it could be that it hasn't aged as well as the small one. Still, I'd rather sit at a comfortable distance than use the small one and sit on top of it.

And tv's always look so much better in a show room - unless you have their exact setup, you get it home and it's like What the hell, where did the great picture go?

With my computer monitor, I sometimes adjust gaming resolutions, but I don't bother with screen resolution.

But really, if the resolution was great, I'd rather have a wall-sized screen!

The biggest problem is going down from a native resolution to a lower one on LCD, that makes it look all fuzzy.

However, quite frankly, I don't really like stupidly big screens - I'm quite happy with 1280x1024 - although I appreciate I'll probably have to go widescreen or bigger at some point. I'll probably keep my screen as long as possible to make sure I get good graphical quality - I'd rather have a smaller screen (within reason before some smart alec asks about a 4 inch screen) on high detail than a massive screen on low detail because my graphics card can't take it.

You can upgrade to a widescreen monitor without actually increasing system requirements since it all depends on the native resolution; going from 1280x1024 to 1440x900 is actually slightly fewer pixels overall, sacrificing some height for a significantly increased field of view.

Higher-resolution monitors are made in various physical sizes for each resolution so you can easily get a widescreen monitor with a particular resolution that has a pixel density the same as or superior to an existing non-widescreen monitor.

Yes I'd RATHER have a widescreen...but this monitor is just what I have at the moment. But I'm only gonna be sitting like a foot away, so it'll be fine for me :)