monitor question

travicles · #1 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 04:45 AM

ive been looking at monitors at newegg. i want a big one but i was at office depot yesterday and saw 2 - 19" widescreen monitors and one was bigger than the other. arent they supposed to be same size. ugh.

guyladouche · #2 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 04:55 AM

Hi. I think it depends on the aspect ratio of the monitor. For example, my 19" monitor has a 4:3 aspect ratio--it's by far much taller than either of the widescreen monitors you saw, but it is not as wide. The size of a monitor is determined by the diagonal distance--just like TV's (I'm sure you knew that). But if one monitor has an aspect ratio of, say 16:9, and another has a different aspect ratio, while the diagonal distance of both monitors is 19", they'll have different widths and heighths.

Or the store was stupid and labeled a 17" widescreen as a 19", or a 19" as a 21". But different aspect ratios will give different dimensions for the same diagonal distance.

travicles · #3 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 04:59 AM

thanks. i understand more now. this is my favorite so far.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 941BW Black 19" 4 ms (GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

OR 22 inch yeahhh

Newegg.com - BenQ FP222WH Black 22" 5ms Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor - Retail

guyladouche · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 04:16 PM

Hi. My monitor is a Samsung, and it's great. Aside from Samsung not wanting to honor their rebates (says that my S/N was already used for a rebate, so I lost my $100 discount... ), their monitors are pretty good. I like mine a lot.

Keep in mind that you'll need a good video card that supports the wide screen aspect ratios of newer monitors--newer video cards should have no problem. However, if you want to game, that's a different story--the bigger the monitor (and larger the resolution), the more VRAM you'd want on your video card--if you're going with a 19" monitor and want to play games, I'd suggest no less than a 256mb card with a good chipset--preferably Radeon x1900/x1950 or Geforce 7900/7950 series cards. Just something to keep in mind.

travicles · #5 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 04:54 PM

hmm well whenever i get around building a new pc ill have a 1950PRO unless they have a videocard breaktrough lol..right now i have a laptop with radeon X600..it might barely handle it

guyladouche · #6 (**permalink**) 03-04-2007, 06:18 PM

Well, an x1950pro will work just fine--that's what I have--it's a great card.

I think that the chipset on the x600 should be new enough that the resolution of the monitor should be supported if you want to use the monitor with your laptop. I don't know how good it'll be for playing games--that's another story.

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