I've been gaming a lot recently and I'm starting to see limitations in my old 17" TFT, its a AG F-217 and the blacks are too muddy for the FPSs I have been playing and they tend to blend. Splinter cell:Chaos theory is okay but FEAR, COD 2, Far Cry, etc needs the brightness tweaked so high that it washes out the colour. I've been considering getting a 20" monitor and gaming at 1600x1200 but I'm wondering whether the technology can support gaming at this res with decent AA and AF. Looking at reviews for the X1900XT-X its a beast of a card and the best out at the moment (being just a tiny bit faster than the 512MB 7800GTX) but gaming at 1600x1200 with high detail, AA and AF brings it to its knees in several recent titles and its only just been released. This is a card costing £399-460! Crossfire seems to boost the minimum framerate by 5-10 frames but for a further £399-460 this isn't much of an improvement. Would I be better off getting an excellent quality 17"/19" TFT and sticking to gaming at 1280x1024 or is resolution more important in influencing image quality than maximising texture, detail, AA and AF? Confuzled ~Awoken~
The good thing is, with a CRT, you can lower the resolution without it getting scaling issues like on an LCD. So you don't have to play at 1600*1200. Also, if you are playing at that high a resolution, anti-aliasing is not as much of a necessity, as the aliasing is less noticeable. That's my experience, anyway.
Personally I can't stand blurry textures anymore, but thats me Bear in mind that with 1600*1200 you have about 46% more pixels than 1280*1024 to start with, so you don't need as much AA to get a similar level of image quality anyhow.
All things considered I'd suggest a 19" LCD with 1280x1024, they're well-priced and a nice balance for that size of screen, both in Windows and games. You don't need a stupidly fast card to play all current games well at that native res, a £140 6800GS is more than fine. If you always like to play the latest games then 1280 with AA+AF and high details is going to be better than 1600 minus AA+AF with compromised detail settings. Of course that native res would scale perfectly to 800x600 where you could then max out AA+AF and details but I hate playing at anything below 1024 myself regardless of AA+AF or details. IMHO 1600 suits a screen of at least 24", Windows should be less of an issue with Windows Vista's scaling though. Perhaps you should look for a bargain 21"+ CRT which will overcome many of the short-comings you're experiencing.
I can play FEAR at 1920x1200 with pretty much everything but soft shadows on with my 7800GTX, so dont worry... get a big monitor.. they rock!
Thanks Pookey, well I'm decided 20" monitor and cutting edge graphics coming this summer (waiting on the new Geforce to see how it fares against X1900XT-X). Probably will go fully water cooled as well and mod in a Dual 120 rad to my case so that I don't have to listen to a screaming fan trying to cool the beast.
Looking at 6800GS-SLI (£280+mobo) versus 7800GT (£205) & 7800GTX (£300) ... Quake 4 (AA+AF 1600) GS-SLI = 53 7800GT = 42 7800GTX = 44 HL2 Lost Coast HDR (AF 1600) GS-SLI = 44 7800GT = 46 7800GTX = 50 Looking at 7800GT-SLI (£410+mobo) vs 7800GTX512 (£490) & X1900XT (£370) ... Quake 4 (AA+AF 1600) GT-SLI = 75 GTX512 = 62 X1900XT = 52 HL2 Lost Coast HDR (AF 1600) GT-SLI = 64 GTX512 = 62 X1900XT = 63 FEAR (AA+AF 1280) GT-SLI = 63 GTX512 = 44 X1900XT = 55 BF2 (AA+AF 1920) GT-SLI = 68 GTX512 = 61 X1900XT = 58 Guild Wars (AA+AF 1920) GT-SLI = 101 GTX512 = 95 X1900XT = 80 Source
Hmmm, thanks for that Austin. I've got a 7800GT already and I could get a second for ~£180 (Already have a DFI SLI-D Board). I was thinking about selling the 7800GT for a X1900XT-X but SLI looks like an attractive option too...
Prices were based on www.tekheads.co.uk BTW. In games that benefit from SLI the 7800GT-SLI will often be decently faster than a single X1900XTX and the SLI option will be cheaper for you even when you factor in selling your existing 7800GT for the X1900XTX, esp if you already have a SLI mobo. Of course X1900XT should be quite a lot cheaper than X1900XTX yet provide very similar performance esp when o/c'ed. You should also find two 7800GT devalue less than one extreme top-end card like the X1900XTX. However SLI is likely to make your case more cramped, restrict airflow a little more, produce more heat, require more power and most likely be a little louder, although those are all pretty minor issues. Checking that review with 7800GT-SLI versus X1900XTX in mind with SLI you can expect your entire PC's power requirement to increase by around 7% when idle but actually decrease by roughly 1% when under load! Whatever you decide it will be one beast of a gaming machine.
