void said:
I have a 7 year old computer with a Matrox Millennium G400 video card and
a 17" CRT monitor. I can run in 800x600 comfortably, but if I try
1024x768, everything is a little small on my monitor. So I want to get a
larger LCD monitor.
Second question: Since my G400 does not support widescreen resolutions,
what would happen if I were to buy a widescreen LCD monitor? (I might
want a widescreen monitor so that I can use the capability when I upgrade
my computer.) Would the image stretch horizontally so that it fit all of
the screen? (That would be bad.) Or would there be empty black space on
both sides of the image? (That would be better.)
They don't stretch out the image, whether they're set to wide or
regular mode. But the picture looks noticeably sharper when run at
the LCD monitor's native resolution. For the 17" and 19" regular LCDs
I've seen, that's usually 1280x1024 (I haven't found one rated
1024x768) but with wide screens it's usually a wierd number, like
1680x1050 for mine. When I ran it at any other resolutions, even the
very close 1650x1024, the picture looked fuzzy or grainy..
A 19" widescreen is about as tall as a 17" regular screen, a 22"
widescreen is as tall as a 19" regular screen. LCD monitors seem to be
measured accurately, not 1" smaller as CRT monitors are.
Nokia's free monitor test software will let you check for dead pixels
by setting the whole screen to one primary color at a time:
www.majorgeeks.com/download960.html
It also includes test for convergence, focus, and high voltage
regulation, which apply only to CRT monitors.