Urgent Advice needed: Hardware upgrade or Monitor Upgrade?
I'm at work so I'll make this quick -
I have some extra cash from my tax refund and am looking to either spend it on upgrading my computer hardware or getting a new monitor. here are the specs in question:
Current PC:
Athlon 64 3000 OC'd to 2.4ghz
2gb DDR Ram
8800GTS 320 MB
19 Inch LCD (Not widescreen)
Possible Hardware Upgrade (~550 CAD after tax)
-Intel Q6600 processor
-Asus P5K-E motherboard (I think that's the model #, anyways)
-2GB DDR2 ram
Possible Monitor Upgrade: (~400CAD after tax)
-Westinghouse 24 Inch Widescreen monitor (1900x1200, lots of inputs, decent reviews)
There are pros and cons to each decision - I think I could hold off on a hardware upgrade since most of the PC games I think I'll need it for will only be out in the fall. I was almost set on buying the monitor (It's a great deal for that price) until i realized - Will my system even be able to run games at 1920X1200? (Ie, will I be CPU limited, or will the 8800gts be enough?) Is there a point to having a huge monitor if my system can't even run it? (Aside from using it with the xbox). If I downscale to a lower widescreen resolution until I upgrade, will it look like crap?
Quick and dirty input is appreciated - I'm looking to pick one of the two up tonight.
Morrolan wrote:
I'm pretty sure Gabe Newell hangs out on top of the Valve building like Father Gregori, firing warning shots over any Sony people that come within fifty paces of the door.
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
My home specs are very similar (P4 2.8, same card, same RAM), and I run 1600x1200 on a 19" CRT. I haven't tried some of the real killers on it (Crysis, Assasin's Creed, etc.)
I'm pretty sure if I threw anything more at it, it would keel over and die. So I suppose I would say system upgrade first.
Well, you get benefits from a large monitor outside of gaming (e.g. more screen space). But if gaming is your primary concern, then probably not.
*Legion* recognizing greatness wrote:
Bigger monitor.
If you already know you aren't going to be playing any games requiring high(er) end hardware before the end of the year, then just ask yourself, which will you get more enjoyment out of over the next 6-9 months and which will be cheaper or replaced with something much better by then? Easy answer. 24" monitors might come down a bit more might be a touch better, but hardware will always be much cheaper/better.
And as LilCodger mentions, there's plenty of side benefits for a large monitor - including running your 360 at 1080p.
If you let the monitor scale it up to 1920x1200, then almost certainly... unless you're not particularly fussy about picture quality.
XBL: MikeMac75
So what you're saying is that I can run games at a 1600 x 1200 resolution if that's all my system can handle, and force the monitor not to upscale? That would mean less screen real estate being used, right?
Sorry, i'm a widescreen noob and have always just used the max res on my regular monitors.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
Yea, monitor should have some scaling options - like maintain aspect ratio, full fill or just map 1:1. If you ran at 1024x768 or something god awful like that it'd just be a rather large black border around the image at 1:1, but no scaling artifacts. At least you'll have the option to decide if you prefer the physically smaller image or scaling jaggies. I prefer neither.
XBL: MikeMac75
Oh, I missed the Xbox reference.
If you don't care as much about PC gaming for a bit, then yeah, go with the monitor. Lot's of working space in normal applications (if you do any video/audio editing it's magic), and 1080 goodness for the Xbox. I get much more use out of large monitors for general use than gaming.
As I've never owned a widescreen monitor, I'm curious how bad it would look running 1600x1200. The Westinghouse FAQ's have a similar answer repeatedly, "Set it to the native resolution stupid!"
If you go with it, please report back.
*Legion* recognizing greatness wrote:
I took another look at the PC release schedule for the near future and decided to go for the Monitor. The fact that the monitor was $250 on sale was a huge factor - hardware prices will continue to drop, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get a 24 inch monitor for that price anytime soon.
Thanks a ton for the quick input guys - I'm still a bit concerned about my computer's ability to handle games at such a high resolution, but given that most of my PC gaming for the immediate future will likely be spent "catching up" (Hi, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) or playing games with lower reqs (Spore, Sam & Max come to mind), I think it's the right call. just means playing Crysis will have to wait even longer. Ah well.
(Sidenote - I'm writing this on a 22 inch monitor at work that's reserved for "non-work" internet usage and I'm already salivating at the prospect of a 24 inch)
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
I've been more than happy (a dangerous mental condition) with my Samsung 226BW 22" LCD. I got the allegedly crappy "C" panel from Amazon, but it's beautiful. Granted, I don't do any high-end Photoshop work that requires an absolutely perfect color palette, but it's gorgeous to me.
It does 1650x1080 native. Despite what I'm sure many others will say, you don't need any higher, in my opinion. It'll do what you need, and it's much cheaper than getting into some dick-waving contest over the size and resolution of your monitor and computer specs. Nobody cares if you can play Crysis with everything turned up on a ZenView Atlas Pro. If you're having fun, who gives a sh*t if the resolution's a little lower than the max?
Too Many Secrets - Now with actual anonymity!
Steam | XBox Live
$250? Dayum... nice price!
Even with a Q6600 and 8800GTX, Crysis still runs like molasses in January at 1920x1200 - even in DX9 mode... bah. I think we'll both be waiting for a real next gen card (not the hokey dual GPU on a stick 9x00 stuff) before Crysis at native rez in DX10 will be smooth.
XBL: MikeMac75
I suspect you'll probably be all right. The biggest thing that gets hit when you increase resolution is your GPU. Most likely, with that relatively beastly card, anything that you can run now at 1280x1024 will run about the same at 1920x1200. In both cases, you're already CPU-choked, probably, and you should see almost identical results at either resolution.
Obviously, you'll want to tinker, but I think you'll see surprisingly little framerate difference with resolution on most games... Crysis being the major exception, and STALKER somewhat less so.
I love my new widescreen monitor, and so will you. However, the core of your system is getting a little long in the tooth. What's worse, I don't think that video card will run your new monitor with acceptable eye candy (AA,AF).
If it were me, I'd upgrade the cpu/motherboard, then rob a liquor store for a new video care/monitor.
I didn't even fight the law.