Need monitor advice *soon*

TheNightTerror on 26/3/2009 at 11:35

It looks like D-day is fast approaching, I've killed another laptop and I'm finally on course to get a new one. The laptop I want comes with a catch; it's going to be a dream to watch BluRay movies on (Bullitt, here I come!) but it also has a high def monitor, a 18.4 inch 16x9 number with a 1920x1080 native resolution.

I have no idea what's going to happen when I try to play games on this computer. Am I going to get black bars, no widescreen at all because the games won't understand the 16x9 strangeness, 16x9 widescreen resolutions, or what?

I could deal with 1440x900 with small black bars, but I'm going to have to part with this honey if the normal* widescreen games won't work properly with a 16x9 monitor. And if you tell me that it'll work on all my games, or even just newer games such as Oblivion, I'll marry you.

I have Deus Ex on hand and can throw it onto a memory stick, it's one of my only proper widescreen games and old enough to be transplantable. Problem is I have no guarantees it'll run without a fight on a Vista rig, or that I'll even be able to take it for a test run, so I might not be able to test it this way.

Any thoughts on this?

*By normal widescreen games, I mean everything except SS1. Even when it's set to use a 4:3 resolution, the viewing angle is still wider based on your monitor. 640x480 has a wider viewing angle on a 16:10 monitor than a 4:3, it's a dream.

Now, SS1 in widescreen HD, that would be such a deliciously bizarre combination that if anyone could hack that into the game I really would marry them.

bikerdude on 26/3/2009 at 13:38

Ok firstly...

Can you give me the make and model of the new laptop...

And..

Whats wrong with your old one..?

Matthew on 26/3/2009 at 14:39

TNT tends to kill laptops on a regular basis. I think the destructo-rays her mind gives off interferes with them or something.

Nameless Voice on 26/3/2009 at 15:52

I'm debating as to whether something with an 18.4" screen can really be counted as a laptop, or if it has to be reclassified as a luggable.

In any case, all your games should work:

Deus Ex will work in 16:9, though you'll want the interface fix at such a high resolution.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4001) Reference
(http://deusex2.filefront.com/file/OTP_UI_Fix;84991#Download) Interface fix (This link will be dead on Monday because filefront is closing.)

Deux Ex: Invisible War can also be made to run in 16:9.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Deus_Ex:_Invisible_War) Reference

Oblivion supports 16:9 straight out of the box.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion) Reference

Thief and System Shock 2 can run at any aspect ratio with the widescreen mod.
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1735761#post1735761) Reference

Source games (e.g. Portal) support 16:9.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Portal) Reference

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines has a third-party widescreen hack.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_-_Bloodlines) Reference

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth doesn't really support widescreen properly, apparently. It supports it out of the box but just stretches your view.
(Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth) Reference

Doom 3 supports 16:9 resolution if you have the latest patch, though it requires some manual config file tweaking.
(http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Doom_3) Reference

Of course, games with fixed 4:3 aspect ratios, such as older games with fixed resolutions (e.g. Starcraft, Majesty, old DOS games) will get even wider black bars at the sides than on 16:10, since you've lost more vertical room.

... now where's that registration office? ;)

TheNightTerror on 26/3/2009 at 21:18

@Bikerdude -- it's an HP HDX18, and what does it matter what happened to the old one? I'm still not sure -- the monitor colors started going pink and orange, like the monitor cable was messed up, then it went black.

After that the monitor would die after the resolution tried to increase for the XP welcome screen. The only way to get back in was to boot in safe mode. Something must have fried the video card.

@Nameless Voice -- I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea myself.

How did I know that if I made an offer like that you'd be a taker? ;)

bikerdude on 26/3/2009 at 21:31

Quote Posted by TheNightTerror

@Bikerdude -- it's an HP HDX18, and what does it matter what happened to the old one?

I wanted to check the specs of the gfx card on the new laptop to see if its upto the job or playing games at the native res. of that monitor, it isnt - it comes with a 9600M GT. This is a slower than a full 9600GT, so it wont be capable of playing games at 1920*1080 with any degree of smoothness/fluidness(essentially it will be a slide show). So as you you have already mentioned, 1440*900 or I would say 1400*1050 is as high as you`ll want to go.

Regarding your old laptop I was just curious to know what was actually wrong with it. But ive just had a thought, if the old one was as massive as the new one - you may be able to change the gfx card. Some larger laptops have off-board gfx cards, which allow you to upgrade them or in your case replace them.

Nameless Voice on 26/3/2009 at 21:38

Quote Posted by Bikerdude

or I would say 1400*1050 is as high as you`ll want to go.

Unfortunately, you'll have a very hard time finding a good laptop with a 4:3 screen these days...

TheNightTerror on 26/3/2009 at 21:40

My old laptop had a . . . what was it, a 7600M? Besides messing with the internals of the laptop voiding the warranty, the old laptop had to be sent away to confirm I didn't take a hammer to it or anything, so I don't have it anymore.

I couldn't play Oblivion at the maximum resolution of the old one either, so that won't bother me much. If Deus Ex can play fine I'll be happy!

bikerdude on 26/3/2009 at 23:10

Quote Posted by TheNightTerror

The 9600M-GT will play most modern games at 1280*960 w/0xAA & 8xAniso or 1400*1050 w/0xAA & 0xAniso - so the res you should able to get away with regards thief+DDf+WS patch = 1280*1024 or 1440*900 and Deus Ex should be the same - (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GT.9449.0.html) review and he is a site I found with video reviews of laptop with the 9600 in - (http://www.yidio.com/tag/9600m) Link

Quote Posted by Nameless Voice

Unfortunately, you'll have a very hard time finding a good laptop with a 4:3 screen these days...

if I understand you right it dosent matter, the 1400*1050 is lower than the max rex of the screen, you can either use the screen's inbuilt scalling or use the nvidia scaler.

Nameless Voice on 27/3/2009 at 00:01

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood you. You mean running at a non-native resolution on the 1920x1080 screen, not actually buying a laptop with 1400x1050 (which happens to be the resolution that my own laptop has, and which is getting increasingly rare as more and more models go widescreen).