Topic: Daft monitor question...

[Simon]

Are widescreen monitors dependant on graphics card, or will any machine display a widescreen resolution, regardless of the graphics card specs?

[daveeb]

It probably is daft, as I have wondered the very same thing. My conclusion was that if you have a particularly old graphics card then it may not work properly with a wide screen monitor, ie the gfx card needs to support the native resolution of the screen. I would imagine most modern cards will be fine. 

[Rik]

I agree. Recent cards will support w/s, older ones might need new drivers, very old one might not work.

[Sandra]

I use a widescreen monitor as a spare for building and repairing pcs on.
I havent had a problem with it displaying on older pcs with onboard graphics or older PCI and AGP cards.

[Simon]

But does it always display at the monitor's native resolution, Sandra?  Do you get additional 'widescreen' resolution options once the monitor is connected?  This isn't for me, and I don't want to tell them to get one, if there's a chance things won't display properly, i.e, with things the wrong shapes, like a stretched 4:3 image on a 16:9 TV.

[Sandra]

No things look ok Simon, no widescreen option, just remember that a 19 inch widescreen is a smaller visable area than a 19 inch 4:3.
The only reason I got a widescreen monitor was that I thought it may be better to set the PC up thats connected via component to my TV.
Websites and most programs still tend to be set up for 4:3 displays so unless they watch a lot of films on it then a 4:3 monitor is probably better as it will give a bigger display area for the same size in inches.

[Simon]

OK, it was only that on my laptop, there are widescreen options in the resolution settings, and setting the 'wrong' option, results in an incorrect aspect ratio for some images.

I think I might advise them to get a 4:3 monitor, to be on the safe side, as it would also be saving myself some potential hassle.

[Rik]

There shouldn't be any hassle, Simon. Whether there's any benefit depends on how they use the machine, eg I have windows open to the right of Firefox with reference material.