WXGA vs UXGA (8890 or 8790)?? - Page 2

from what i have read on THIS SITE (I have no conformation though about the M11 cards) you cant set it up to display with the black boxes. I wouldnt mind at all playing with the black lines, but I hate when stuff is streached to fit. Apparently with the Nvidia cards you can do this,but not with the ATI's. If adam or someone from PCTORQUE could comment on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

I dont know about the M11, but you certainly can with the M10, I've done it myself, it's in advanced display properties (I can give you details on where exactly if you need them, it is a little burried) and I'd be very surprised if the M11 didnt give the same option.

Edit: It's possible, though very unlikely, that the aspect of the screen has a baring on this and that the drivers dont allow it on widescreen laptops. Can anyone with a 4780 or better, an 8790 confirm?

apparently it does give you the option, but some M10's do not, i assume its a driver thing. (read about this on another forum not this one) The ability to do this was confirmed by brainl using an 8790

games which WON'T work:

Baldur's Gate (& Tales of the Sword Coast)
Baldur's Gate II (& Throne of Bhaal)
Diablo (& Hellfire)
Diablo II (& Lord of Destruction)
Driver
Final Fantasy 7 (VII) PC
Final Fantasy 8 (VIII) PC
Icewind Dale (& Heart of Winter)
Outcast
Planescape: Torment
Rollercoaster Tycoon (& Addons)
Rollercoaster Tycoon II (& Addons)
Temple of Elemental Evil
The Thing
TIE Fighter (Win95 Edition)
X-Wing (Win95 Edition)
X-Wing Alliance
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (& Balance of Power)
Temple of Elemental Evil
Grim Fandago
- Hell Bender
- MDK
- Monster Truck Madness
- Dune 2000
- War Craft
- War Craft 2
- Forsaken
- Hexen
- Doom
- Doom 2
- Jazz Jack Rabbit
- Raptor Air Attack
- Virtual Valerie 2 *No I didn't buy it, just tested co-workers copy
- Jadded Cacoon
- Comando2
- Commandos 2
- Tom Clany's Ruthless.com
- Ultimate Doom
- Wolfenstein 3d *Original
- Zoop
- Zool
- MAME arcade emu DOS
- Grand Theft Auto 1
- Grand Theft Auto 2
- Attack of the Marions
- Mortal Kombat 4
- Moral Kombat 1, 2, 3 & Trilogy
- Guilty Gear X
- Street Fighter 2 turbo
- Street Fighter 2 alpha
- Command And Conquer Red Alert 1
- Bikini Karate Babes *Don't have this one either, just tested
- Jim's First day at school
- Louisiana DMV's: Lets Learn to Drive
- Tonka's Toy Truck
- Daytona USA
- Sonic CD
- Final Fight
- Virtua Fighter
- One Must Fall 2048
- A-10 Warthog Tank Killer
- Janes Fighters Anthnology
- Commanche 4
- Who Shot Jhonny Rock ?
- Where in Time is Carmen Sandiago
- Midway's Arcade Classics
- Ataris Greatest Arcade Hits
Dark Forces
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Descent 1, 2 & 3
F22 Lightning 1, 2 & 3
Force Commander
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Rogue Squadron
Sonic and Knuckles Collection
Star Wars: Supremacy (called 'Rebellion' in the US, I believe)
Doom
Doom 2
Ultimate Doom
Hexen
Wolfenstein 3d *Original


just in case none of you are visiting that site i've been linking to for the past week or so. (www.widescreengamingforum.com)

.... *cough*. thats way too many games for my taste.

(i know some of those games are lame. but a few that i am ACTUALLY planning on playing when i have time: ff7/8, grim fandango, baldur's gate series, planescape:torment.... ... just from that one list~!!! how many more don't work? you should see the screenshot of WCIII stretched. *shudder*)

ifrit, that's quite a list. And I've got a lot of those games. In fact, Baldur's Gate: TotSC is in my DVD drive right now.

My question is this: Do these games flat-out not work or are they stretched? There's a difference.

As for the WCIII stretched... I guess that's personal preference because the shot I saw didn't bother me in the least.

My 8790 is in the process of getting put through its paces right now by a friend in the States. I should have it here sometime next week, so I'll get to throw some of these older games on and see exactly what's going on w/ them.

Pretty much all of those games dont work (at WXGA) because they have fixed resolutions, they're old 2d games, some of them you'd be lucky to run under XP anyway. As I said in a previous post, these would be distorted and interpolated even on a 4:3 screen unless the native resolution happened to match, but sager doesnt offer any screens with a native res this low. The only benefit youd get with a 4:3 screen rather than a widescreen is that a stretched image on a widescreen makes everything look wider, on a 4:3 screen you'd keep the same aspect but the image would be distorted.

You can run these games, all of them, with a choice of stretching them or running them in a 4:3 box in the centre of the screen. A wxga screen is nothing special, it has a native res of 1440x900 but there's nothing stopping you running it out of native just like you can with any other screen. All that list says is you cant run those games at 1440x900, but nor can you run them (most of them) at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200.

Also, just because it's a favourite of mine, you can add starcraft to that list. I know for a fact it only runs at 640x480. Also all of the C&C series up to and including red alert 2.

Yes, WXGA+ (like the 17"LCD) is 1440x900, that's more pixels both vertically and horizontally so things will look smaller on the laptop than they currently do on the desktop. But they'll also be much clearer and sharper, so I expect they'll be easier to see if that's a concern.

And to your second question, yes again, you can adjust the screen resolution of the CRT as a secondary monitor independent of the LCD, and have the LCD displaying 1440x900 while the CRT displays 1024x768. You can also plug the CRT in and use that instead of the LCD with the LCD off, and again you can set the resolution to whatever you like.

I'm not absolutely sure of this but I dont see any reason why the LCD shouldnt allow you to set any resolution, it'll just look stretched out of native. Again I'll have to ask somebody with a widescreen about this.

To widescreen owners: Can you set the resolution to a standard 4:3 resolution like 1024x768, does it just stretch?

By default, it will stretch. You can set it so it uses native resolution (I do that for older games that don't know how to render in 1440x900) and you'll just end up with some black space around the native resolution.

1024x768 on a 17" widescreen isn't as bad as some people think, but then again, I'm coming from a long line of ultraportable laptops with 10-12" screens, so 1024x768 on a 17" even with blackspace is still fine for me. Stretch it out if you want, but things start looking weird

I've gotta strongly disagree with you on this point. The WUXGA screen on my Dell 8600 is fantastic for FPS games. UT2004 and Far Cry are nothing short of breathtaking in 1920x1200 (WUXGA) and there's no ghosting at all. Granted, these games would run much better on the 8790, but the lower resolution of its WXGA screen is a step down from the 8600's WUXGA. Nevertheless, I'll be buying an 8790 within the next two weeks. The 8790 can be upgraded to a 17" WUXGA screen, once it's available, and THAT will provide an incredible gaming experience!!

Just to clarify, by fps I meant frames per second. How do you manage to run far cry in 1920x1200? I've never played it but I hear its quite demanding on the graphics.

In my opinion, framerate is more important than resolution in shooters. Above 1024x768 the gains you get from an increased resolution are small, but you do start to lose speed. I only meant that given the option of running a game like far cry in a lower resolution, but physically larger and with better framerate, and a small screen and lower framerate, I'd pick the former. Some people may prefer quality of image to the smoothness of the motion and that's fair enough too. Of course for old games where frame rate isnt an issue, it might be a different situation.

I am just speaking of games here though, I personally would pick WUXGA over WXGA any day for desktop space, regardless of the physical size.

Are the response times, contrast ratios etc good on the WUXGA? I assumed they'd be similar to the WXGA but I confess I havent looked into it.

hmmm ... im warming up to the idea of a 17" WXGA again. you say those games don't flat out NOT WORK on a WXGA, but instead get stetched or have blackspace around them?...

hmmm.... i think i'll start posting in the widescreen gaming forum about hwo to make games run with black space - because that i don't mind in the least. In fact - sometimes i prefer to run games in windowed mode... i'll play a game on an 8790 as long as it IS NOT stretched .... if this means black space around it - so be it.

i dont mind black space.

i was under the impression that the games just refused to run on a 17" WXGA screen. can you make all those games work on a WXGA ... (at 1024x7??) with black space? .... if so - I'M SOLD! ... heh.

i'll make a similar post, at the widescreen gaming forum to see what they have to say. but in the meantime - does anyone here have any thoughts? can all games be made to run with black space?!!

if so - that'd be awesome.

All my 1024x768 mode games work fine in their native mode (not stretched) albeit with some blackspace around the window (208 pixels on either side, 66 on top/bottom).

This isn't bad at all as the screen's pretty damned big to begin with. You're SOLD!

and i am too. im pretty sure i'll be getting an 8790. 1024x768 isn't that bad a resolution. i mean its no 1280x1024, but oh well. newer games that are graphics intensive will probably be coded for 1440x900, and will run fine, unstretched. older games i'll just have to play at 1024x786...

now just to transfer the funds...

lol

Welcome to the dark side, Ifrit.

I went through the whole widescreen paranoia for all off a day before I went to look at the damn thing and realized holy crap this screen is gorgeous. Took us long enough to convince you though, O Adamantly Against Widescreen One!

hahahahhaha.

am i that read-able? well like i had said earlier. laptop for surfing, games and video. widescreen good for video, i dont care what it looks like surfing, but games... games games games.

*shrug*. i guess if you do enough research you find the proper answer ... if i hadn't done any research and just went with the 8790 like i planned to from the start, i would have had a really boring wait. ... but the end result would've been the same. hah.

yeah i agree that the screen is gorgeous.... (i will never agree that 1024x7?? resolution is the completely BEST res for games though. i'd really like to play on a 1280x1024 for once... *sigh* oh well. we can't always get what we want... but if we try some time.. we just might find...)

And now this is going to sound like I'm trying to get you back off widescreen, I'm not, honest, just clarifying

Old 2d games, like starcraft, are fixed at 640x480 or occasionally 800x600. If you ran these with the black spaces option, they'd look tiny, about half the height of the screen. The only games you'll be able to play at 1024x768 are obviously the ones that support it in the first place, like the 3d games that just dont support weird resolutions but any 4:3 ones, or the newer end of 2d games, like red alert 2. Some games even run at 320x240, I think the original C&C did, and they really would look ridiculous (about 2" high), but I cant imagine you'd want to play those much on a shiny new 8790, and when you do you can always hook up to a CRT.

And I wouldnt knock 1024x768 as a gaming resolution. When the newer generation of DX9 games come out and you can run them smoothly, almost filling the screen, and 8890 owners like myself are forced to run them at 1600x1200 at 3fps or have it look bad out of native, you'll be laughing. And that's just the minority that dont support 1440x900, chances are most will and they'll look beautiful.