1900x1280 Gaming

[Energizer Bunny]

Afternoon all,

Rightly or wrongly, I have gone and picked up a 24" monitor for myself with a native res of 1900x1280. My system is now having to play catch up.

So I'm doing an upgrade, and while I have a reasonable budget, I'd like to keep the costs as low as possible. At present I'm looking at the fairly ubiquitous 6600 quad core + decent mobo + 2g Ram.

The sticking point is the graphics card. I had initially swallowed the bitter pill of having to shell out for a GTX, but the more I read the more I think this might not be such a good idea, more for timing reasons than anything else). I have done a search on this, but I couldn't find anything for such high resolutions.

So my question is this... given the following info

- Keeping budget down as much as poss
- Need to play the latest games at 1900x1280
- Dont want to upgrade again for 2 years
- I am willing to spend on a graphics card, but I have an objection to spending any more than about £350 (about $700 USD) on a graphics card alone

Am I best off going for a GTX or a GTS, or something else? Should I wait for the fabled 9800 in November when presumably the prices for the others will tumble?

Thanks fellas

 

[bamacre]

At this point, I would wait for the "9800" series. What card do you have now?

The new cards coming out should be more efficient, more powerful, and do a better job of DX10.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

No one knows if the 9800 will come out this fall or not. No need to wait, thats wasting time

High res, dont want to upgrade for years, want to play the latest and greatest at high settings for a few years.

This calls for the GTX. imo. and if your worry about something coming out soon, get a EVGA GTX and upgrade later.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

You have 2 very valid options. 1-- like you said, grab the GTX now. Maybe, just maybe, nV will get their lineup out by mid Nov and you could do the EVGA step-up program if that interests you. Or 2-- get a GTS 320 now and then upgrade once a game comes out that your system can't handle at 19x12 (which will probably be Crysis in November... which may coincide nicely with the new cards).

Neither solution will give you what you want though-- not having to upgrade again for 2 years. I just don't believe that's going to be possible unless you plan on scaling the resolution down from native. But both options will allow you to enjoy gaming for a while.

Your safest bet is #2. Even at 19x12, a GTS 320 does okay with many of today's games. Plus, as new cards arrive, being a good value, it will hold its resale value much better than a GTX.

Option #1 could work out well for you if you get an EVGA GTX and nV releases their cards before your 90 days is up. That way, you lock in the resale value of the GTX and put that money toward the next gen EVGA card. But it's a gamble. (And the lack of cross-shipping makes it unattractive to me.)

 

[imaheadcase]

I play lots of games on 24 inch in default rez as you do, use 8800GTS and its fine for most games. HL2, Warhammer beta, Civ4, CoH, etc

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Thanks guys. Your responses have been really useful.

 

[betasub]

1900x1280 sounds pretty sweet. Most of us on 24"ws are limited to 1920x1200 (16:10), or even 1920x1080 (16:9).

 

[JohnnyTT]

Get an EVGA GTS card to hold you over.... then use there step up program in 3 months. That's what I'm about to do for my new rig.

 

[ayabe]

Originally posted by: JohnnyTT
Get an EVGA GTS card to hold you over.... then use there step up program in 3 months. That's what I'm about to do for my new rig.

I'm close to doing the same thing.