Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm thinking about upgrading my 4:3 CRT to an LCD and need to decide whether to move to widescreen or not. I have no plans to watch movies on my pc, so widescreen is irrelevant there.

Could someone explain to me the pros/cons to widescreen gaming? I realize I'm asking for feedback from a group that is already sold on widescreen, but I would appreciate any insights you may have. Thanks!

Pros
[list]More deskspace
Great improvement in LCD Technology = great picture
See more of the game
(This works really well with RTS or any games that has sidebars)
[/list:u]

Con
[list]Expensive for good quality large LCD's
Not all games support widescreen
(but then again thats where this forum is a godsend) [/list:u]

i would go for it, the only problem I can see is if your video card isn't up to par with the native resolutions you'll lag like crazy [not good for gaming obviously]

I definitely recommend going with a widescreen monitor. Besides gaming, You'll be able to watch HD videos the way they were meant to be seen.

I won't be watching any movies on my monitor, since I have a home theater system for that. The pc will be used ONLY for gaming, so I'm trying to understand if there are any compelling reasons for getting a wide screen LCD vs. a 4:3 LCD.

The only pro I've heard so far that is unique to wide screen (as opposed to LCDs in general) is that you can sometimes see more of the game. But looking through the list here, it seems that the opposite is the case for most games (since they are Vert- or stretched ugly).

I can definitely see going for a wide screen if there were more games supporting hor+, but the games I would currently want to play (WOW, Vanguard, Heroes of M&M 5, etc.) don't support that.

Given that, is there any real reason to get a wide screen at this point? Any sense on how long, if ever, it will take for games to generally provide hor+ support?

Go for it, once you go widescreen you never go back.

Besides theres no such thing as a 4:3 LCD ;)

Yes, you should.

It's a bit more expensive and you need a decent video card, but hey, if you want to enjoy the benefits, there's always a price, isn't there? :wink:

It's worth it, IMHO.

I say turn your 4:3 monitor on its side (even if your GPU won't turn the image just stare at it like that for a minute) so its in Portrait mode, then after a a few minutes, turn it back to it's normal position and get a sense of how much better a screen it to view when it is WIDE then when it is tall.

This should give you a sneak preview of the sensation you will get when your screen goes wide.

Remember, your normal vision is about 270degrees, and is wide, not tall. You don't see many humans with thier eyes above the other do you...well maybe a few people in the Whitehouse, but hey.

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I can definitely see going for a wide screen if there were more games supporting hor+, but the games I would currently want to play (WOW, Vanguard, Heroes of M&M 5, etc.) don't support that.

Pay no attention to the few critiques on this forum about WoW's widescreen implementation. Anyone who has actually played WoW in widescreen will tell you that it's much better than at 4:3.

I bought my widescreen monitor over 2 years ago particularly for WoW. Back then my Dell 2005FPW was damn expensive (and I don't make much money and am generally a bit stingy), but it was definitely worth it, imho. Widescreen's great in WoW as it lets you use lots of UI addons and chat windows without blocking up your view.

Yes.

The only thing I've been able to bitch about uswing widescreen is that not ALL my games support it. Though thatnks to sq1zzy (right?) that list is getting smaller.