Widescreen Gaming Forum

Apple have just announced a new range of G5 I-macs, one of which comes with a 17" widescreen capable of 1440x900.

i can only presume that this is a new screen given the better resolution for its size, and therefore it should have a 16ms response like the rest of the Cinema Display range, (and unlike the rest of the 17" units capable only of 1280x800).

so my question is five-fold:

1) do games such as UT2k4, R:TW etc support this resolution, or are only the more commonplace resolutions such as UXGA, WSXGA, WUXGA etc?

2) what is te correct term for this resolution? USXGA? lol

3) when will separate units using this screen arrive from whichever manufacturer?

4) give me a ball-park figure on the cost?

5) they say it has an equivalent screen area to a 419" CRT, is this realistic?

thanks

REMF

Er...

1 ) Games that support widescreen natively (or resolutions at least, if not the FOV) tend to be able to use any res that Windows can. So they should be able to use 1440x900. If they require hacking for a given resolution, it should be the same sort of thing too.

2 ) Probably WXGA+ or something like that. :lol:

3 ) Dunno.

4 ) Again, dunno.

5 ) 419"? That a typo? ;) I don't see how you can really compare a 16:10 or 16:9 ratio screen to a 4:3... they are different things entirely. *shrug*

cheers,

yes that was a typo, but apple do claim it has similar screen area to a 19" CRT.........

*waits for someone to make a desktop version*

I have an HP ZD7000 series laptop, which comes with the same 17" widescreen 1440x900 display that that apple powerbook comes with. There's a high end Toshiba model that also uses the same display by the same OEM.

I have been quite happily running many games at 1440x900 including UT2k4. Nearly every game that supports widescreen resolutions will support this resolution as well.

For those games that don't normally support the resolution, all of the hacks that Wogg has created here at the widescreen forums in the "By Hack" section have enabled me to run 1440x900.

Mathematically, a 17" LCD does not have as much viewing area as the average 19" CRT's viewable area (most claim an 18" viewable area), but with low end 19" CRTs, the number is probably not far off.

I suppose I should mention that I'm playing games on a windows machine, of course, and games on Macs are limited, and my widescreen experience has only been on windows. Wogg's widescreen hacks are only for windows.

It's entirely possible that OSX and Mac versions of games will not run in 1440x900. See if you can't find a forum dedicated to powerbooks. That should answer your questions.

I like Macs as much as the next guy, but you also might consider upgrading from that single mouse button.

cheers.

i am very much a PC user so thats not a problem, its just that apple widescreen displays are by far the best available so even PC users will want them despite the price premium.

They definitely do look great, but are not the only option. As I said the 17" HP ZD7000 series and the 17" toshiba both use the exact same widescreen LCD panel that the Mac 17" powerbook does, from the exact same OEM vendor. So, if you don't want to abandon your PC usage and current software library, one of these machines could well be an excellent alternative. There's also a very high end 17" notebook from Sager that uses this screen, as well.

You may want to check out the ZD7000 forums for more info here:
http://www.zd7000forums.com/

HP are apparently also offering a version of the 17" widescreen in an even higher resolution - 1680x1050 or something.

you misunderstand me, :) i am hoping that we may soon see a desktop 17" TFT with the 1440x900 resolution and a 16ms response.......

OT: my Acer Aspire 1360 series laptop with a 15.4" WXGA screen should arrive tomorrow, so i shall be attempting to get M:TW to work on it pronto, and seeing if UT2k4 is playable at all. :?:

Don't know about Medieval, but UT2004 is playable. Although you might have to turn a few settings down. It ran reasonably at 1680x1050. :)

indeed, I did misunderstand you. :oops:

If I had read your first post more carefully, I would have seen you were talking about and iMac not an iBook. My bad.

a 17" widescreen desktop LCD monitor is a cool idea

I don't recall getting M:TW to run in widescreen properly. Certainly the political portions won't run properly.

Medieval looks blurry on the laptop cos it's stretched, but i will try R:TW this evening. it's installed, but i am at work after all! ;)

oh, and no knews yet of a 1440x900 desktop TFT yet.............?