BwanaJim said:
What determines if you can use "widescreen" mode and can XP handle it? I am
using a regular monitor at work and am considering a widescreen monitor but I
don't see a selection for it on the resolution screen. Is that because there
is not a widescreen monitor attached?
What actually determines widescreen mode in Windows XP?
Some integrated graphics chips (where the graphics are provided by the
motherboard and not a separate video card), come with drivers that
aren't updated regularly. Such chips may not support some of the newer
resolution options like 1440x900 or 1680x1050 or the like.
In some cases, if the same chipset is run in Linux, a mode line
can be created to produce the desired resolution. That generally
proves it is not a hardware limitation.
In the case of some of the earliest cards with DVI outputs, the
DVI datarate has limitations. DVI is supposed to be 165MHz max,
and that is the "clock rate". (The actual data is 1650 Mbits/sec,
so it involves frequencies much higher than that. But 165MHz is
what people are familiar with in terms of specs.) In the case
of the "substandard" video cards, the manufacturer of the GPU
chip knows they only produce a quality output up to 135MHz or
so. The driver provided may cut off resolutions that cause the
DVI output to go above 135MHz, so that the maker of the GPU will
not be embarrassed by their inability to meet spec. They could
have remedied this in manufacturing, by using an external DVI
driver chip, as you can buy chips that convert from a parallel
data format to DVI, that work at 165MHz just fine.
In the table here, you can see that 1440 x 900 @ 60Hz works OK
and is below 135MHz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface
WXGA+ (1440 x 900) @ 60 Hz (107 MHz)
VGA outputs may not suffer from that particular problem, but
have their own issues. At extreme resolutions, there may be
visible reflections on the cable from the computer to the monitor.
If the IBM PC standard supported a better quality connector, who
knows what might have been. On another computer, they use a
13W3, which gives better end-to-end signal treatment. (In the
picture here, you can see the RGB signals get real coax connectors.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13W3
Cheap monitors have only a DVI connector anyway, so in such a case,
it's not like you have to worry about VGA. Check to make sure the
monitor has the connector type provided by your computer - it would
be an ugly situation to have a VGA-only computer, and then try and
connect a DVI-only LCD monitor to it.
If you get the wide screen monitor, and the resolution issue doesn't
work out, you can fit a new video card to try to remedy the situation.
Some PCs only have PCI slots for add-in cards (no AGP slot). I would
not particularly want to be stuck with a PCI card as a graphics
solution. It depends on the motherboard chipset and the situation, as
to whether you could stand the quality of the solution in that case.
(I did a motherboard upgrade here recently, and in testing my PCI card,
determined I couldn't put up with it for more than a day or so. I bought
a different standard card for $65 to fix it.)
AGP cards or PCI Express video cards are available, with the AGP ones
providing a mix of ancient and modern GPU solutions. The newest AGP
cards usually have relatively poor driver support (you may get one good
driver, and that is it). The PCI Express cards would get regular driver
updates, but realistically speaking, they stop making active improvements
to the code for older cards, after a while. So the newer drivers only
give the appearance of being supported, when in fact they're on "life
support".
The end result, is some kind of "dribbling upgrade" scenario. The thing
may work, with no drama at all. Or, you might have to work through some
of the scenarios later in my story above. It's hard to say where
you'll end up
(Hopefully, happy.) If your computer doesn't come
with good upgrade slots (i.e. has PCI slots only), that would give
me pause with regard to upgrading. I'd probably want to find
other examples of people being successful at the resolution
I wanted to run at, before going out and buying the monitor.
(Use your favorite search engine, the make and model number of the
computer, and see what others have experienced.)
Paul
