Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have just recieved my new DELL 2405. I have had mixed opinions since opening the box. I have run the hacks on the few games I play which include WOW, BF2 and F.E.A.R. My experience with LCD's have shown that playing outside the native resolution would result in a ungratifying experience. I ran FEAR at 1920 x 1200 and it felt laggy. I reduced the rez to 1600 x 1200 and it acted like a whole new game. From another post of mine people reponded saying that they played games in 16 x 2 and all was well. Is it acceptable to play in rez other than the native one?



AMD 4000
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Audigy X-fi

Certainly - it very much depends on the electronics in the panel for how it deals with non-native resolutions.

Also, 1600x1200 isn't really a non-native res for the 2405 - 1920x1200 is simply 1600x1200, but with extra on the side. If you don't stretch it, and play with black bars down the sides, 1600x1200 will be as 'pixel perfect' as 1920x1200 would be. :)

Things only get nasty when you try to scale, say, 1024x768 up to 1600x1200, and it has to estimate how to fill the pixels in between. For example, 800x600 scaled up to 1600x1200 makes each 'pixel' 2x2 pixels in size. 1024x768 would make each 'pixel' 1.56 pixels in size - but you can't have 0.56 of a pixel, so the monitor has to guess how to deal with the scaling. Some do it well - others (normally older panels) do it very badly.

Yeah, 1600x1200 is "pixel perfect" if you don't mind the vertical bars. I got a replacement yesterday and haven't yet sent back the original Dell 2405FPW that I consider defective due to hotspots, because the wife wanted to try it out over the weekend to see if a 24" widescreen is for her (we have credit at NCIX from sending back a defective Samsung 204T and had planed to buy an 24" widescreen Acer for her).

Planescape Torment, which is the game she is currently playing, didn't look too great. But then it has no options for any other resolution other than it's own (which I think may be 640x480 or 800x600), plus it runs in 16-bit color which doesn't help either. Still, it's what I would consider more than playable despite being on the ugly side (pixelated mostly).

She also tried Myst Uru, a game she recently finished but hadn't uninstalled yet, with various wide screen hacks, and we decided that 1600x1200 with the bars looks the best (naturally) and she said she didn't mind the bars at all. Hacking to obtain widescreen resolutions didn't look too great in this game though since the FOV could not be changed to match, which made her character seem fat (everything else looked fine to me though).

I've already mentioned in your other thread that I run Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2 at the Dell's native res of 1920x1200 without issue, and my system isn't nearly as nice as yours.

Anyways, she has decided she definitely wants one now too, so now were debating about just keeping the both 2405FPW's despite the problems of the first one. She says the hot spots, which can only be seen when the screen is displaying something dark, doesn't bother her, but I would still prefer to exchange it personally. We gave her old 19" CRT to a friend who wanted it for video editing (since it was the same model as his, dual displays and all that) and after sending back the Samsung 204T to NCIX she has been using my old 19" CRT in the interim. She definitely does not want to go back to it. She said it was like looking into a dirty fish tank, and I'm inclined to agree with her lol. Going to have to replace her Hercules 9800 Pro though, or give her my system and build a new one which I was going to do next spring anyways. Regardless, I'll gladly take the flaws and quirks of an LCD over the flaws and quirks of a CRT any day. Plus it's not like they can't be replaced several years down the road if something comes along that is superior. I'm sure these two Dell's will still sell fairly well by then.

PS: Using a Wacom Intuos2 tablet with this monitor is very cool. Just had to say that hehe. ;)

Planescape Torment, which is the game she is currently playing, didn't look too great. But then it has no options for any other resolution other than it's own (which I think may be 640x480 or 800x600), plus it runs in 16-bit color which doesn't help either. Still, it's what I would consider more than playable despite being on the ugly side (pixelated mostly).

Yeah - Planescape Torment is fixed at 640x480 - it uses the original incarnation of the Infinity engine by Bioware. The other problem is that Anti-Aliasing doesn't do that much for it. One of the best RPGs I've played - ever - but in dire need of an update. ;)

Is it a 3d engine? I had the impression it was a 2d sprite based game.

No - the Infinity engine was the simple 2D thing used by Baldur's Gate. They updated it for BGII, by adding increased res support (only 800x600 officially, although unofficially it could do XGA, SXGA and UXGA too...) and rudimentary 3D support. Personally, I found turning on 3D in BGII to make the framerate drop like a stone - it was much smoother if left alone...

because the wife wanted to try it out over the weekend to see if a 24" widescreen is for her (we have credit at NCIX from sending back a defective Samsung 204T and had planed to buy an 24" widescreen Acer for her).

;)

Do not get a Acer 24" until after X'mas at the earliest as the current one only have VGA inputs and the one after the new year will have DVI also.

She also tried Myst Uru, a game she recently finished but hadn't uninstalled yet, with various wide screen hacks, and we decided that 1600x1200 with the bars looks the best (naturally) and she said she didn't mind the bars at all. Hacking to obtain widescreen resolutions didn't look too great in this game though since the FOV could not be changed to match, which made her character seem fat (everything else looked fine to me though).

Well said. There are some games that I still prefer to run at standard aspect ratios with the black bars down the side, either b/c the widescreen doesn't really add much, or its too complicated to get all the details worked out. I think Star Wars: Battlefront comes to mind as one which I like to play at 1600x1200 with fixed aspects ratio scaling enabled.

Do not get a Acer 24" until after X'mas at the earliest as the current one only have VGA inputs and the one after the new year will have DVI also.

Thanks for the heads up. It's really hard to find a release date or any solid info on the absolute final specs of this new monitor. One of the things I was concerned about, despite that the specs seem slightly better than the Dell 2405FPW, was the connections it had. I was under the impression from seeing it listed on NCIX and on Acer's Taiwanese site that it would only have DVI and VGA, but was really hoping this might be wrong. I think we may end up just sticking with two 2405's.

My friend and I both got the 2405fpw a few days ago. Amazing screens. They are now shipping revision A04. We have no dead pixels out of the box, backlighting is almost totally even and they are not sagging to one side as some have had issues with.

The 1:1 option in the menu makes this thing nearly the perfect monitor. I can watch all my shows in 16:9, play any games that support widescreen, and still play all the 4:3 games in pixel perfect 1600x1200. The black bars on the left and right are total non-issues. I don't think anyone will mind them.

Barring the screen outright dying at some later date, I'm so impressed with this monitor that words don't do it justice. I've owned, used, and sold a whole lot of monitors and LCDs/TVs over the years. It's amazing. Period.