Playing games at 1280x1024....

[beedubaya]

Hey, I have an LCD with a native resolution of 1280x1024, and I can't play at the resolution I would like to play at which is 1024x768 because the image quality looks so bad at low resolutions.

How long do you think it will be before I am forced to upgrade my video card to keep playing at 1280x1024? I have a 7800GT....and newer games like FEAR and Call of Duty 2 are already putting a load on it at anything above 1024x768.

As demanding as today's games are getting, I am almost tempted to cut my losses and get a CRT just so I can play at lower resolutions and have my graphics card last longer. Or should I just get SLI 7900s when they come out so hopefully I can play all the games in the next year at the higher resolution.

 

[Apokalipse]

do you mean that you can't actually set it to 1280x1024, or that your card isn't fast enough for it?

 

[beedubaya]

Well, my card is fast enough for it now, barely....but at the rate games are advancing, it will not be in just a few months. By demanding 1280x1024, I'm rendering my graphics card obsolete way sooner than I would be by just playing on the optimized resolution of 1024x768.

I just want to know how long I can expect it to be before a 7800GT can't play 1280x1024 and what my next upgrade should be.

 

[Apokalipse]

this is one reason I haven't got an LCD. that and they're more expensive.
although once they solve that problem I might consider one

I got a 21" CRT a while back, which I got for pretty cheap (AU$380), but it is a really good monitor.
max resolution: 2048x1536
max refresh rate: 180HZ - I think this is up to about 1024x768, or it might be 800x600

but I haven't got a great video card to take advantage of it though. it's being used on a Pentium 3 system with an Nvidia TNT2 Pro

but anyway, the 7800 GT should be able to run UT2007, I don't know about 1280x1024 though (maybe with AA and AF turned off)

what monitor is it?

 

[beedubaya]

Samsung 930B....I don't have any problem with it except for the resolution issue. In fact, for desktop applications and less demanding games, I dread returning to a CRT because the LCD picture is just so much better. CRTs are being phased out too, Newegg doesn't have near the selection they used to.

 

[Apokalipse]

yeah I know what you mean. I can never go back to dial-up now that I have cable internet.

although there are some pretty good CRT's out there. despite taking up heaps of space, my 21" CRT is great.

 

[Flanker]

Seems like there was a whole round of Moderator-morphs.

 

[GageMW]

dude i think you should be set for a while, i play FEAR on high settings with a 6800gt and a 3500+ and COD2 on max settings and get fine frames

 

[Apokalipse]

you could try tweaking things, like installing tweaked forceware drivers, or overclocking the card if you haven't already

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

I think you're being too paranoid...games that raise the bar for hardware, like FEAR, don't get developed every year...with a 7800GT you should be good for a while. Plus there's always overclocking, and you can always sell your old and upgrade.