16:9 Resolution on a Mediocre Video Card

[bwarp]

Sorry if this question is obvious, but my knowledge of computers isn't great. I want to buy a new monitor for when I return to college, and I was thinking about getting something like a 24 inch monitor that has a 16:9 aspect ratio so that I can hook up my Xbox 360 and watch movies in their native resolution without the black bars. However, I don't think my video card supports a resolution like 1920 x 1080, and I can't find any drivers to change the supported resolutions. The max resolution that is supported though is 1920 x 1200 though, so does that mean I can just make a custom resolution of 1920 x 1080 because it is within the scope of my video card? Will having a custom resolution change the stability of my system or have a worse quality than one of the supported resolutions? Also, is it easy enough to make a custom resolution that someone with limited ability can create one? My video card is a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400. Thanks for your help!

Actually, the support site says that the component mode supports 1080P, but I can just ignore that because I am going to be using VGA or DVI for my computer right?

 

[lovely?]

as long as the video card has DVI, i believe 1080p will work fine. slow, but fine.

but you could always get a 30-50 video card to run 1080p much faster, like an ATI 4650

 

[bwarp]

Buying a new monitor is going to consume the small amount of money that I have. I was hoping that I could just stick with my current video card. When you say it will run slow, do you mean that if I tried to run a game in 16:9 it will lag or something? I could still watch movies and stuff and it would be fine though right?

On the support page for my video card it doesn't list 16:9 as an aspect ratio under supported resolutions for DVI, but it lists 1080p under "component mode." I assumed that meant I could use a TV out cable or something and have 1080p on a TV, but I can't get 1080p on a monitor through the DVI port. I am probably wrong so could you clarify that point please? Here is the support page:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/video/P103094/en/usage.htm#display_modes

Supported display modes is at the bottom.

 

[Twist86]

Well depending on your lucky and ability to barter you could go to craigslist.com and for your area find a used monitor + gpu within your price range for what you want.

You could also get a 22 inch and use the spare cash on a better GPU as well.

 

[bwarp]

So... you guys are saying that the custom resolution idea isn't going to work because it will lag? Is there anything I can do to view in 16:9 without getting a new GPU? By the way, I have a laptop and I just want to deal with the stock hardware until I graduate from college next year, then I will probably get a new desktop. Ugh! I just want to watch movies and stuff really, if I have to game on my stock monitor it wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[konsole]

If this is an LCD monitor then I believe that they all have a native resolution and running them at a different resolution heavily decreases the quality of the image.

 

[bwarp]

Right, the native resolution of the monitor is 1920 x 1080. I want to run it at that resolution, which is the native resolution of the monitor, but is not one of the supported resolutions of my video card. If I customize the resolution of my video card to run at the native resolution of the monitor, will the image quality be the same as if I had a video card that supports 1920 x 1080 without customization? Will there be more lag on a custom resolution?

 

[vsnary]

I too am curious whether using a custom resolution will affect your system stability and/or cause lag issues? Anyone know the answer?

 

[bwarp]

So I brought my laptop to my friend's house and hooked up my comp to his monitor that has 16:9 resolution. My video card detected the native resolution of his monitor and let me select 1920 x 1080 as the resolution. Videos ran fine. That is right, you all can sleep at night now.