2405fpw and 7800 gtx a couple of questions...

[Clunk]

hi,

i am looking into getting one of the dell 2405fpw monitors. i will be feeding it with a scan 7800 gtx, and i was wondering if the gtx will run games at the 1920x1600 resolution, or will it start to be jerky? the games im thinking of initially are FEAR and NFS:MW. at the moment i can run them with everything turned on full on my current lcd which has a native resolution of 1280x1024.

so to really what i want to know is

1. will the 7800 gtx run FEAR and NFS:MW smoothly at 1920x1600 ?

and also did i imagine it, or have i read somewhere that scan had the 2405fpw on the today only offers for £499 inc vat?

[kempez]

1: Not really amazingly smoothly. For that I'd recommend an x1900XT-x

Check here for two things:

1: Review of the Dell 2405FPW Here with a 7800GTX 512mb

2: A review of the X1900XT-X, used with the Dell 2405FPW Here

[AndyO]

The Scan offer was one day last week I think....I mentioned it in my post on Widescreen monitor selection. It was £499 inc VAT as far as I know, which seems almost too good to be true as that's the US list price basically (its about $825 over there).

You can ask Scan to repeat the offer on their 'Today Only' items and they might do it (see my other post) - I've mailed them but it'll take a lot of people doing so I suspect!

As to running games - would have thought a single 256Mb GTX would struggle at 1920x1200 with all the bells and whistles turned on in something like FEAR, but drop some AA and you'll probably get playable framerates, unless you're a real FPS junkie in which case you should run it in 1680 and let the monitor scale it up for you!

Anyone else got first hand experience as I'm just guessing (blatantly!)...

[kempez]

Anything below an Nvidia 7800GTX 512mb will struggle at this res...and in fact games like F.E.A.R. meant that I had to OC the card to 624/1830 before I could output at 1920 x 1200

So basically your looking at an X1900XT-X to play games such as F.E.A.R. and CoD at that res....

[AndyO]

Sorry kempez, timed my post rather nicely to not catch your response - cracking reviews btw!

[Clunk]

ok thanks,

i only just bought the gtx so another card isnt an option for now

the 1680 sounds good to me! i would be happy with that for gaming as long as it was smooth.

i have 2 of the gtx's at the moment, but a friend of mine is having one of them, and ill be using the money to get the monitor.

does anyone have the 2405 and a 7800 gtx that could let me know whats doable at full settings please?

thanks for the replies so far

[kempez]

Sorry kempez, timed my post rather nicely to not catch your response - cracking reviews btw!

hehe np's

And thanks

I think the 7800GTX 256 (had one of those too) would be able to handle all games at 1680 x 1050 (the scale-down res thats native of the 2005FPW)

Review with those stats by me here

[derthballs]

ok thanks,

i only just bought the gtx so another card isnt an option for now

the 1680 sounds good to me! i would be happy with that for gaming as long as it was smooth.

i have 2 of the gtx's at the moment, but a friend of mine is having one of them, and ill be using the money to get the monitor.

does anyone have the 2405 and a 7800 gtx that could let me know whats doable at full settings please?

thanks for the replies so far

The 2405 scales quite well so you dont need to play everything at 1920x1200, 1680x1050 looks good too. To play those games at 1920x1200 you would really need to keep that second 7800.

[shaithis]

< Check my system specs

If you have the same expectations I had, you will be disapointed

A lot of my games still won't run well at 1680x1050 with 2xAA on........I tried SLI as well, just to find out how much of a con it is.

My X1900XTX arrives today and I will be selling at least 1 of my 7800GTs......IMO, they really don't cut it with those resolutions.

[kempez]

The 2405 scales quite well so you dont need to play everything at 1920x1200, 1680x1050 looks good too. To play those games at 1920x1200 you would really need to keep that second 7800.

Agreed with the scaling. It also scaled very well from 720p (Xbox 360)

[Clunk]

thanks for all the input so far

does the 2405 come with any cables, most notably the dvi cable? (handy to know when ordering)

also has anyone tried hooking these up to something like a freeview box / dvd recorder, and if so, does the screen REALLY show up all the digital nasties that occur on certain channels from time to time.

cheers

[Butcher]

kempez: if it was your idea to have the 3dmark graph fade-in and draw each bar with a fancy anim in a loop you want shooting. Do you realise just how bloody hard it is to read a graph when it keeps redrawing itself?!

Also the review lists some comparisons with games, but doesn't say what the criteria were for those settings...


Clunk: I got VGA, DVI, and power with mine as I recall.

[shaithis]

Yup, 2405 comes with good quality DVI, VGA and power cables.

Have used it on my XBox 360 and it look great (althogh I prefer it on my 42" plasma ).....as for the "digital nasties"....if those are in the source, you will see them no matter what you use as a display.

[Clunk]

thanks butcher and shaithis, thats one less thing to worry about

regarding the digital nasties, yeah they are in the source (the ones im refering to). my tv really really shows them up. it is very fussy about the input source. i can live with it though

[kempez]

kempez: if it was your idea to have the 3dmark graph fade-in and draw each bar with a fancy anim in a loop you want shooting. Do you realise just how bloody hard it is to read a graph when it keeps redrawing itself?!

Also the review lists some comparisons with games, but doesn't say what the criteria were for those settings...


Clunk: I got VGA, DVI, and power with mine as I recall.

Yep VGA, DVI and power oh and USB hub cable

first the figures were on the reiview so the graph is there for prettyness

What do you mean by criteria....it was basically that the game worked at a "playable" framerate - for some games above 40FPS, for some above 20 - depending on what I see as a playable setting. Its the same with everything - some gamers want to play at above 60FPS all the time. Me - I just like to get it so it looks as good as possible and has no graphical loag whatsoever

EDIT: This page explains what i tested:

For the Game Tests I try to get the very best possible looks for playing each game at the native Res of the Dell 2405FPW. This is 1920 x 1200. I also make sure that the games are maintaining a playable frame rate. Basically I try to get the very best graphical experience without losing the fast pace and enjoyment of each game.

[Butcher]

Might want to list the framerate achieved by each game by the tables or such - people can be a bit picky about what they call playable.