Simple Resolution question on lcd monitors

I am awaiting delivery of a 20" syncmaster samsung sm206bw monitor..

but i have something that is concerning me..

The max res on the monitor is 1650 x 1050

I have just seen the "display menu" and the res at the moment on my pc goes to 1024 x 786

I am using a 15" tft atm btw..

I have a radeon x300 series gfx card installed btw which came with my dell dimension pc (2.5 yrs ago)

Now my question is.. When i connect the monitor up via the dvi port, will i automatically get the option to choose 1650 x 1050 in the display menu)? or do I need to update my gfx card ? I just want to get the best out of monitor so asking, all advice appreciated

TIA

You should automatically get an option to choose 1650*1050 at the display menu, when you connect up the new monitor (by the way the samsung syncmaster SM206BW is a very good monitor:))

The reason you are currently only allowed to choose upto 1024*768 is because that is the maximum resolution your monitor can support.

The X300 should be able to handle that resolution for normal pc use (work, internet browsing, etc).

shadowmaster is spot on although if you've never updated the graphics card drivers to date it might be worth doing.

thanks guys..

yeh i aint a pc gamer.. I mainly bought the monitor for pc use + dvd use + maybe even hook up a gaming console to it later on.. so I guess my current card should suffice for my needs

just a thought, how do i update the drivers on my particular card? i take it i can download it for free of the net somewhere ?

For an ATI graphics card, you can get the latest drivers from http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

You might want to just download the display driver component as I doubt you would use the other options in the full version (but it is up to you).

Yes you'll be able to set the full resolution of 1680x1050, but I would recommend upgrading to something more powerful with GDDR3 memory for best performance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CooperXS

Yes you'll be able to set the full resolution of 1680x1050, but I would recommend upgrading to something more powerful with GDDR3 memory for best performance.

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even if i will NEVER play pc games ?

just use my pc for internet use / dvd use / xbox 360 gaming ?

If you never play games that card will be fine with your new monitor. It would be worth upgrading the driver though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CooperXS

Yes you'll be able to set the full resolution of 1680x1050, but I would recommend upgrading to something more powerful with GDDR3 memory for best performance.

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Don't mean to be harsh and its probably just me being bored and wanting to kill some time but why suggest better memory speed? Surely at that level of use there will be such little data to transfer between the card and whatever source it won't matter especially since the game industry still got along before the time of GDDR3. If he wanted better performance (and this would only be minimal) the main bottleneck i could see him facing - if anything - would be facing would be from a lack of brute graphical processing force. It's just like when they put tonnes of memory on ****ty cards, it's simple what good is a whole load of memory gonna do you if you can't render things big (detailed) enough to fill it out?

Are you using a VGA or DVI connector? If the former, changing your graphics card to something with a DVI port should get you a crisper, more responsive display.

what's the native resolution of the monitor, because ideally you will only get the best performance out of the monitor when it is running at it's native resolution.

1680x1050 @60hz is native for a 206BW. The monitor will automatically detect the source but you may have to set the resolution in display properties > settings. I would expect the x300 to be fine for browsing and word etc.