Can You guys tell a difference between 1600x900 and 1920x1080 on a 20-21.5 inch screen?
This will primarily be a monitor i will do light gaming on, and I am thinking about just saving the money that would be needed for the 1080p monitor and the graphics power required to drive it.
If there is a big difference i might just save up.
Keep in mind that my graphics card is a gt640
1600x900= 900p 1920x1080 = 1080p (16x9)
Tecnicaly there is no 900p so its a little bit better than 720p and a little less than 1080p
yes I know, but is it a notable difference at such a small screen size? im hoping the pixel density at 20inch at 900p will almost be as good as 1080
Well bearing in mind your useing a gt640 your going to be better off useing the 1600x900 monitor but you are probably going to have problems useing that gpu at anything better than low setings.
For example a HD7850 is a entry level 1080p video card lets say you what to play farcry 3 (with a HD 7850) at high at 1080p you may get 35-45fps if you drop down to 1600x900 the same high setings will get you around 50-60fps so you have to think about the video card your useing and the monitor and a 1600x900 is a big screen when your siting 20 inches away from it
So if I got this right, you're looking into buying a monitor, correct? I'd say go for the 1920x1080. For one, the price shouldn't be that bad (I got my 21.5" 1080p monitor for $150 and it has HDMI). Speaking of which, if you get one with HDMI, then you can also use it for your consoles/TV/whatever else. Plus, the extra space will be nice for other computer-related stuff. Since 1080p is pretty standard compared to 1600x900, it will be more compatible with HD videos, consoles, and some PC games that might be picky about what resolutions you use. As for your video card, you can always turn the resolution down in game if your framerate is too low, and if your going to upgrade later, you have that extra resolution waiting for your potential fancy new video card. Finally, for pixel density, it should be about the same if your looking at a 20" 1600x900 vs a 21.5" 1920x1080 screen (I didn't do the math tho, just kinda makes sense). On mine, the pixels are so small that I turned up the DPI in Windows because everything was too small, a little pro tip for ya if that's an issue. Hope that helps.