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2) I have an x800 pro flashed to 16 pipes, 2 gigs of ram and a 2.8c ghz p4. Is playing at the higher resolution (currently play stuff at 1280x1024) going to severely drop my framerates, or should I be fine for a while longer?
3) One issue I have with my current monitor is that things not playing in the native resolution look bad! If I get the 2405fpw and it turns out that some games don't play in widescreen, will using the black bars on the left and right to show 4:3 pictures make the games still look good?
2) Newer games won't amazingly well at 1920x1200 on your system, I think. I'm talking about stuff like the Doom 3 and NFS: Most Wanted engine and upcoming uber graphics engines like the Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and the Unreal 3 engines.
3) Non-naitive resolutions will look a bit crap, aye. :(
I think it's better to get a 1680*1050 monitor. If you get a 1920*1200 one, you'll need to spend loads more on your system.