New Monitor

Q: I'm thinking about purchasing a 30-inch monitor with at least 1080p native resolution. Which monitor/graphics card combination would you recommend? I've been investigating the following:
• Gateway XHD3000 30-inch LCD Monitor
•Dell Widescreen UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC (High Color)
•Westinghouse 37-inch 1080p LCD Monitor (LVM-37w3)

The Westinghouse offers an excellent price for the size and picture quality. Nevertheless, critics say that it does not handle different video modes very well.

Now, I'm not sure about this, but if I have a video card that scales up resolutions with high-quality results to 1080p (as the video processor in the Gateway XHD3000 would do), wouldn't that be enough? My thought is that all the conversion features (equivalent to the ones built into the Gateway XHD3000) would be handled by the graphics card (maybe the MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ?) and would let me use the cheaper Westinghouse monitor, which seems to provide high-quality video as long as you use its maximum resolution of 1080p.

A: You didn't discuss the specific applications you would be running, Mathias. If you're talking about gaming on a 30-inch display with a native resolution of 2,560 by 1,600, then you'll need a beefy graphics card, such as the recently released nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2. If you're just planning on using a high-resolution display for normal desktop PC applications, then a good midrange graphics card, such as a GeForce 8800 GT or an AMD Radeon HD 3850, willsuffice.

The two 30-inch PC displays you list have pros and cons. The Dell offers a 92 percent color gamut, which may be useful if you're doing a lot of photography or digital video work. As a flexible display for consumer applications, the Gateway is an excellent model with a high-performance video processor built in.

The idea of putting a small 1080p HDTV on your desk is perhaps more interesting, particularly if, like me, you have middle-aged eyes. A 37-inch display, however, is large enough to make you keep constantly moving your neck around. I'm currently experimenting with a Sharp Aquos LC-32GP3U-R, which is a rarity—a 32-inch HDTV with an actual resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 (1080p). It has some disadvantages: There's no height or tilt adjustment, it's expensive, and you need a DVI-to-HDMI cable (not included) to connect it to your PC. But it's got great image quality, and text is certainly quite readable on a desktop.