Replace my Card or Monitor

[Khris1201]

With money being so tight for alot of us, I unfortunatly only have the finances to upgrade either my monitor or my gfx card.

Now my current Hardware is a EVGA 7600gt and a 19" Dell (Sony trinitron) CRT monitor....yes i said CRT, those ugly big square things that have been obsolete for the past couple years?

Anyways, my current budget im gonna estimate as being about $200 Cdn ($120 GBP, $160 US, $250 Aud) give or take a few dollars. Im currently considering either a 22" Widescreen (which will likely be a couple extra $'s)or a 9800gtx+/4850.

Both work perfectly fine still, but I know with my current monitor/Gfx card I couldnt make full use of either the replacements.

What would you guys do if you were in my position? Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[Diablo]

What resolution is the monitor?

 

[Sleekit]

I'd probably reccomend a new monitor.

If you got a great GFX card it wouldn't look as good as its meant to on a CRT

 

[Kerotan]

I'd probably reccomend a new monitor.

If you got a great GFX card it wouldn't look as good as its meant to on a CRT

Actually IMO, CRTs are still the absolute best in colour representation and scaling. DVDs looked a lot better on my 17" CRT than they do on my 19" WS LCD. Obviously though LCDs are much more practical, so I'd say go for it, I had my screen running off integrated on an old board for a while which couldn't even output WS resolutions and but the space it freed up on my desk was worth black bars, and your 7600GT will still be able to push older titles at 1680*1050.

It really depends on whether your priority is having a good productive workspace or just gaming 100% in which case I'd say get a new card but the two you've listed will rinse any bar crysis at 1280*960, which would look OK on a 19" (1600*1200 being optimal)

 

[Khris1201]

The monitors "suggested" resolution is 1280 x 1024, And ive had no problems with the monitor so far, and I agree about the picture quality for colors and scaling. I have seen quite a few Lcd's with worse picture quality than my monitor.

The thing about it is I want to upgrade the monitor eventually even though Im getting good performance who knows when the thing could die its about 10yrs old now.

I could certainly use the extra desk space and I hope to take advantage of a new gfx card in the coming future. Having had a bit more time to think about it im tending towards the monitor, but i would still like to hear some more input.

 

[Darkjeste]

I still love my Viewsonic 19Inch monitor,I bought a HD4870 for it and do not regret it one bit. Still looks and plays great even at 1280x1024.

I will pick up a 22 Inch LCD at some point after I get done upgrading the rest of my machine,not really in a hurry unless this thing dies on me.

Last piece I have to upgrade is hard drive and then I can think about a monitor.