Widescreen Monitors and Gaming?

Question

I recently bought a Dell XPS 720 with a 22" widescreen and a 8800GTX, what I am wondering is if I'm going to run into 'issues' with gaming, on both older games and new (future) games?

I am really curious as to how the older games will 'look' on the widescreen setup and if I will have to 'tweak' the game settings (ie: edit the INI, etc) to get it to work as I'm going to assume, there will be no available widescreen resolutions to pick from). Also, if I don't have any options, will the 'stretch factor' from the typical 4:3 to the 16:9 in gaming be really aweful?

Also, games that are currently out right now, for the most part, support widescreen formats, correct? Wondering if you can tell me roughly what year (mid-2006) or so that they started to include widescreen resolutions for games?

Thanks, 10 points ASAP for the best answer, thanks in advance.....

Answer 1

I am running a 22" wide screen with an old 6800 GT graphics card. All i had to do was upgrade my drivers and select the resolution I wanted. I play everything from Far Cry , CS , RE etc . Haven't found anything I can't play.

Answer 2

My boss has a widescreen and it 'stretches' everything and looks blurry.

I am a gamer, too, but would not buy a widescreen for my computer because my HD tv even stretches my shows, making the people look fat.

I probably wouldn't tweak the system, but you might be able to run your games in the 'full screen' or 'standard' mode that will chop off the edges. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I have a widescreen monitor with an ATI X1600 which pales to your GTX, but it still knows to letterbox instead of stretch. I'm pretty sure this auto-letterboxing for older games is on your card.