What is Your Monitor's Resolution?

[Marthaz]

I was just thinking as what monitor resolution we set in order to view a good clarity screen or visual. I am sure that a lot of things can be discussed on this topic; so let's check as what all screen resolution are been set by us and how many of us have similar resolution ratio:

[Marthaz]

800x600 Resolution:

Analog television systems use interlace scanning with two sequential scans (50 or 60 fields per second), one with the odd numbered lines, the other with the even numbered lines to give a complete picture (25 or 30 frames per second). This is done to save transmission bandwidth but a consequence is that in picture tube (CRT) displays, the full vertical resolution cannot be realized. For example, the maximum detail in the vertical direction would be for adjacent lines to be alternately black then white. This is not a problem in a progressive display but an interlace display will have an unacceptable flicker or twitter at the slower frame rate. This is why interlace is unacceptable for fine detail such as computer word processing or spreadsheets. For television it means that if the picture is intended for interlace displays the picture must be vertically filtered to remove this objectionable flicker with a reduction of vertical resolution. According to the Kell factor the reduction is to about 85%, so a 576 line PAL interlace display only has about 480 lines vertical resolution, and a 486 line NTSC interlace display has a resolution of approximately 410 lines vertical. Similarly, 1080i digital interlaced video would need to be filtered to about 910 lines for an interlaced display, although a fixed pixel display (such as LCD) eliminates the inaccuracies of scanning, and thus can achieve Kell factors as high as 95% or 1020 lines.

Fixed pixel array displays such as LCDs, plasmas, DLPs, LCoS, etc. need a "scaling" processor with frame memory, which, depending on the processing system, effectively converts an incoming interlaced picture into progressive. A similar process occurs in a PC and its display with interlaced video (e.g., from a TV tuner card). The downside is that interlace motion artifacts are almost impossible to remove resulting in horizontal "toothed" edges on moving objects.

[Marthaz]

1024x768 Resolution:

XGA, the Extended Graphics Array, is an IBM display standard introduced in 1990. Today, it is the most common appellation of the 1024 × 768 pixels display resolution, but the official definition is broader than that. It was not a new and improved replacement for Super VGA, but rather became one particular subset of the broad range of capabilities covered under the "Super VGA" umbrella.

The initial version of XGA expanded upon IBM's VGA, adding support for two resolutions:
800 × 600 pixels with high color (16 bits per pixel, i.e. 65,536 colors).
1024 × 768 pixels with a palette of 256 colors (8 bits per pixel)

Like its predecessor (the IBM 8514), XGA offered fixed function hardware acceleration to offload processing of 2D drawing tasks. XGA and 8514 could offload line-draw, bitmap-copy (bitblt), and color-fill operations from the host CPU. XGA's acceleration was faster than 8514's, and more comprehensive in that it supported more drawing primitives and XGA's 16 bits per pixel (65,536 color) display-mode.

XGA-2 added true color mode for 640×480, 1024×768 support for high color and higher refresh rates, and improved accelerator performance. All XGA modes have a 4:3 aspect ratio rounded to 8 pixels.

XGA should not be confused with VESA's EVGA (Extended Video Graphics Array) which was released at a similar time.

[Marthaz]

1280x1024 Resolution:

SXGA is an acronym for Super eXtended Graphics Array referring to a standard monitor resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. This display resolution is the "next step" above the XGA resolution that IBM developed in 1990.

The 1280×1024 resolution is not the standard 4:3 aspect ratio, but 5:4 (1.25:1 instead of 1.333:1). A standard 4:3 monitor using this resolution will have rectangular rather than square pixels, meaning that unless the software compensates for this the picture will be distorted, causing circles to appear elliptical. There is a less common 1280×960 resolution sometimes unofficially called "SXGA-" (to avoid confusion with the "standard" SXGA) that preserves the common 4:3 aspect ratio.

SXGA is the most common native resolution of 15" and 17" LCD monitors. An LCD monitor with SXGA native resolution will typically have a physical 5:4 aspect ratio, preserving a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio.

Apple Computer referred to displays with this resolution as "two-page displays", because they could be used to display two A4 pages side-by-side at a resolution of 72 dots per inch.[citation needed] Sony manufactured a 17" CRT monitor with a 5:4 aspect ratio designed for this resolution. It was sold under the Apple brand name.

SXGA is also a popular resolution for cell phone cameras, such as the Motorola Razr and most Samsung and LG phones. Although being taken over by newer UXGA (2.0 megapixel) cameras, the 1.3 megapixel is the most common for the time being.[citation needed]

Any CRT that can run 1280×1024 can also run 1280×960[citation needed], which has the standard 4:3 ratio. Displaying any 4:3 resolution on a 5:4 monitor, like a TFT with a native resolution of 1280×1024, will look stretched. But on a TFT, displaying any other resolution than the native one is not a good idea anyway, as the image needs to be interpolated to fit in the fixed grid display.

The "next step" above SXGA is SXGA+, which is 1400×1050, common on laptops since circa 2003.

There is much speculation on the origin of SXGA. Some believe its use began back in the mid-1980s, as an upgrade from XGA (1024×768). At the time, memory was extremely expensive. Using 1280×1024 at 8-bit color depth allowed 1.25 MB of video RAM usage, fitting nicely with available RAM chip sizes

[Marthaz]

1600x1200 Resolution:

UXGA is an abbreviation for Ultra eXtended Graphics Array referring to a standard monitor resolution of 1600 × 1200 pixels, which is exactly quadruple the default resolution of SVGA (800 × 600). Dell Computer refers to the same resolution of 1,920,000 pixels as UGA. It is generally considered to be the next step above SXGA (1280 × 960 or 1280 × 1024), but some resolutions (such as SXGA+ 1400 × 1050) fit in between the two.

UXGA is the native resolution of many 20" and 21" desktop LCD monitors and 21" and 22" CRT displays, and also of some 15" 4:3 laptop LCDs (such as the ones in Thinkpad A21p, A31p, T42p, and T43p; Dell Inspiron 8000/8100/8200; and Panasonic Toughbook CF-51). Several 14" laptop LCDs with UXGA also exist, but these are very rare.

There is a widescreen version of UXGA called WUXGA with a resolution of 1920x1200.

[Marthaz]

Other Resolution:

Do share if you are using any other resolution type for monitor. Please specify the resolution as an additional knowledge for me to get to know that resolution importance.

[Samsher]

I keep my Monitors resolution to 1024x768 this suits perfect for all of my video viewing + all other Normal Desktop Application. I also think about the Monitor resolution is based on the Type of Monitor + Application we want to run on our Desktop computer, such if we are playing any high end Games then Games configuration also suggest which Resolution it supports.

Hope you all Understands....

[Sarveshwar Thakur]

I am on a 16:9 widescreen resolution @ 1600 X 900... Samsung 2033SW: Not the best but certainly the BEST for its price... Widescreens are best - be it for work or for watching a movie...

[mhbharmal]

1024x768 Resolution is the best resolution for every monitor & lcd