I have a video card that goes past 1920x1080 but my monitor only goes to 1280x1024 is it still possible to watch a video in 720p or 1080p


Obviously my desktop won't be at that resolution but if I am on youtube will it fit it to the screen?


I am having a problem watching video on my old computer it is very slow/laggy. The video is loaded not buffering but still playes very slowly.


512meg video card

1 gig ram DDR333 2700 Spectek

2500+ amd

Nvidia2 Ultra 400 MB

Old WD 80gig HDD


I am getting 2 DDR333 1 gig sticks next week through tigerdirect on the off chance that it is ram related. Only can have a max of 3 gigs so 2 is plenty.


What I am speculating is that because I am a noob I might also need to buy a monitor that supports higher resolutions.... Tho I have been using this one for 7 years. Only really since HD became a thing has it been slow to browse the web on... If it is the monitor I am going to feel a bit retarded for buying my new computer.

your monitor is the wrong dimensions to do 720 or 1080 full screen without stretching or some distortion....


720 and 1080 are widescreen formats (16:9)


your screen is a 5:4 or basically the old crt type formats(which i think were 4:3)


upgrade your monitor...you can buy a pretty decent monitor for $200 or less during various sale times of the year

 

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p.s your computer is ancient...it's time to upgrade everything

 

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Also, 720P is crap compared to 1080P. Just fyi.

 

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It's not like it displays distorted it looks the same as the other computer pretty much I think the HD gamespot videos are actually 560/580p


I just know my computer seems to have a hard time with any videos past 480p. I think that's 1024x768?? Which would make sense I guess. Still if it dosen't perform better with more ram then I'll consider getting another monitor.


In the past week I spent $60 for a video card $50 for more ram 120 for a tech call and a new video card (temp) when it failed on me. Would't boot or beep or anything. I didn't have spares kicking around to test with.


So I don't really want to spend $200 for a monitor unless I am sure that will make a difference. This computer is just for web browseing it should be good enough for that..


That's sort of what I was trying to ask what was the min specs to browse youtube/gamespot and watch the videos in 1080p if they were offered.


I'd also prefer to keep the 4:3 aspect ratio because many of the games this machine runs don't support widescreen. I have many games going back to win95 a few that still work under dos as well. For the most part it works very well for what I use it for.


Just having a hard time with the internet right now which is no surprise as more and more HD content gets uploaded.


If I really want to watch in 1080 I have an Xbox360/PS3 or another computer to use that all support the format just fine.


Thanks tho..

I know that one of the biggest reasons people can't play HD on their machines is because of the speed of the hard drive.

 

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Ya that was another concern I had as well... This computer was purchased in 2004 I am not sure what speed the drive is anymore.


I could not be lazy and look at the label maybe what would a good min speed be for this do you think?


Trying to find where the bottleneck is before I just go and buy another computer. By the time I am done updrading this one and finding old parts which are hard to find these days it probably would of been easier to just get something at best buy.

meh, typed a bunch of stuff out and then saw that you said it was for an old junker-type comp for playing old games...

why you still playing games from win 95? just get an emulator or something, doesn't seem worth it lol. And you can change the aspect ratio on your video card settings to 4:3 or 16:9, you don't have to use old stuff just for that reason.

 

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Actually 720p is true hd. up to about 32"-35" TVs that's normally all you see. From around 37" on up they switch to 1080p which just doubles the number of pixels because the pixels at 720 would get so large you would see the individual pixels. Like trying to blow up a picture that is to low res and it gets real grainy.

 

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newegg has a 24" Asus monitor on sale right now for $179.

 

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