HELP! What happens if I...?

[tarlog]

Pardon the noob question but I genuinely don't know the answer and I was hoping you could help me out.

I see lots of monitors being sold with a resolution of (only for example) 16xx pixels by 900 pixels. I've even seen one monitor with a resolution of 16xx pixels by 1024 pixels (it's the 900 pixels - or the 1024 pixels) spec's that are creating my question.

What is going to happen if I try to play a game, etc., in, say, 1280 x 1080 pixels on one of these xxxx by 900 pixel (or xxxx by 1024 pixel) monitors? Will it lock up? Will it play, but with a degraded image? Will I get any image at all? Will I destroy either the monitor or my video card? What can I most likely expect to happen?

Thanks very much for your help.

tarlog

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Nothing bad will happen, it will just be stretched/distorted to a small degree (depending on the resolutions).

The video card and monitor will resize everything automagically to fit the screen. The image will be degraded, but likely not enough for you to care.

 

[Radical]

Nothing bad will happen, it will just be stretched/distorted to a small degree (depending on the resolutions).

The video card and monitor will resize everything automagically to fit the screen. The image will be degraded, but likely not enough for you to care.

That, or you'll be able to play it in its normal aspect ratio and there will be black bars on the sides of the screen. This option should be available in your video card software. But no damage will occur.