Its all personal preference. I play on a 24" widescreen attached to a custom build gaming PC, and i'm 750 masters ATM.

I know a guy in my CSL team, YaTa, who is also 750 masters, and plays on a tiny notebook on low settings.

DannyJ

United States5110 Posts

April 26 2011 08:06 GMT

#22

On March 22 2011 13:28 JeLLe04 wrote:
I play on a 13 inch laptop screen. My roommate has one of those ridiculously large Macs (28 inch I believe) and SC looks beautiful on it, but I find the game much easier to play on low settings on a small screen.

Then again, it's all based on what you're used to. Returning to my laptop after dicking around on a smurf acct on the huge computer was uncomfortable for a little bit.

I used to play on a smallish screen too then got a an imac like your friend (it's 27 inches actually)

At first i shared your sentiment that it looked nice but seemed too big but in a short time i got totally used to it.

Thezzy

Netherlands2117 Posts

April 26 2011 08:07 GMT

#23

I play on a 40" TV monitor and I love it so far, you get used to it fast and you notice details more.

TUski

United States1258 Posts

April 26 2011 08:10 GMT

#24

I play on a 32" TV about 3 feet away from where I'm sitting. It definitely takes a few games to get used to, but it makes everything much more visible. However, you'll have to deal with downsizing if you want to play in any tournaments.

B-Wong

United States240 Posts

April 26 2011 08:10 GMT

#25

I don't think it changes anything, you just have to adjust to your equipment. Eventually everything feels natural and comfortable.

MattyClutch

United States711 Posts

April 26 2011 08:16 GMT

#26

I have a 24" 1920x1200 Dell 2407FWP I can't say it has any disadvantage other than I guess needing a decent PC to drive games. That said it doesn't take much PC to max out SC2. I can max it out just fine with a Asus P6T mobo, Core i7-930 2.8GHz processor, 6gigs DD3, eVGA GTX 460 SC 1GB so not exactly bank breaking. \

If you are having issues other than inability to get solid FPS (I have that problem on my MacBook Pro - it is a 2007 model with a Core2Duo 2.6GHz, 4BG ram, and a 8600GT just because its native display is 1920x1200) on the settings you want, I could see an issue. Otherwise I would just assume you may have the monitor too close when playing.

Crankenstein

Australia150 Posts

April 26 2011 08:23 GMT

#27

I use to play on a 17" standard ratio monitor but upgraded to a 24" wide-screen about 2 months after I started playing. I immediately noticed the difference. The considerably larger mini-map makes it easier to notice changes, some times my peripheral vision will notice a change when I am not looking at it. It's also easier to click on individual units because they are larger (such as one marine amongst a group of 20 other marines while they are all moving).

MagmaRam

United States395 Posts

April 26 2011 08:31 GMT

#28

Can your computer do smaller than native resolutions with a "black box" around the screen? What I mean is, instead of the size of the image being scaled to your monitor, leave unused monitor space on the sides? That way, you could use the same monitor for SC2, but change the resolution when you play so that you effectively have a smaller monitor.

Shinobi1982

1605 Posts

April 26 2011 08:51 GMT

#29

Just make sure you have max field of view (1080p / 16;9). Anything less and you will lose visibility ingame.

[image loading]

Originally I had a 14" monitor, and then decided to finally upgrade to a 21" monitor.

I'm not sure but I think 21" widescreen is the smallest possible monitor size that supports 1080p. So you have the best possible combination that matches your preference the most.

stilez

Mexico130 Posts

April 26 2011 09:04 GMT

#30

Bigger is better.

Tofugrinder

Austria899 Posts

April 26 2011 09:37 GMT

#31

I used to play on 22" and recently switched to 27". The first few games it was kinda weird (as always with newer bigger monitors) but after that I really love it so far. I'd say the bigger the screen the better it is for sc2 (atleast for me)

baldgye

United Kingdom1103 Posts

April 26 2011 09:55 GMT

#32

one thing I'm curious about... I have a 24" monitor @ 1920x1200.... do I gain anything over someone running it @ 1920x1080?

Tofugrinder

Austria899 Posts

April 26 2011 10:00 GMT

#33

On April 26 2011 18:55 baldgye wrote:
one thing I'm curious about... I have a 24" monitor @ 1920x1200.... do I gain anything over someone running it @ 1920x1080?

see above, there's a screenshot about the individual resolutions. I guess 1920x1200 is 4:3? if so, 1920x1080 (16: 9 ) is better

Sneakyz

Sweden2361 Posts

April 26 2011 10:03 GMT

#34

On April 26 2011 19:00 Tofugrinder wrote:

Show nested quote +

see above, there's a screenshot about the individual resolutions. I guess 1920x1200 is 4:3? if so, 1920x1080 (16: 9 ) is better

1920x1200 is 16:10 so slightly less vision than the 16: 9.
I upgraded from a 19" to 27" and I'm very happy with it, would never go back.

RedJustice

United States1004 Posts

April 26 2011 10:08 GMT

#35

A friend of mine plays on a 52''(?) TV, and he complains about it all the time. He physically has to turn his head to look at his minerals and supply as well as his minimap. He feels like he plays a lot better on his laptop, even though it can't run the game that great. Of course that is an extreme case, but I'd say stick which as large as you can go without losing peripheral vision of the center of your screen while looking in the corners. This way you can easily glance up or down without feeling blind to what is going on. Seems like it would be the most physically comfortable too (since obviously if you go too small you will end up squinting at the screen instead).

baldgye

United Kingdom1103 Posts

April 26 2011 10:11 GMT

#36

On April 26 2011 19:00 Tofugrinder wrote:

Show nested quote +

see above, there's a screenshot about the individual resolutions. I guess 1920x1200 is 4:3? if so, 1920x1080 (16: 9 ) is better

well that sucks ;_; I love my desktop space... though it would make replacing my screen a whole hell of alot cheaper... 1920x1080 it is then lol

Hairy

United Kingdom1169 Posts

April 26 2011 10:21 GMT

#37

On March 22 2011 10:17 frozt_ wrote:
These are all personal preferences, nothing more nothing less. Some people like to play on wide screen monitors and others on 4:3 monitors, some people like 27" monitors and others prefer 19" monitors. Play what you feel comfortable on, no one can decide but you.

As others have mentioned, aspect ratio is NOT personal preference. A 16

(sixteen/nine) viewing area will give you considerably more SC2 viewing area than a 4:3 monitor.

The important thing to note when comparing minimap use in SC2 as opposed to Counter Strike is the concept of SURPRISE. In your opening post you pointed out that, with a bigger screen, you found that when you were looking at the minimap you would be caught by surprise by something that happened on the "main" screen. With SC2 on the other hand, the big "surprises" that you will get in a game are actually things that are on the MINIMAP, not the main screen. Pretty much everything important that happens in the game can be seen or controlled through the minimap - the minimap should actually be the focus of your attention most of the time when playing. For this reason I would say that a larger monitor is probably somewhat beneficial, as it would mean the minimap is larger and therefore easier to use/look at.

EDIT: also, make sure that you have hit the button on the minimap (can't remember which one it is or the hotkey, sorry) to change what colour enemies/allies are. By default the game will colour allys and opponents by their respective colours. With the button enabled, it means that enemies will always appear red, allies will always be yellow, and you will always be green. This means that when playing you're always only on the lookout for red dots on the minimap, which really helps enormously.

Inex

Bulgaria443 Posts

April 26 2011 10:46 GMT

#38

I am playing on a 15'' laptop and I am feeling much more comfortable than playing on a 24'' desktop. The only difference is the mouse accuracy, even though the resolution is the same and the mouse speed is the same, there is still some time I spend getting used to.It almost seems as if the mouse is traveling a longer distance. On the laptop screen, the minimap, the resource tab and everything else is just a quick glance away and it's much easier to keep track of all the information you need. So yeah get something like a 22'' or a 23'' should be ok, anything above 24'' is just a pain and I have no idea how people are playing on a TV - mouse accuracy on a TV is just so bad and not to mention that you have to turn your head like a chimp every few seconds to see the minimap, which might be the size of my laptop screen ;P.

MasterJack

Canada215 Posts

April 26 2011 12:28 GMT

#39

I play on a 30" monitor, no issues.

Alver

United States177 Posts

April 26 2011 13:27 GMT

#40

ive played sc2 on a 19 inch monitor, 24 inch monitor, 42 inch tv, 50 inch tv and 24inch monitor was the best imo. im not a big fan of any size over 27 inches to play games on but going from 19 to 24 seemed entirely beneficial.