I'm getting a 20'' or 22'' wide screen and I'm wondering if it's even worth it with my old comp.

I have a 4 year old Dell with an old Radeon 9250 in it. the highest my display settings go is 1280x1024.

When plugging in a new monitor that is capable of 1680x1050 will that option become available or am I stuck with my current display options that will distort the screen image on such a large monitor.?
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That card should be fine.
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The card definitely supports higher resolutions, you may need just to update drivers, that's all. But I doubt even that will be necessary.
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The highest your display settings go is 1280x1025 because that is as high as your monitor goes. Vid card drivers typically default to not allowing you to run your monitor out of range.
When you plug in the new monitor and boot up, 1680x1050 should show up as an available res. If it does not, install the drivers for the monitor.
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