Projector and laptop resolution

[iceberg]

For some years I have used a laptop for PtE presentations with a digital projector. The projector is XGA 1024x768 and the laptop also 1024x768 pixels native mode. Pictures are prepared on a desktop with a quality CRT monitor and cropped to 1024x768 before transfer to the laptop. All matched!

I now want to replace the laptop with a new up-to-date model particularly for the new options in V5. Most now have wide screens typically 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 pixels. I assume these can be switched to 1024x768 for showing PtE exe's and with the output to the projector just as before.

Questions: Is it necessary to switch to XGA for preparing PtE sequences rather than use the native WSXGA?

Is it possible to retain the laptop at WSXGA but output to projector at XGA?

The high end laptops I am looking at have either ATI Radeon X1600 128Mb or NVIDIA GeForce 7900 256 or 512 Mb but at much higher cost. Is the ATI more than adequate?

[JohnB]

I did a little experimentation when I first had an XGA projector. The manual claimed that it could cope with all resolutions from 640by480 to SXGA -- it could, but only if you weren't worried about picture quality. Small details and text were noticeably impaired at all resolutions other than its native one. I think the only safe thing to do for best quality is to feed the projector with its native resolution. Switch the laptop resolution from its native to what suits the projector because it doesn't matter what the image on the laptop looks like when you're using a projector.

Sorry, can't advise about which video card to buy except make sure it's quiet, some of them have very noisy fans.