What newish monitor can still work on an older Mac, without having blur issues based on resolution?

Question

I have an old Mac I need to keep in use a little while longer. The 21" CRT monitor (Benq P211) I've had good service out of is the size of a Volkswagen, so I want to temporarily upgrade to a more modern thin-screen display before I change my whole system. Problem is, the whole issue of resolution has me so confused I'm liable to make a stupid purchase and end up in blur city.

Specs are: Power Mac G4, 500 MHz, serial# XB014014J2R, chipset model ATY Rage128Pro, 16 MB VRAM. I've been using a res of 1280x1024. The main tasks I use this for are word processing & some photo editing.

Do I have any flat screen monitor choices where I won't end up with blurred non-native resolutions? Or am I best to forget the whole idea, put up with the huge-by-enormous CRT on my desk, and wait until I can afford a new 27" iMac...

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The ATI rage is VERY old, but its a fairly common chip for that era (and apparently still a popular choice if you need a dirt cheap PCI video card - in fact in the local market, the ONLY choice these days). A quick google indicates apple says the monitor supports up to 1600x1200 (which is the safe option) but the video adaptor itself can go up to 1920 by 1200. Not sure about the former, but the latter is close to 'standard' full hd.

Naturally you MUST ensure the video inputs are compatable - some models have DVI, some have VGA - most modern monitors do both, but not all - so checking if the monitor has support for the right type of connection is essential in this case

full specs and source for my information is here