LCD monitors, Display settings, video cards

Okay, I decided to splurg and get myself an LCD monitor for my computer finally.  I'm going from a regular DELL 17"(?) CRT to an HP 19" LCD.  I've got serveral questions here.

1.) Was this a justifiable purchase for $280?  Like, anything particularly wrong with LCD screen quality-wise compared to the ol' CRT (which I've gotten quite used to.)  Does HP suck when it comes to their LCD monitors?

2.) The recommended screen resolution for this thing is 1280x1024 (I've always used 1024x768.)  My video card (an nVidia Gainward 5950 Ultra)'s max resolution is also 1280x1024.  I'm worried that with this setting, my video card will be pushed to its limits.  Should I be worried about such a thing?

I know these are stupid questions, but I just wanna make sure, guys.

Thanks!

>>3
I can understand that.  When I first installed it, my screen was still 1024x768 and thus the quality wasn't that good.  Once I switced the computer over to 1280x1024, the view is actually quite crisp (things like artifacts in jpeg images are way more noticable).  I'm just worried that I'm pushing the video card itself to its limits being that it's on the very highest setting.  Shed some light on that for me?  I don't think I should be worried, but honestly, what do I know?