Looking for an IPS Monitor... need help.

I recently purchased a 13" Sony VAIO laptop, model number VPCSC1AFM/S and am currently looking for a display that will make editing photos a little easier...

I've never used an external screen with a laptop so my questions my seem basic but please bare with me... I'd like something in the area of 21" to 24" and would like to know if my laptop can push something that size? The laptop has an AMD Radeon HD6470M dedicated graphics card with 512MB of VRAM and I think plenty of processing power.

The laptop lists a max resolution 1366 x 768.... does that mean I have to find a monitor with a matching resolution in order to see the entire screen, without wasted space? Or will I have more options once the monitor is connected?

Also, I only have a VGA and HDMI port... I'm looking for a port replicator that offers a DVI connection but if I dont find one, will HDMI do?

Last but not least, which IPS monitor would you suggest? One that would give me the largest viewing area. If it needs to be 21" fine... I have $450-550 to spend.

Thanks in advance
Robert~

Additional processor info:
Intel Core i5-2410M
2.3GHz Dual Core w/ Turbo Boost (2.9GHz)
8GB DDR3-1333MHz RAM

You shouldn't need a port replicator...just an HDMI --> DVI adapter if the monitor has no HDMI input

Your machine should be able to run any of these...
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1078958

There are a lot of monitors in your price range...check out the review site linked above for many of them...

Terry White gave a pretty solid review of the latest Dell IPS display on his tech blog a few days ago... It's reasonably priced too.

http://terrywhite.com/​techblog/archives/8496

The 1366 * 768 mentioned is probably the max resolution of your built in display. The video card should have no problem supporting a higher resolution on an external display.