Making the switch...

Slogan

Slogan

Slogan

Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2006
Posts
6,333
Hello,

I currently have a Relisys 19" CRT and was hoping to jump on the bandwagon that is the LCD/TFT screen.

Why?

Well, currently I have a pretty small desk and it's hogging up the majority of the room on it.

I plan to get a new and much improved desk shortly, but think that I want a new monitor to go with the rig that I've recently bought.

The graphics card is a : Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) and hopefully that will suggest that the computer is to be used primarily for gaming.

Games such Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, CounterStrike : Source and decently demanding games will be played on the system.

I know there are stickied threads - which have gave me a good few tips and pointers in regards to all of the jargon that comes with these monitors - but I probably need a few names fired at me, in relevance to my situation.

My budget sits around £300 - I could probably spend more but I want it relatively soon and I don't really believe in paying anymore than that for a monitor.

I wouldn't want anything less than 19 inches (no pun) and at most a 8ms response time, as I believe it will help my gaming. Ghosting would probably irritate me more so than most people - although I understand the monitor won't be a CRT.

I must say my initial sway is toward the Viewsonic VP930 - despite the reviewer (djohn) admitting he's not an avid gamer, it seemed like a nice monitor, both outside and in.

Feel free to suggest anything within my budget - I'm not too particular on brand names or anything like that - but obviously good customer service would be preferable, given the whole dead pixel side of things.

Not sure I can stretch it out anymore - Oh yes, it must be a bit black (tower, keyboard, mouse and speakers are all black) and a silly question:

- Are all games able to function in this widescreen format?

I understand this is a bit of an issue for some people.

That's about it - Appreciate any help.

Thanks. :)
 
The Forum Search facility is your friend. Your questions have already been answered extensively in a number of other threads.

Otherwise, buy the NEC 20WGX2 if you want 20" wide and glossy, the Viewsonic 19" VX922 if you don't, or the Viewsonic 2025 if you can't make up your mind.
 
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Some games support widescreen resolutions out of the box. Others do not. Look for a monitor with 1:1 pixel mapping if you do not want it to stretch a non-widescreen resolution.
 
Cheers, Billy. :)

I was looking at the Dell 2007WFP - extremely nice monitor. But it seems pretty expensive for what it does. (i.e. 16ms response and 800:1 contrast)

Yet a lot of people have it - am I missing out on a bigger picture?
 
Foehammer2003 said:
just find your game, DL the hack and enjoy the WS :D
Click to expand...

Would need a WS first. :D

Cheers, Foe.

I'm beginning to compile a shortlist - the ones davidstone28 suggested seem to be nice (physically) and I have read the excellent review on here, of the NEC 20WGX2 (which he also suggested).

I've thrown in the 2007WFP as well, just to give me a bit more of an option - but the 16ms isn't something I feel really confident about buying. Although my experience with LCD's is extremely limited.
 
Slogan said:
I wouldn't want anything less than 19 inches (no pun) and at most a 8ms response time, as I believe it will help my gaming. Ghosting would probably irritate me more so than most people.
Click to expand...


Leave the 16Ms alone then imo ;)
 
Best thing to do if you can is go to shops and take a look at the display monitors, check out the specs and what each is like, then order online.

That NEC does look nice btw
 
If you're coming from the world of CRTs, the first thing you'll have to do is adjust your expectations. It's all about compromise - some TFTs are better at some things than others. So for example, the VX922 excels in games, but isn't as good as other TFTs for photographic work. The Dell 2007 is good for photographic work but not exceptional for video playback.

As for motion blur, you're going to get a degree of motion blur no matter what TFT you buy. It's just a question of degree. It's also a good idea to ignore the overly effusive consumer/user bias that you see in user reviews caused by people buying a new product. Each generation has improved on the previous generation but TFT is still an immature technology compared to CRTs which have been around for the best part of 50 years.

You should take manufacturer's quoted response times with a pinch of salt. You WILL get 2ms or 8ms if all you do is use your monitor to flip between completely black screens (0,0,0) to completely white screens (255,255,255)....

In the real world, a "2ms" VX922 will not operate anywhere near 2ms in real world conditions. Neither will a 6ms NEC operate anywhere near 6ms. And so on and so on. Some manufacturer's *cough* Viewsonic *cough* are a bit more 'optimistic' in the specs that they quote than other manufacturers. So in reality a so called "16ms" Dell may perform similarly to a "8ms" Viewsonic 2025.

Here's the response time graphs for the Viewsonic VX922 and 2025.

latency_vx2025wm.gif


Not quite 2ms or 8ms are they?

If gaming responsiveness is your main thing, then the NEC and Viewsonic VX922 are generally accepted to be slightly better than the rest. Beyond that, the Viewsonic 2025, Dell 2007, Philips 2006CS etc aren't that different in terms of responsiveness. The deciding factors are generally other things such as price, feature set, connectivity, warranty, reliability etc rather than absolute picture quality as there isn't a huge amount of difference between the monitors in the same price bracket. Just stay away from the cheapo budget stuff - its a false economy.

My own comments on the Dell are in the final post in this thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17412069&page=2
 
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