Questions about buying a LCD monitor

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I have been considering getting a LCD monitor for a while now to replace my 21" CRT. The CRT is still ok, but it's about 7 years old and takes up a lot of space (not to mention weighing a ton).

My concern is that from my limited experience with LCD's if you change the resolution to something other than the native resolution, the picture gets slightly distorted or blurry. I'm worried about the affect this might have on playing older games with limited resolution options (BG for example).

The LCD I'm looking to buy is the DELL UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel. Any advice about whether this monitor is good and does anyone have any complaints about playing older games on a LCD?

 

Look very carefully at the refresh rate of an LCD. What is good for gaming is around 12ms-16ms (milliseconds). Anything higher than that (25ms>) won't do you any good. The biggest gripe I have heard about playing games on a LCD monitor is it doesn't refresh as fast as a CRT.

 

First, I guess DHB meant 'pixel refresh delay', which is a different thing from screen refresh rate that is associated with those old CRT definations (from 60 to 120 Hz). Trust me, screen refresh rate isn't a problem at all with TFT monitors and you won't notice a difference in the pixel refresh delay either if it is under 16 ms. (Mine has 16 ms exact, being two or three years old.)

Second, yes; the monitor has to scale the original image to fit the native resolution (1280x for 17" TFT, which is probably what you will be buying), thus 'windowed' mode comes handy. The image quality isn't that bad in all cases, but sometimes the pixels practically glare at you like in those old NES classics. But I know Planetscape is quite playable full-screen.

Personally, I wouldn't go back to CRT's.

 

The Dell LCD I'm looking at has the following specs:

Viewable Size: 20.1" (Wide Aspect)
Display Type: Flat Panel Display / Active Matrix TFT
Image Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Image Brightness: 300 cd/m²
Image Contrast Ratio: 600:1
Max Resolution: 1680x1050 Pixels
Max Sync Rate (V x H): 75 Hz x 83 kHz
Port(s) Total ( Free ) / Connector Type: VGA / DVI-D / S-video / Composite / 4 x USB 2.0
Pixel Refresh Delay: 12ms

All of the reviews I've read about this monitor have been good, and the price is great ($636.65 plus I think I can get a discount through my company).

 

I believe that's just a Ben-Q (re-labeled).

Some other options:

Ben-Q 19" (16ms, which is actually the minimum) for $400.
Viewsonic 20.1" (16ms) for $700
Sony 20.1" (16ms) for $730
Sony 23" (16ms) for $1650

 

Personally, I'd go with a Samsung, but they don't have a monitor that has a response time lower than 25, but a screen size larger than 17". So if I were to buy a 19" or larger LCD monitor, I would go with Viewsonic. The Viewsonic VP912b is my top pick, and the monitor that I'll be getting for my desktop PC as soon as I can afford $650.

 

My Samsung is 19" and it does great with BGI & II, Fairly good with IWD and good with PS:T.

 

So Kitrax, you'd recommend a Viewsonic 19" LCD over a Dell (or Ben-Q) 20.1" wide-screen LCD which costs less? Are Ben-Q monitors that bad?

ejsmith, same question, do Ben-Q monitors suck?

Is the wide-aspect ratio worth it?

Nakia, how much will I notice the difference when playing those games when switching to a LCD?

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I'm not dropping $600+ on a monitor lightly. On Monday, I'll get in touch with my contact at Dell to see if I can get him to verify the manufacturer of their LCD's.

 

@ Shalladeth

You'd better check those connectors, for you really want to use DVI -but the trick is that there are DVI-I and DVI-D connectors.

 

Just found this:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119775,00.asp

CTX Technology F973 - brand new monitor supposed to be the only one with an 'outstanding' in text quality and second to graphics - any opinions?

The other question is, where can you buy it...


edit: oops, corretion

 

Shalladeth, it is a little hard for me to answer that because I had a Voodoo 3FX PCI card on my CRT. When I upgraded to a NVIDIA (PCI) card that in itself improved the games. However when I got the LCD on the whole the games improved. I haven't played IWD II on it but the other games are better, brighter. Including games such as Ceasar III, etc. Arcanum was much better. There are better monitors but I was primarily looking for one for my games. My current video card is VGA so that probably makes a difference.

Edit: My CRT was about 5 yrs old when it died a smokey death.

[ March 06, 2005, 17:52: Message edited by: Nakia Nightshadow ]

 

Oh, heck. Yeah, the Sony 20.1" is out; I didn't even look at the connectors.

Ben-Q monitors are ok. I've heard "reports", in the past, of people getting a lot of dead pixels with them; moreso than other brands. It could just be a bad batch to Newegg (Newegg does a LOT of business), or it could have just been a bad ship-ride. The only problem I see with that 16:9 monitor is 4:3 games. The vast majority of games are 4:3, with a select few being able to do 12:9. What this means is Baldur's Gate 1, at 640x480, will appear just like a 17" LCD monitor. That's as big as the picture will be, diagonally. A 16:9 is great if you're watching a lot of widescreen DVD's on your computer, but for gaming, it's no better than a 17" LCD. Plus, BenQ's had bad interpolation in the past, at anything other than their native display. The Viewsonic is 4:3, and that's really the best aspect for gaming these days.

Here's that same Dell 20.1" for $549.

You can also take a 15" LCD monitor and make a projector display from it. It's pretty cheap to do, but requires a bit of tooling. I've never done it myself, but these guys did, and it worked out pretty well. These nerf herders also made a LCD projector, but it lacks a little panache.

 

This is great info, thanks!

The Dell monitor should be able to handle a 4.3 display similar to 16:9 big screen TV's, I'd just have to live with the dual black bars on each side of the picture when playing games, right?

I'm also trying to plan for the future, and I'd imagine that a lot of future games will have a wide-aspect option.

@ejsmith - Have you purchased anything from Legend before? Is this a decent vendor?