Flat Panel Monitors + Gaming

zoro

I've been reading up alot on these monitors recently as Christmas is coming up and I want one

As there's no definitive list on this forum about what makes for an acceptable gaming monitor, and what is just myth, I was hoping to spark a debate here and then find a suitable way of determining what exactly makes a flat monitor good.

Having done some research, it's obvious that response time, while important, is not the be-all and end-all of a thin monitor.
Colour reproduction is very important, as is the contrast ratio (I believe this is essentially how 'black' it's black is) and if any light can bleed through from the rear of the screen or not.

Samsung 19" - This monitor has been doing the rounds on various threads, and it's certainly caught my eye. It's reviews, while hardly outstanding, have been enough to warrant me buying it, but I want more information.
There are plenty of 17", 19", 20", and 21" flat panel monitors out there, but I've yet to see a definitive "this is what monitors need for gaming" list, that encompasses everything that a gamer would demand from a top-notch screen.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Stephen

I love my flat panel monitor but its only a 17". Its very good for games though, with a response time of 8ms and good contrast ratio/brightness. The only downside of modern flat panels (in my experience anyway) is the fact that you're restricted to the one optimal resolution (in my case, 1280x1024). When some graphics-hungry new game comes out and your system can't quite cope with it, you might want to drop down to 1024x768 to speed things up, but this will look crap on most TFT's, as the picture is interpolated to fit the lower resolution.

motivates me to upgrade things to keep it up to speed

AnCapaillMor

Got that monitor myself 2 months ago and it's impressive alright.

Creamy Goodness

sorry for off topicness but this is closely related to a thread i was about to make.

what's the best solution with regards to cleaning a TFT monitor? just got a laptop and them unavoidable spit marks show up

DemonOfTheFall

I got a packet of screen wipes from pcworld / dixons / somewhere. They do the job grand.

Doc_Savage

AnCapaillMor wrote:

Got that monitor myself 2 months ago and it's impressive alright.

as did i!

fantastic monitor!:D

_CreeD_

Cremo wrote:

sorry for off topicness but this is closely related to a thread i was about to make.

what's the best solution with regards to cleaning a TFT monitor? just got a laptop and them unavoidable spit marks show up

Actually very damp newspaper (Just not wet enough it drips)...I kid you not....it's long been used to clean glass as there's a detergent in newspaper ink that works brilliantly on it, works fine on TFT screens aswell. You'll get some ink on your hands so be careful what you touch until you wash them off, but the screen itself will come up a treat.

$ausage$

Buying a 19" TFT is a crime!

19" tft's have the same reso so the same pixels as a 17" Tft so you are paying £100 more for a streatched pixel.

If your not getting 17 you need 20.1 that way you will get 1600x1200 and wide screen. this dosent work in all games but teh like of the steam(valve) games it gaves u 1 1/2 inches at teh side of the screen more than anyone who isnt widescreen. I have seen the dell 20.1 and was loving it. so clear and 12ms responce. I HATE dell but am willing to look at that silly "E" on its side for this. It can also be turned on its side 90 degrees why i dunno. Only problem is it aint cheep

DELL 20.1"

So dont buy a 19" just get a 17 and move your head closer to the screen

Also NOTE**** Its HD ready unlike alot of TFT's out there

Balfa

Flat panels are wonderfully smooth and solid for static images like you'd get in Windows, but I don't appreciate them for gaming, and here's a few reasons why:

1. The above mentioned slow response and pale soggy blur you get in movement.

2. The black level is poor. CRTs do a nice gradual grade from white through grey to black, whereas flat panels do a nice gradual grade from white to dark grey and there's a big cutoff where anything below a certain grey comes out as the blackest black, because they've just switched those pixels off. Annoying in games, especially hiding in dark corners. Infuriating in dark movies.

3. Native resolution. It's nice to be able to play with graphics settings to get the best tradeoff between image quality and frames per second, and resolution is probably the most important settings you can play with. Flat panels are stuck at a specific resolution (in the case of this samsung, 1280x1024). They can try and do other resolutions, either by reducing the actual used area of the display to only the middle 1024x768 pixels, or by dithering up to the native resolution, which can often have very blurry and annoying results. I prefer to turn the image quality to full and then play with resolution to get the nicest tradeoff.

4. They're expensive.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Stephen wrote:

motivates me to upgrade things to keep it up to speed

Damn same here, but try running a real gfx wh0re of a game at 1680x1050 :eek:
I miss the days where I could play at 1024 and it'd look nice
I also miss my >100Hz refresh rates... on my TFT I just can't get the same feeling of speed when I'm playing a racing game.
Often times I look at my CRT and drool... head-meltingly smooth refresh, yummy.

dazberry

$ausage$ wrote:

I HATE dell but am willing to look at that silly "E" on its side for this.

Just be prepared to receive a ton of cr*p off Dell in the post - relentlessly. The only thing I ever bought off them was a 17" TFT last christmas - and every month I get 2 Dell brochures at home (one to my name and one to my name reversed), and I get 2 in work**, one to my name reversed and one to my name with the title IT Manager (I'm sure the real IT Manager wasn't impressed). And yes I've tried to unsubscribe from the spam.

** the reason they started appearing in work is that I got the TFT delivered there.

I didn't get the TFT for gaming but recently I started using it to play HL2. Didn't think it would cut it @ 16ms but it works fine - I'm happy enough

D.

Stephen

Balfa wrote:

1. The above mentioned slow response and pale soggy blur you get in movement.

This is no longer an issue with a modern, half decent flat panel. I get no blurring/ghosting or anything even when playing fast past games and watching movies.

2. The black level is poor. CRTs do a nice gradual grade from white through grey to black, whereas flat panels do a nice gradual grade from white to dark grey and there's a big cutoff where anything below a certain grey comes out as the blackest black, because they've just switched those pixels off. Annoying in games, especially hiding in dark corners. Infuriating in dark movies.

Again this is a feature of crappier/cheaper flat panels. Sony in particular (bless their little black evil hearts) do a line of flat panels that have great colour reproduction (X-Black). Pricey though.

3. Native resolution. It's nice to be able to play with graphics settings to get the best tradeoff between image quality and frames per second, and resolution is probably the most important settings you can play with. Flat panels are stuck at a specific resolution (in the case of this samsung, 1280x1024). They can try and do other resolutions, either by reducing the actual used area of the display to only the middle 1024x768 pixels, or by dithering up to the native resolution, which can often have very blurry and annoying results. I prefer to turn the image quality to full and then play with resolution to get the nicest tradeoff.

Agreed, 100%.

4. They're expensive.

Yes indeed, but so is any new technology. In a couple of years quality flat panels will be as cheap as a decent CRT.

You also get the benefits of a massively reduced footprint, zero flicker and heavily reduced power consumption and heat output.

I know I couldn't go back to a CRT after using an LCD screen for the last 8 months.

Wertz

$ausage$ wrote:

Buying a 19" TFT is a crime!

19" tft's have the same reso so the same pixels as a 17" Tft so you are paying £100 more for a streatched pixel.

If your not getting 17 you need 20.1 that way you will get 1600x1200 and wide screen. this dosent work in all games but teh like of the steam(valve) games it gaves u 1 1/2 inches at teh side of the screen more than anyone who isnt widescreen. I have seen the dell 20.1 and was loving it. so clear and 12ms responce. I HATE dell but am willing to look at that silly "E" on its side for this. It can also be turned on its side 90 degrees why i dunno. Only problem is it aint cheep

DELL 20.1"

So dont buy a 19" just get a 17 and move your head closer to the screen

Also NOTE**** Its HD ready unlike alot of TFT's out there

I'll agree with the point on 17" v 19" tfts....the 19" do indeed only have a physically larger pixel. But some people might just like a larger screen and sit a bit further away...

As for using the 2001fp/2005fpw for gaming, be advised that while they look stunning at native resolution, you WILL need to have a tight GPU to drive games at 1600*1200/1650*1080 and in the latest games even the top end GPUs can struggle to drive at a decent framerate on these monitors.

I wouldn't swap my 2001fp for anyhting else.

As for the guy who's getting spammed by dell; shove all the junk mail in a big envelope and send it off to Bray or Limerick with a big "Unsolicited mail, sender to pay postage" written on front and that'll unsubscribe you pretty quick....or you could just be sensible and tick boxes to avoid going on automated mailing lists in the future...I buy from Dell occasionally and have never received so much as one missive or catalogue from them, ever...

zilog_jones

CRTs can be dirt cheap if you look in the right places - I got a 19" Sony Trinitron (well it's a Dell but with a Sony tube) for the wonderful price of €0! It was being thrown out in the library in my college, and there's nothing wrong with it - it's in pretty decent condition for something that's 5 years old too. The picture's still pretty good, and it can do 1600x1200 at a non brain-hurty refresh rate.

Only thing is if you want a decent CRT like that you'll need a desk that can cope with 25kg+

Wertz

I had cause to need to switch on my old dell 19" crt a few weeks back....horrible. How I stared at it for 2 or more years is a mystery....I know they do blacks better but the glare really is noticable after being away from one for so long.

youcancallmeal

Cremo wrote:

sorry for off topicness but this is closely related to a thread i was about to make.

what's the best solution with regards to cleaning a TFT monitor? just got a laptop and them unavoidable spit marks show up

These which can be bought in Maplin for around 6euro

The Real B-man

Cremo wrote:

sorry for off topicness but this is closely related to a thread i was about to make.

what's the best solution with regards to cleaning a TFT monitor? just got a laptop and them unavoidable spit marks show up

Baby wipes first squeeze them until there bearly moist as some can be really soapy clean screen let it dry works wonders