The tft/lcd thread

kinkstr

Im thinking of getting a new monitor, a 19" tft/lcd. I know very little about these monitors tbh and i could do with some tips and advice before i go buy one. It will be used mainly for gaming; battlefield 2 and the like.

Stephen

Just beware of one thing with LCD displays: They only display optimally in a single resolution. For most 17" one this is 1280x1024, not sure what it is for 19" ones, so if your machine isn't capable of running your favourite games well in that resolution you may have to settle for poorer image quality at a lower resolution.
When you run TFT at a resolution lower than it is designed for, the image will be interpolated, which can often make things look slightly blurry.
I use a 17" TFT for gaming myself and its great - Benq FP71E+, 8ms. You can get 4ms ones now, but I can't see the difference between anything 16ms and below. There are other criteria to take into account besides the refresh time, such as contrast ratio and brightness. For gaming though, the refresh time is paramount. I wouldn't go above 16ms, and the lower the better.

Also: beware of dead/stuck pixels. Most manufacturers have policies on this that say that less than a certain number of dead/stuck pixels is OK and not a fault. Also, the location of the dead pixels may also affect whether you can get a replacement under warranty or not - i.e. if they're in the centre of the screen you'd be more likely to get a replacement, if they're at one of the far edges of the screen you'd be less likely. That said, the manufacturers are getting better and better at manufacturing screens without any dead or stuck pixels. Between my own one at home and all the ones we have in work there's not a single visible dead or stuck pixel.

Malafus

Just to add to what Stephen said:
Refresh time is important, but not to the degree that most people seem to think.
I currently have a Iiyama ProLite E435S, which has a 16ms refresh time, and it's excellent for gaming. I have also played on a (Can't remember brand name) and it had a 32ms response time, it was fine also. I have played on a TFT with a 60ms response time, and it was not fine. So really, anything under 30ms or so is useable. Besides, most TFT monitors have these sorts of refresh rates ANYWAY, nowadays.

Just to reiterate about the native resolution, at lower resolutions, there is no real degredation to the game quality (aside from the obviously lower pixel count) but the text is very hard to read. This also makes playing older games nigh impossible.

If you watch... um "backup" movies on your PC, look for one with a nice high contrast ratio - also makes 'darker' games look nicer, e.g. Doom 3 (although why you'd want to play that is beyond me )

I had 2 dead pixels with my TFT, one of them disappeared when I poked it, and the other is in the very corner, so I can't see it usually. I think most manufacturers require you to have 10 dead pixels, or 5 within a 5cm radius for a return. Or something like that.

kinkstr

Thanks for alll the information guys, if i was to go for a 19" with 16ms or under how much should i be paying, and are there any brands that i should stay away from?

D-Generate

Well there is a Dell one here with 16ms refresh rate and 500:1 contrast ratio for under €300 which is as good as price as you are going to get anywhere for a 19" monitor.

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=35553&category_id=4058

Aldi are also selling a 17" monitor for €220 euro which also has 16ms refresh rate and 500:1 contrast ratio.

youcancallmeal

Theres a few other factors to consider such as wether or not the monitor your going to buy will have dvi input(better quality than vga interface). A few other but not as important factors are
- image brightness
- Max Horizontal/vertical viewing angles
- Colour(measured in bits, usually between 16-24bits on most these days)


Also like other people have already said dont take the refresh rate too seriously as long as its 20ms or under and the brand name(i.e. samsung, ilyama) is creditable then it should be grand.

I have the samsung 193p myself and i've never seen any ghosting on it while playing games like bf2 or cs.

Drapper

Mine is a Hyundai 19inch bought from PIxmania !

read the Tom review first on good 19inch monitor:- http://graphics.tomshardware.com/display/20050215/index.html

now you know why I got one!

also Jes,de is the cheapest at the moment

PiE

I've been meaning to get an LCD for over a year now, but every time I go to pick one out I get pissed off trying to decide. So could someone tell me if this monitor would be good for a.) games and b.) design work (photoshop etc)?

Sorry for kinda hijacking the thread, thanks :x

blorg

Stephen wrote:

For most 17" one this is 1280x1024, not sure what it is for 19" ones

Almost all 19" are the same, 1280x1024, so you get the same resolution but a larger screen (note this is 5:4, not 4:3.) 20" generally gets you 1600x1200.

Drapper

go 19 inch mate its worth it ! 17 inch is just that little bit too small

kinkstr

What do you guys think of this one

Airblazer

Make sure that it has dual vga connections or a vga/dvi connectors..no point in getting a monitor that have only one connector...you might want to add an additional one later one..a lot of games are going to start supporting multi-monitors eg..one guy uses 6 monitors for BF2..this gives him a 180degree viewing point and it's just like my mantra..first look..first kill..
Make sure contrast ratio is at least 500:1..
i have a Dell ultrasharp which is at 800:1 with a response of 25ms..because of the high contrast games run immaculately on it