UPDATE: Larry Has a New LCD Monitor! (see p.2 for details)

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Another important question...widescreens are for movie watching...but are the horrible for game play?

YES!!! Don't buy a widescreen monitor if you'll be playing games.

*Few* games support widescreen resolution, and in those few ones it will actually be better since you'll get more gamespace. But if you try *any* game that doesn't support such resolutions, it will be horribly stretched.

[ZFR]

As to your previous queries...

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Biggest worry...the last I heard, LCD was still not beating CRTs on fast-paced gaming. Something about the frame rates.

Nothing like that. I tried both and LCD monitors are just as good.

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Another worry...I hear that many LCDs have dead zones. Does any IWer here have an LCD with a dead zone of pixels? I guess I could check that out of the box before buying it...but pixels die out quickly?

You'll have to test it before buying that. That's what I did. I don't have any dead pixels till now but like I said I have only been using it for 6 months.

I had a samsung CRT monitor that went blurry on the edges after 1 year of usage. So CRT monitors can age too...

EDIT:
Just one more thing, make sure you pick a good common resolution (1280x1024 or 1600x1200) and not some crazy, uncommon one.

[ 03-28-2007, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

[Larry_OHF]

WOOO! I have a DVi connection on my GeForce 6600! Is there any reason NOT to use that DVi connection with my upcoming monitor?

EDIT: Just one more thing, make sure you pick a good resolution (1280x1024 or 1600x1200) and not some crazy, uncommon one.

Expound upon that, please.

[ 03-28-2007, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: WOOO! I have a DVi connection on my GeForce 6600! Is there any reason NOT to use that DVi connection with my upcoming monitor? quote: EDIT: Just one more thing, make sure you pick a good resolution (1280x1024 or 1600x1200) and not some crazy, uncommon one.

Expound upon that, please. [/QUOTE]On the contrary. You should always use DVI unless your grafics card/monitor doesn't support it.

As for the resolution: LCD monitors, unlike CRTs have a fixed native resolution. You can't go higher than that. You can go lower, the image is interpolated then.

If you have a common resolution like 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 then you can simply switch game setting to that resolution. Most games have a resolution setting of 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. If you have an uncommon resolution, the game's settings might not have it, so the inmage will be interpolated. Which is not bad and often not noticable, but it might just cause slight distortion.

(note, with old dos games which don't have such a resolution, the difference is not noticeable - the game being "pixely" due to low resolution is anyway a much biggerdistortion than anything caused by interpolation, but with newer games, the distortion might be visible if you're not using the native resolution).

More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

[ZFR]

And overall I do recommend an LCD. I was very reluctant to buy one, and only bought it because the store didn't have 19" CRTs at the moment. I haven't regretted it once.

[Larry_OHF]

I did not know that there was a native resolution that could not be messed with like on CRTs. Great information! I keep my CRT now at 1024x768, so the fixed res. of 1280x1024 is the next step up and acceptable I suppose.

[PurpleXVI]

I've got an LG-brand LCD with no dead zones at all. If anything at all is wonky about it, it's not noticeable.

It's also not suffering at all, speed-wise, when playing games. Even high-speed FPS games.

[Bungleau]

I've got two Hanns-G 19" LCDs, one for my work area and one for my play computer. They're currently on sale at Office Depot for $149 after rebates (mail-in and instant). I've had no problems with either of them.

I do use them for gaming (albeit not high-end gaming), and I don't see much difficulty with the games themselves. Yeah, wide-screen makes for a little distortion, but I can honestly say I don't notice it.

Bottom line... I was leery of moving to an LCD for gaming reasons, and I've had no issues. YMMV. DSMIHNMA. WTFDTM.

[Sir Goulum]

I've got a refurbished HP 21" monitor atm... I'm actually surprised how long it's help up, since it was also a demo at one point too. No dead pixels, no dead zones... I'd reccomend HP monitors to anyone.

As for Acer, I'd tend to stay away from them if you can.. just personal opinion, I suppose. The monitor I had before this was an Acer, and I despised it. The color seemed washed out a bit, no matter what I did with the settings and the monitor couldn't tilt. I'd stick with HP, Viewsonic (a friend stands by it, and he's a hard core gamer), or Samsung.

[Larry_OHF]

Yeah, wide-screen makes for a little distortion, but I can honestly say I don't notice it.

So, is this quote more of the consensus here on IW or is what ZFR said hold more true?

[ 03-29-2007, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]