Why Should I Get an LCD?

**jankren** · July 10, 2007, 11:53 PM

Im planning to buy an LCD monitor. However, Im not sure what benefits Im gonna get from paying a considerable amount of money on it apart from neatness.

So please anyone tell me everything about the benefits and drawbacks of LCD monitor especially in terms of gaming. I would even appreciate it more if someone could suggest a good and not so expensive 17 or 19 inches LCD monitor.

Plus tell me what to pay attention to in order to get the best product.

Peace,

**The Mongol** · July 11, 2007, 12:24 AM

Well, I just got a 22" Widescreen LCD and it's leagues better than my old CRT.

It's way more clear and crisp. But make sure if you get one it has a low ms, I had a 16ms LCD for a while and it looked like the games had frame loss no matter what setting.

My new monitor is 5ms and it works perfect.

They're getting cheap, especially 22" Widescreens.

I guess I didn't really answer your question and technological-like, but all I can say is it's clearer.

**Admiral Nelson** · July 11, 2007, 01:42 AM

I still have an ancient CRT, but I'm doing some preliminary research into getting a new LCD. Seems like the big advantages are that 1) the screen isn't 2 feet deep (yes, mine is that bad), and that 2) you can set the screen refresh rate down to 60 no problem. (I have my CRT set at 85 permanently, otherwise the screen flickering gives me eye strain)

**sapi** · July 11, 2007, 02:39 AM

Well, they look much better, both aesthetically and on screen

Can't say much more, other than you really want to be getting a 20" or 22" widescreen these days, if your budget can stretch to it.

@soviet - last I checked most LCDs were locked to 60 anyway?

**mrmouth** · July 11, 2007, 02:58 AM

Less power consumption, less heat, takes up less space.

A handful of years ago it really made no sense to own a LCD if you were a gamer. Price and performance wise they just didn't stack up well with CRT monitors. All that has changed and you can get a nice LCD for fairly cheap.

Things to look for are max refresh rate, max resolution, response times and if you want D-sub, DVI, or a monitor that supports both. Also if you want widescreen or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface.

Im a fan of Viewsonic and BenQ.

This is the Viewsonic I own, its pricey but its the fastest monitor out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116375

For the price these are nice, fast response times:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009108
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116075

**jankren** · July 11, 2007, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by BarnabyJones

This is the Viewsonic I own, its pricey but its the fastest monitor out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116375

I wanted to buy that but alas the price makes me wanna puke for my wallet cant afford that at the moment.

**shadowarmy75** · July 11, 2007, 07:17 PM

I just bought a 20.1 in. for $159. Received it yesterday and it's great. Just one stuck pixel that's green when viewing black.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824112007

**Freddie** · July 11, 2007, 03:36 AM

I have an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 19” CRT, it’s a beast in just about ever sense of the word. I have had it now for at least 4 years and brought it at a time when owning a LCD made no sense if you were a gamer however I knew when I brought it would be the last CRT I will buy.

LCD technology has moved on greatly in recent years, and LCD are perfectly acceptable for gaming and are as good as the last generation of CRT monitors. But don’t think that the old problems have gone away, if you buy a dirt cheap monitor expect dirty cheap performance, however a decent gaming LCD won’t kill your wallet, £200 to £250 will get you a decent 21”-22” widescreen LCD monitor.

As for the advantages there’s the obvious one were an LCD takes up less space on your desk, it’s flicker free, there non reflective, they use less power and are more environmentally friendly.

**sapi** · July 11, 2007, 08:27 AM

Though one thing that has to be said when buying is 'don't be a slave to the refresh rates'.

Many brands will attempt to get extra cash out of you by marketing monitors with ridiculously low refresh rates (some even down to 2ms), but realistically, you're not going to notice anything below around 8ms, and you are going to notice the extra cash in your wallet

**mrmouth** · July 11, 2007, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by sapi

Though one thing that has to be said when buying is 'don't be a slave to the refresh rates'.

Many brands will attempt to get extra cash out of you by marketing monitors with ridiculously low refresh rates (some even down to 2ms), but realistically, you're not going to notice anything below around 8ms, and you are going to notice the extra cash in your wallet

Thats become the popular sentiment. Ive owned around 4 LCD's everything from 12ms, 8ms, 5ms and now 2ms. I experienced ghosting with all, except the 2ms VX922. I do agree though for the price and screen size it doesnt make sense for most people.

"The VX922 is the first desktop display to combine ViewSonic's proprietary Dynamic Structure and Amplified Impulse video response acceleration technologies to support rates of up to 500 frames per second across the entire color scale. This advancement produces superior front-of-screen performance for motion video and eliminates ghosting, a problem caused when the tiny pixels creating an image take too long to switch on and off.

"The faster response time of the VX922 display brings us one step closer to achieving CRT-like performance with all the benefits LCDs offer."

**Erik** · July 11, 2007, 10:11 AM

I think the only real advantage of LCD's is that they use less space.

I have an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 413, 17" CRT.
It's very old (7 years, I think), but I'm still loving it.
Picture quality is very good, and the maximum brightness is very high which is important to me because it doubles as my TV.

**Markas** · July 11, 2007, 11:01 AM

The best upgrade I've made in ten years is getting an LCD. It really increases viewing pleasure and game satisfaction. My only problem is that certain colours show up streaks of grime on my screen!

I heartily recommend one.

**Rush Limbaugh** · July 11, 2007, 11:24 AM

I have a 22 inch Gateway HD widescreen moniter and I like it much better than my old NEC 19 inch CRT. 19 inch LCDs go for under $200 nowdays and are a good bargain. I paid $350 for mine.

**spartan_phalanx** · July 11, 2007, 02:24 PM

I have Dell 30" now, had an HP 19" before (still going @ 22k hours) and love both. Space is probably the biggest reason to move to a flat panel. Although if you get into bigger sizes then space still starts to get taken up. Most other points have been mentioned aside from that I think my overall gaming experience seems better as well.

CRT's are like VHS, they are still good products and adequate for most users but better technology exists and is now really very affordable.

**Arakorn** · July 11, 2007, 02:41 PM

Should you go for a widescreen (20/22") instead of a good-old 19"? Every game doesn't support widescreen, what happens then? And Vista (and it's appz) should be able to handle widescreen res's OK, right?
Oh and what resolution should you get with a widescreen LCD?

**Niccolo Machiavelli** · July 11, 2007, 03:05 PM

@Arakorn-eir: they typically have a native resolution (i.e. the actual number of pixels the screen has) - a lower resolution leads to interpolation between the pixels and the image appears far less crisp. Not so much of a problem in gaming though.
I have an 24" Dell widescreen LCD and usually run it @1920*1200, which is the screens native resolution.
Most games nowadays support widescreen and if they don't there are workarounds for that on sites like widescreengaming.com.

Considering LCD gaming, I would still prefer a CRT over most LCD's for really fast paced FPS games such as quakeworld or quake 3 played competitively in leagues, but for the rest, you're fine...

**UnderdawgIV** · July 12, 2007, 01:12 AM

Panels matter greatly. There are many types of panels, but the main division is true 8-bit panels and the 6-bit panels which use a method of artificially producing the additional colors of the former, resulting in a lesser quality image.

To keep it simple, IPS panels are the best in picture quality and TN panels are the worst, relatively.

I have a 22" LCD from Dell, it's a TN Panel (All 22" LCD's are), so the quality isn't as good as IPS panels, but it's good enough. I got it $299 CAD, so it was almost dirt cheap.

If you really want some more in-depth information, go check out the "Displays" section over at HardOCP.