New Monitor

[Funk]

I'm not too knowledgable on monitors. What things do you need to consider when buying a new one? I'm pretty sure the video card matters a little. I just don't know if processor speed or anything else like that does. I'm on a dinosaur AMD Athalon XP3200+.

[Avanarius]

The higher the resolution the more powerful of a graphics card you need, and obviously depending on the game you're playing. I would actually depend it off how much Video Memory you have.

For example I have only 320mb's in my graphics card so I'm not going to buy anything bigger than a 19" @ 1280x1024 for my games or the fps will decrease considerably at higher resolutions with new games.

Also to keep mind is the contrast ratio, the higher the contrast ratio the less ghosting will occur on screen. My monitor is 1400:1 contrast ratio and I don't seem to notice any ghosting.

Hope this helps

[Isiolia]

Generally speaking, monitors don't require too much from your system itself. A reasonably modern system, like I would assume you have based on the CPU, should be able to use most of the models on the market.

There are some exceptions where multi-head video cards are required, such as the Apple 30" display, which requires dual-head DVI ports (at least on Mac Pros). Assuming that you're not looking to spent more than a few hundred dollars on a screen, this is pretty much a moot point (the aforementioned Apple screen runs $1800).

For outputting 2D graphics like Windows, web browsing, watching DIVX movies, there's no real issue with what you get provided your card actually supports the resolution needed. If it's a card made in the last 5 years or so (as would be in line with your CPU), then it's a safe bet that it'll work fine.

For 3D gaming, as mentioned, you do have considerations to make. LCD screens have a fixed pixel count. IE, most 17-19" panels are 1280 x 1024 native resolution. Anything lower than that they scale to fit onto the screen. This differs from older CRT (TV-type) monitors in that those actually displayed a varying number of lines on the screen.

While scaled images don't necessarily look terrible, running at the native resolution for your panel tends to look much better.

So there is that consideration for gaming. If you're not upgrading your system, and play a lot of newer games that it struggles to run, then going with a larger 22-24" panel with a higher resolution might give you the choice of choppy graphics, or scaled graphics. With widescreen panels as well, there's the issue of configuring games into a widescreen aspect ratio and all.

Establish your needs really. Budget, primary use, preferences. Are you bringing it to college? Would you benefit from it being able to double as a TV for console games? Etc.

The basic things you need to know for LCDs are:

Contrast Ratio - How bright is the brightest white compared to the blackest black the screen can do? Something with a low contrast ratio will look washed out. This is usually given in a a ratio, ie, 500:1
Some may also list brightness of the backlight too.

Response Time - This has to do with ghosting. How long does it take for a pixel to light up and then go dead again. Some manufacturers, at least at one point, were only listing how long it took for pixels to light up.
Either way, the slower the speed, the more ghosting/blurring happens. Nowdays, it's very common to see response times under 10ms, usually 5-8. That's easily enough.


Another thing to look at with a screen is inputs. You have VGA and DVI inputs. VGA would be the typical monitor plug that's been around for years. 15 pin, usually colored blue. The signal is analog, and so you usually need to run the auto-adjust on your screen if you change resolutions.
DVI is digital. Well, actually, there are two sets of pins in the plug, one of which can be analog...but it's for using an adapter on. The purpose is a digital signal. The monitor automatically adjusts to changing resolutions, and is generally a cleaner signal.

If you have DVI, use it. Look for the port on a monitor you buy. Even if your current card doesn't have it, some newer video cards are coming with only DVI ports (and VGA adapters).
It's not that VGA is terrible. Most monitors have a solid auto-calibration for analog signals that produces just as nice a picture as DVI. But with DVI, it does that automatically =P

Some monitors also have TV inputs, or even tuners.


It's really not all that complicated. You could really just head over to Newegg, find a good manufacturer (Samsung makes great LCD panels for example), find a price/size, and order that. Should work fine.

[levish]

if you get a LCD they look the best at native resolution.

you can go lower than native resolution but the display will not look sharp.

Some general guidelines

If you have a old machine I'd go with a resolution of 1280x1024 which most 19" and 17" standard aspect ratio LCD monitors support (not wide).

"Good" video card then you might want to look at the 20-22" in wide aspect monitors with 1680x1050 resolution (the ones in the $225+ dollar range like the 3850/3870 ATI cards and the NVidia 8800GT)

If you plan on getting a really high end video card or possibly a dual video card setup then you can go for a 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 screen (typically 24-30" sizes).

[Cjskater]

Also from a gaming standpoint (FPS mostly):
LCD does not put frames up instantly. So sometimes you may see a frame up to like 20ms slower then you would on CRT, which does not have the lag. ib4like it matters, well... it could. > CRT also generally has a higher refresh rate.

Therefore if you want the most out of your games you should go with CRT. If you want something stylish and good for movies, then LCD.

I'll edit this later if I can find the one article which really did a good job of showing the lag.
EDIT: All I can find are youtube videos of the lag. This one is pretty good though when he goes into slow mo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2OE6hS ... re=related