I'm thinking of upgrading to an LCD, from an old Sony 17" CRT. I'm wanting something about $200.00. And was wondering if you guys had any input on what I should get; I don't really know that much about LCD's and I want to mostly game on it as well as video edit and basically do everything.
Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Asap

My recommendations are LG, Samsung or Viewsonic.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824116373
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001063

Unfortunately if you want a 2-4ms monitor for gaming you will have to go above the $300 mark. 8ms is decent though.

ALright thanks man, I appreciate the suggestion.
What do you think about this one, for gaming on a budget?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824005066

Here's one for you. It's better than that one and cheaper right now with the rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824112002 This is a good monitor, nice bang for the buck

Blah with the shipping costs you might as well get the Viewsonic 922 w/ free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824116375

Sweet 2ms Damn! That's awesome, thanks man!


What exactly does the contrast ratio mean, and what's a good ratio to go by?

Carefull with the 2ms. If you want to use this for professional use too, then you may want to consider a monitor with a higher response time so you can get the most accurate true colors.

So your saying that the faster the response time, the lower the quality? What's the happy medium then, 4ms, 8ms, 12ms? I plan on gaming and editing photos and what not. . .!

The way it works out is that you have 1000ms in 1 second so all you do is divide the true pixel refresh rate (on-off-on). Which on a 8ms screen is normally 16ms which means, you will theoretically get what is equivalent to 62.5 pixel refreshes per second. That is not a bad thing since most monitors run at 60Hz at their native resolution, which means the graphics card is only supplying the monitor with 60fps anyway.

So you should not even need more than a half decent 8ms monitor if you plan to use it for gaming. If the native resolution uses more than 60hz then you will need to get a better monitor. For example a refresh rate of 80Hz will need a true pixel refresh of 12ms to get 83.3 pixel refreshes per second.

So what monitor with how many milliseconds should I get with the 7600 gt graphics card? If the maximum Rez is 85Hz. . .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130017

This is all very confusing!

I have a Sony TFT with a 12ms response time, and I have no problems gaming on it. With a few colour transitions there is limited ghosting, but it is a lot cleared, more accurate, more uniform and brighter than my old CRT, so I'm not really bothered. You wouldn't notice it unless you looked for it.

I would go to a shop and have a look round, as a lot is down to opinion. For example, THG reviewers seem to hate the Sony Black-X filter, but I love it. They say it is too reflective, I think it makes the blacks ink black and gives you the feel of a glass screen. All opinion. I'm a big fan of having a look and getting what you really want and paying a little more than buying off the internet blindly, especially with something that effects your computer experiance as much as a moniter.

Can't agree more. The thing is that everyone's perception is different, especially when it comes down to monitors. Some people can tell the difference between 25ms and 12ms. Some can't and they're perfectly happy with 25ms (and they save some $).

Go to a store and look around. I'm sure they'd let you play a game and bring up some pictures (you might want to bring a USB drive with some pictures on it).

Just don't trust those crappy rigged up stuff where they hook like 9 monitors to a single computer - that just degenerates the entire signal and all monitors look horrible.

Tom's had a spring roundup dated at the end of March. Might be worth a look.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/0 [...] age45.html

I suggest trying to find a viewsonic v721. I just got one a couple months ago and I'm very happy with it. I bought it at compusa for $170. It's got 8ms response time and descent brightness. I wish I would have gone for the widescreen version but I was on a tight budget.

asap Dude

One LCD issue that has not been addressed in all of the above posts is that of your preferred display resolution ... LCD's of any given diagonal size have a native resolution that cannot be changed as a CRT permits, and all of the LCD interpolation techniques suck bigtime. So, for example, if you have a 17" CRT at 600x800, then a 19" LCD would need a native 1024x768 to provide the approximate same size text-icons etc.

I'm a grey-beard old Dude, who finds 600x800 17" CRT visually just perfect, so I glommed an Optiquest (Viewsonic commercial brand) Q9 19" LCD @ 8ms with a native 1024x768 for $200 simply wonderful for my eyes (no, I don't wear glasses). Works fine for Photoshop, and great for gaming ... no smears, ghosts, etc. and with an ATI X800GTO (unlocked 16 pipe) gives 69-70 FPS flicker-free with HL2 Lost Coast video test.

The bottom line here is to be "aware" of the native resolution thingy, so you are not disappointed 'cause there ain't no goin' back once the $$$ are spent.

Thank you everyone for all your input, you've made this process a lot easier!

-Asap