Does Monitor Affect the Way you PLAY?

for the 8800GTS 1280x1024 is the sweetspot res, i play on a Dell 17in CRT myself just fine

it's not like the gpu can't go to a lower resolution. your monitor would be fine.

the power supply on the other hand is another matter.

Valis

Yup.. CRTs can still out perform most LCDs. Better color reproduction and faster refresh rates. Only reason I got rid of my 19" view sonic is because it takes up my entire desk space.

Lol CRTs are a joke when you go to 19"+. My 19" CRT is dodgy and ways like 20kg. It has streaks down the top corners, blue on the left, red on the right. My friends dad once had a 24", they needed 3 people to carry it.

I think he meant not because is was a crap monitor, but because ti was VGA not dvi, and that makes a huge difference. Also, i'm a lucky c*nt who has a 22" CRT screen WITH DVI, go me!

I know, I was just saying how bad mine is.

What kind of performance numbers? Relating to what I mean?

When i bought my 19" LCD i was afraid i would be getting a less good gaming screen, but to my surprise i found out my 17" CRT had been a crap screen instead.
So i got a huge upgrade. =)
Im really satisfied with my LCD, but yeah CRTs can still be better then LCDs.

Come to think of it on my dads LCD, if he uses vga, the image shimmers a little which is annoying when reading text. With DVI, it doesnt.

My CRT has fairly poor image quality really. Image isnt very sharp. I look at my dads NEC 20WGX2 and I'm like 8O. Makes FarCry look so... pretty. Its funny, most people say you cant notice flicker at 85Hz, but I can easily once I've used an LCD for a few minutes. Guess your brain gets used to no flicker, and then picks it up when you see it again. I stop noticing it in about 10s.

lol, i suppose you have a point, i have a good crt with dvi, and i have mostly seen crappy lcds or crappy crts with have vga so that is probably where i notice the difference. but one thing, i noticed, aside from the slower response times of lcds i noticed their colour accuracy wasn't as good... it seemed too either "gammaish" or over vibrant.

CRT is still the best technology for great colour reproduction and responce time. However they're big and heavy.

your Dell 17" @ 1280 x 1024 isn't a bad monitor. it will work and it will work fine. You'll enjoy a lot of gaming with it. However if you're sticking to it, In my opinion you're wasting the power of te 8800's. granted at this resolution you can max the graphics settings on every game and have superb performance.

HOwever if yo really wanted to see the power of the 8800;'s. a screen with a 1600x1200 resolution or higher would absolutely be stunning. but don't waste your money if it's not an absolute requirement as you will do fine with yours

Be very careful about trying to set your CRT display to resolutions/refresh rates higher than it can support, you can damage it.

Theres nothing wrong with playing at 1280x1024 unless YOU just feel you want to upsize your monitor. At that resolution you are getting about the max you will see out of that graphics card.

At a resolution below that you'd start to become cpu limited in some games and at a resolution much higher you might start to see decreases in FPS depending on options you have turned on and such.

As a poster above said, for that card your resolution is the sweet spot for the best performance with visual eye-candy turned up.

3 people? 8O They must have been weak geeks or something because a 24" monitor doesn't weigh that much.  

meh, some people would tell you to ditch the monitor and get an LCD, but you dont really neeeeed to. Although since LCD's are relatively cheap now you can spoil yourself and get a nice one. As long as your monitor isnt a pos it wont affect gameplay. Some crap monitors have ghosting issues and very low refresh rates which means delayed video signal which wouldnt affect your games alot unless you are playing FPS, because you need that extra split second advantage over your opponent.

3 people? 8O They must have been weak geeks or something because a 24" monitor doesn't weigh that much.  

Well, depends how far they're carrying it. I've seen 24" monitors easily exceed 100 pounds, and personally I wouldn't want to carry that across a mall into the parking lot or up several flights of stairs.

3 people? 8O They must have been weak geeks or something because a 24" monitor doesn't weigh that much.  

lol a 24" crt? i bet it weighed at least 100lbs, although they might have had trouble carrying it because it was so big that it was awkward to carry it. Like 2 guys and a spotter or something


If it was reallllly old then it would have been gigantic

I have a Viewsonic 17' CRT and it supports 1600x1200 resolution, which was awesome when I got it from a friend who was cleaning up his place. Thats on my 2nd system though. I personally, use a 20' Samsung 204B LCD monitor. Was really good at the time I bought it, not to mention it cost a pretty penny too.

My old 17" IBM CRT weighed 46 kg...... 8O

He is right about the PSU. You should have 400 minimum for an 8800GTS, and more than that if you overclock. Also, at 305W, your PSU won't have the connectors required for your graphics card. Make sure your new PSU has a 6-Pin power connector.
Re: You need a new monitor: No you don't. Your graphics card will come with a DVI->VGA adapter. Just install it and you will be fine.
Re: Does monitor affect gameplay: Well, yes and no. Most games these days have a minimum resolution requirement of 1024x768 and your setup meets this requirement. In general, higher resolution will give you more detail and more choppiness (Lower FPS = Frames per second). The reverse is also true, lower resolution will give you less detail and more smoothness (Higher FPS). You will only notice extra choppiness if your frame rate (FPS) drops below your refresh rate.
You have a CRT monitor. A special property of CRTs is that they generally support a large number of resolutions without resorting to interpolation. One you get your setup going, you can try running your games at both lower and higher resolutions and see the difference for yourself.

Google "degaussing coil", it may help with your streaks. No guarantee, of course, I'm not an expert in this sort of thing...

Oh, and another thing, is that cat in your avatar for real or did you edit it in Photoshop      

Well I used to have a 21" CRT for a long time, weighed 90lbs. It was a NEC multisync and it was great for the most part. Eventually I got rid of it because I hated moving it froms chool to home, and it took up like my whole desk at school. I bought a cheap 19" LCD and was happy with it for the most part. Refresh rate is perfectly fine on it, but colors arent great.

I've gone through quite a few LCD's since then, and I can say if you get a good one a lot of the negatives posted in this thread aren't really true. I now have a 37" LCD and the color is fantastic on it, and there is no ghosting at all. I just had to say this because afte going through 4 LCD monitors, I can say that depending on the quality of the one you choose to buy you can get a really good monitor. Generalizing stuff like saying all LCD's have bad color depth or poor refresh rate doesn't really apply anymore.

So back to your original question, you monitor would be fine for your video card, but your power supply isn't.

Google "degaussing coil", it may help with your streaks. No guarantee, of course, I'm not an expert in this sort of thing...

Oh, and another thing, is that cat in your avatar for real or did you edit it in Photoshop      
Found it on google, so I dont know. I've tried degaussing my monitor (always fun to watch) and using "colour return", whatever that is. Doesnt do anything. It seems that as the monitor warms up, the streaks and discolourations become fainter, but are never gone.

If you don't mind the size, I would highly recommend staying at low resolutions because your graphics card will be able to play top of the line games without lag for longer. If you run 1600x1200, you would need to upgrade your card much sooner.

We have an old, old Sun monitor at work that must be like 22-24 inches.
I am not sure what it weighs, but let me tell you, it takes 2 people to lift it up onto the 5 foot high shelf it sits on. 2 people and it ain't easy at that!
I am 6' 2", and 230 pounds, and although I now manage a business and don't work nearly like I used to when I framed houses in my younger years, that thing is really, really heavy.

My old 17" IBM CRT weighed 46 kg...... 8O

whoa, are you sure? that's like 100 pounds or a 12 year old kid!

My old 17" IBM CRT weighed 46 kg...... 8O

whoa, are you sure? that's like 100 pounds or a 12 year old kid!

No wait....I lied.....oops!   I meant 46lbs.....(which is still ridiculous for a 17" monitor....)

Sure is. How many pounds are in a kg?

2.2

Thanks. Suppose I could have googled it but anyway.

I might as well weigh in here guys.

I have a 52" LCOS JVC HDTV, connected via DVI.

I have a brand new 22" monitor that can reach 2048x1536 to compare it to.

I also have some Trinitron based 17" CRTs around, better than the one the OP must have (because Trinitron is the best CRT technology and they have a max res of 1600x1200)

And I have compared all 3 displays.

The 52" HDTV dominates. Not just in sheer size, but in clarity : if you look very closely at text on the HDTV versus the monitor, you can tell that the pixel structure is more accurate on the HDTV. Text on the monitors that is very small is smudged, while it is clearly visible and crisp on the HDTV at the same resolution.

The HDTV is MUUUUCCH brighter. It has an enormous dynamic range, from dark grey (not black, alas) to eye tearing bright. Images are crisper and clearer than on the monitors, even if you sit much closer to the monitors to make up for the screen size.

Sorry, but if you want a great display, you should spend $1400 on an HDTV like I did. It is significantly better, even than a CRT right next to it on the same video card showing the same resolution image.

Ironically, I have a puny 7900GS powering it. For games more than 6 months old, this is fine, but still....I keep checking newegg to see if the price on an 8800 has gotten more reasonable every week....

My monitor is a Trinitron based CRT and it sucks.