Are LCD's better for gaming now or CRT's still rule???

mikeny

Distinguished
Aug 6, 2006
1,469
0
19,310
I like a rich and realistic picture but dont want to waist money. I remember a while ago LCD's arent good for gaming but Im seeing that thats changing. I just build a conroe system and Im using my 17 inch CRT monitor. I dont play first person shooters but I love Civilization IV, The Sims 2, The Movies, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and soon, Flight Simulator X. Maybe WoW or Star Trek Online.

Should I stick with my CRT or get a LCD? Any recommendations? What should I look for in the specs? Thank you for any help possible.
 

darkstar782

Distinguished
Dec 24, 2005
1,375
0
19,280
Very tough call, imho TFTs are not great unless you want to spend £350+ ($600 or so).

On the other hand, you could have an amazing 22" CRT that will do 2048x1536@75Hz for that price.

It comes down to your personal preference these days I think
 

TLCBobTheBuilder

Distinguished
Sep 11, 2006
1
0
18,510
You can get 19" LCDs now for like $200 I have had one for 2 years. They look good your not gonna see a major issue with it since you dont play first person shooter games. Your probably gonna benfit from it because your gonna have a clean looking screen plus you get more bright color. Once you get an LCD your gonna get behind a CRT like 6 months later and be glad you got an LCD. If your in front of your comuter enough its worth the money. If you like the prices on some of them get something with a 800:1 contrast ratio or higher though.
 

darkstar782

Distinguished
Dec 24, 2005
1,375
0
19,280
Um, the brightness and contrast on a CRT is FAR better than an LCD, and the colour range is superior, thats one of their main advantages over LCDs, although thats not to say LCDs are all bad.

I personally hate the TFTs in the £100/$200 range, the only LCDs I would consider are the Viewsonic VP930 (£270/$500) and possibly the HP 20.1" one I have my eye on atm.
 

schwinn

Distinguished
Jul 25, 2006
50
0
18,630
Remember, when using an LCD, it's only good if you use it at the panel's native resolution. This means your graphics card needs to be able to run smoothly at that resolution, otherwise you will have to down-res the game, and enlarge it on the LCD, which can make for blocky imaging.

Given the massive differences in games, I think a CRT is still better, as you don't "have" to run at a higher resolution with them, which means you don't have to buy a faster vid card (as games keep progressing in complexity).
 

krazyIvan

Distinguished
Jan 6, 2006
290
0
18,780
If you’re looking to upgrade from your 17" CRT I would recommend going 19” LCD. As for which one... Look for Tom's LCD reviews, very helpful. One thing I will say is the wide screen LCD's haven’t proven to be very good for gaming and LCD's with OverDrive are not as good as their latency would indicate.

BTW you want an LCD with 8ms or less latency and 19" is a good cost effective size
(You can get a good one for > $200 US). The larger LCD’s are much more expensive and tend to use the OverDrive technology to decrease latency.
 

jamse

Distinguished
Sep 12, 2006
23
0
18,510
since you dont play fps a lcd would be a good idea, i would wait till the end of this quarter or beginning of next quarter to buy one though.

i would look for:
-2ms response time (so it should have good grey to grey, and black to white response)
-2000:1 or better contrast ratio (no dynamic cr)
-19in or larger

:D
 

hamourabi

Distinguished
May 2, 2006
6
0
18,510
I'm curious as to why you recommend to wait until the end of this quarter/start of the next. Are a slew of new models coming on the market in that timeframe?
 

jamse

Distinguished
Sep 12, 2006
23
0
18,510
in the last month samsung has released two new models 931bf and 931c, which are both 2ms, 2000:1 (the bf is dynamic 2000:1), and 16.2 Million display colors. They both are selling for ~$269, so i am pretty sure other companies will come out with their newer models for the holiday season. i figure the prices will be high, because people are going to be buying gifts for others. so im assuming prices will go down a little after the holiday season, but then again i am no economist.

on a side note just last year i remember 8ms lcds were selling for 300ish and now they are down to 100-150.
 

Hose

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2005
526
0
18,980
in the last month samsung has released two new models 931bf and 931c, which are both 2ms, 2000:1 (the bf is dynamic 2000:1), and 16.2 Million display colors. They both are selling for ~$269, so i am pretty sure other companies will come out with their newer models for the holiday season. i figure the prices will be high, because people are going to be buying gifts for others. so im assuming prices will go down a little after the holiday season, but then again i am no economist.

on a side note just last year i remember 8ms lcds were selling for 300ish and now they are down to 100-150.

I wouldn't put any stock into claims of "2000:1" Contrast Ratio, Dynamic or otherwise. It's mostly a marketing ploy, and some makers are starting to drop the "Dynmic" description... it confuses buyers, if you know what I mean.
 

Artmic

Distinguished
May 27, 2002
311
0
18,780
i currently have the 22" Mitsubishi CRT, and it is one great monitor.
Although recently I’ve seen weird distortions on the edges of the screen when I first boot into windows, I guess the age is showing, I’ve had it since 2002 I believe.

I ordered a 24” Dell LCD yesterday, I figure it is time to move to LCD. I love my 22CRT but the heat, electricity, and space it takes are too much…..

I just hope I didn’t make a mistake, as I do play some games like COD2, HL2 etc… and strategy games.
 

Hose

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2005
526
0
18,980
in the last month samsung has released two new models 931bf and 931c, which are both 2ms, 2000:1 (the bf is dynamic 2000:1)..."

On the 931C, Samsung has dropped the term "Dynamic Contrast".. they now call it "Magic Contrast"... more confusion for the buyer to make him think the product is better than it really is.
 

Robovski

Distinguished
Aug 28, 2006
189
0
18,680
I use 19" widescreen LCD made by ACER (had for £140.00) for my gaming and I have no complaints about the monitor. Certainly better than the Dell LCD the machine came with (which had a tragic cat-related accident and flipped over off the desk - something I never had to think about with CRTs).

I do have complaints for modern games that don't support widescreen monitors though. CivCity Rome I'm looking right at you. I play a lot of the games the OP posted, I think you will be happy. Do make sure you get at least 8ms response time though.

Another consideration is that a LCD monitor uses internal lighting, and this can burn out. I Don't think the old CRT model of buy a monitor and use it for 10 years will apply to LCD.
 

groingo

Distinguished
Sep 22, 2006
2
0
18,510
(which had a tragic cat-related accident and flipped over off the desk - something I never had to think about with CRTs).

A good thing to know, the LCDs are very fragile as I dropped my 17 inch Microtek while moving it and when it hit the padded carpet floor the body busted into a million pieces of sharp jagged plastic.

R.I.P. Microtek
 

schwinn

Distinguished
Jul 25, 2006
50
0
18,630
"... I Don't think the old CRT model of buy a monitor and use it for 10 years will apply to LCD....

MTBF for many LCDs is 50,000 hours.... that's 8 hrs/day for 25 years. We'll see.Tha tmay be the MTBF for the LCD array, but as this page states: http://www.icpamerica.com/products/LCD_products/LCD_display/DM_121.html MTBF of the backlight can be significantly less (half, in this case, for an "industrial" class LCD panel.)
 

Robovski

Distinguished
Aug 28, 2006
189
0
18,680
I only mention this because a few years after these things became all the rage I've started reading about how the monitor backlight has burnt out for some people. I expect I may want another monitor before 10 years are up, but some people don't even think about the need to replace a monitor down the road as we've gotten very used to monitors that just keep chugging along.

Mind you, the rest of the monitor keeps working when the backlight is blown - maybe we'll see a new line of work for the screwdriver shops reconditioning flatscreens (I know if I spent >£1k for a display I'd want to see if it could be fixed - especially when it's about £10 worth of parts that's wrong with it).
 

Hose

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2005
526
0
18,980
I only mention this because a few years after these things became all the rage I've started reading about how the monitor backlight has burnt out for some people. I expect I may want another monitor before 10 years are up, but some people don't even think about the need to replace a monitor down the road as we've gotten very used to monitors that just keep chugging along.

Mind you, the rest of the monitor keeps working when the backlight is blown - maybe we'll see a new line of work for the screwdriver shops reconditioning flatscreens (I know if I spent >£1k for a display I'd want to see if it could be fixed - especially when it's about £10 worth of parts that's wrong with it).

In the early days of LCDs, warranties used to be "_____ [period], but backlight 6 months or 1 year".

More recent ones have suggested a 50,000 hour life for the backlight. We'll just have to see. Besides, with the technology improving all the time, you might not want to repair your $1K monitor when a newer and better one can be had for the cost of the fix.
 

dannyaa

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2001
594
0
18,980
Well, I have a lot of monitors...

Viewsonic CRTs: 19", 17", older 17", and 15"

As well as a Viewsonic vp930b 19" LCD

My friend has a Samsung SyncMaster 19"


I play a lot of FPS games, racers, as well as all the games you mentioned. If you get a good LCD panel (check reviews - I recommend the viewsonic or samsung panels mentioned above, and there are other good ones as well) you will be very happy.

I like the LCDs *MUCH* better than the CRTs for gaming and everything else. They are far superior in my opinon - the colors and image quality look better than the CRTs from what I'VE seen; ghosting isn't even an issue, really. The screens don't get that tube look a CRT gives, and they are easier on the eyes.


Get an LCD.

Get an LCD.

You won't just be fine. You'll be better...