LCD manufacturers have been in a tizzy ever since September when the millisecond race started. And they now have the added incentive of attracting gamers who have always been put off by the afterglow on liquid crystal screens.

The developments came in stages we followed throughout last year. The ones that really appealed to us were, in order, the Solarism LM1711 , then the Hercules ProphetView 920 and Iiyama AS4332UT . In December, the new version of the Iiyama AS4314UTG was the first LCD to drop below 20 ms, followed a fortnight later by the Hitachi CML174SXW , the first LCD with a response time of 16 ms. Since then, announcements have come in waves. LG, ViewSonic and NEC all say they will soon be releasing equally fast 16-ms monitors.

Technique: Some Info And Reminders

VGA Or DVI?

Theoretically, it's best to plug a monitor into the DVI of the video card if it has one. This means the card does not have to convert the signal to analog, an operation always likely to cause loss. But actually, these days, converters are excellent and there is no noticeable difference between the interfaces. So make the choice that fits your wallet. There is usually a price difference of about $100 between a DVI and a D-Sub monitor, so you will most likely find it better to settle for analog.