Making the jump from CRT to LCD

[smoothvirus]

So for the last few years I've been satisfied with my old 19" Mitsubishi CRT, and I've been like an old curmudgeon towards getting an LCD display. I do game quite a bit and I've been running my games in 1600x1200. For the longest time I've been thinking.. "LCD! Bah humbug! It can't match the performance of a good CRT!"

Last year I took the plunge on a Plasma TV and got a 50" Pioneer Kuro for the livingroom, giving my old 50" rear-projection TV the heave ho. I've been a bit spoiled by my Kuro and occasionally hook my laptop up with an HDMI cable and game on that.

Also, last year, my old 20" Sony CRT TV died. I just tossed it out, and I don't have a TV in my bedroom anymore.

With the prices coming down and the technology getting better, I am slowly swinging over to the LCD side of things, and my CRT is seeming a bit more dinosaur. I've heard some people say that going from CRT to LCD widescreen was the best upgrade they made.

So what I am thinking about doing is getting an LCD display that has an HDMI input. That way I can game on it, and also get an HD box from Verizon FIOS and just patch that into the monitor. Don't need a tuner as the Verizon box will be doing that.

So after doing some searching at Newegg, this display rates well and seems to fit the bill:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16824001276

It's got an HDMI input and the suggested resolution is 1920x1200, so I won't be losing any pixels on the vertical side.

So is this a good display for gaming? How do you think it will perform compared to my old CRT? I'm currently playing GTA IV, Race Driver GRID, and Fallout 3, will my system be enough to run these games at 1900x1200?

Are there other displays near the $300 price point I should consider? Or should I wait and get something pricer like an IPS panel?

Current specs on my PC:
Q9450
4GB ram
4870 512MB

Thinking about upgrading to a 5870 1Gb soon. I realize that it won't make too much of a difference in GTA IV as that title is CPU dependent but it should do well with the other games.


thanks!!!!

 

[smoothvirus]

There's also this guy from the system build thread:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16824176104

but it's quite a bit pricier.

 

[stevf]

I have the T240 (24" version of that) and had a friend get one too - both of us have been quite happy with that monitor.

In my opinion, if all you do is game, TN panels are great, especially considering price. If you have a need for better color calibration or wider viewing angles of course things change.

That 4870 should be fine, but the 1GB version would be a bit better - toms hardware just did a review of how 512, 1, and 2 gb vid cards fare, and at 1920 x 1200 really no difference, 512 at that point starts to show some slowdown but not much. I have an 8800GTX and it does fine and I had my friend get the 1gb version of the 4870 and it runs that res great

 

[smoothvirus]

Dang, this one is tempting too.. 10% off with coupon right now.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfo/...nitor-dell-u2410&s=dfo

Found a review of it:

http://www.digitalversus.com/article-357-6292-88.html#

Not bad but this phrase bothers me a bit:

The screen isn't far from being perfect, but it doe have an input lag, a delay compared to a CRT-based monitor, of two frames. Don't worry, though, it's hardly problematic. As long as you don't plan on playing a lot of FPS games like Unreal or Quake online, then you won't notice it.

Hm. In a racing game like GRID that *might* be a problem, not too sure.

As for a 2ms panel, Newegg has this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16824236047

 

[lxskllr]

I use Dells exclusively, and they work fine for playing UT2k4(fast paced game)

 

[Winterpool]

I own a Pioneer KURO that I bought during the recent 'going out of the plasma business' sales. I suspect no consumer LCD monitor is going to match its visual quality, particularly in terms of deep blacks and viewing angles. LCDs will be plenty bright, though many of us consider LCD brightness a liability and not a feature...

LCD also hasn't really matched CRT in many respects. Some people had fairly crappy CRTs, and of course when we finally get rid of them for LCDs, they're old, half-burnt out... not at their best (my Sony G400... wobbles). But if you owned a good Sony Trinitron, don't expect an LCD to match it.

That said, you seem to be considering your bedroom LCD principally as a gaming display. You should be satisfied with a good TN panel if 'performance' means speed (response and input lag). I'm not a gamer, so I'm waiting to see how the Dell U2410 is received (and especially if the sRGB dithering improves). If you talk to display snobs on this and other forums, however, don't be surprised if we point you to IPS panels like those in the U2410.

Some of us expected the HP LP2475w to drop in price once the Dell U2410 arrived, but that doesn't seem to have occurred yet.

This is very crude shorthand, but here goes:

- TN: fast, cheap; crappy angles, 6-bit colour, sometimes poor manufacturing
- PVA: better angles, good blacks and contrast; more costly, slow
- IPS: good angles, colour accuracy; expensive, some QC issues (LG.Display)

You probably ought to have posted your query in the 'Video Cards and Graphics' forum. I refer you thither for the display wisdom of XTKnight.

 

[smoothvirus]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
If you talk to display snobs on this and other forums, however, don't be surprised if we point you to IPS panels like those in the U2410.

Thanks for all the info Winterpool!

Yeah, I'm starting to lean strongly in the direction of the U2410.

 

[corkyg]

It's a good deal. Go for it - leaning is uncomfortable.

 

[smoothvirus]

I went ahead and ordered the U2410. Got another 10% off through Bing Cashback as well. Should be here tomorrow. Hoping that I won't see too much of a slowdown in games from pushing the extra pixels through my 4870 512mb.

 

[smoothvirus]

Been playing around with the U2410 for the past few days now. I do have a bit of the green-pink tint thing going on, but it's not too bad, I only notice it on a pure white screen, going into sRGB mode makes it almost invisible, I probably would never have noticed it if others had not posted about it.

Played GRID and GTA4 on it, GTA4 looks a LOT better with the widescreen. I'm soooo tempted to order a 5870 now, even though funds are a bit slim. GTA4 still runs fine on my 4870 512mb but I have to keep some of the details turned down. Found this vid of GTA4 running on a 5870 and it looks a lot better than GTA4 does on my PC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4MraujRMPM

 

[lxskllr]

I turn off scaling on my monitor, so when I play a game that's a bit beyond what my card can handle, I can set a lower resolution, and it'll still look good. Doing that letterboxes the display, but it keeps full pixel-pixel resolution without interpolation blurriness. You could also overclock your gfx card.