Newbie to LCD Gaming: I got a new monitor, it ghosts.

[TheBoyBlunder]

Edit: I forgot to mention I'm new to this "LCD Gaming" thing, so my experience with LCDs and games is zero.

I recieved a Sceptre X9-G Naga III for my birthday to replace a KDS 17 inch CRT that was so bad, I couldn't make out any details on any sort of dark picture.

I'm running it off the dvi connection, and while I'm playing CS:Source or BF1942 or pretty much any first person shooter, objects in front of a dark background have a shadow behind them. It doesn't matter if it's an enemy soldier, a gun, or a vehicle. If I look quickly left or right, or if the object is moving, it will leave a noticeable shadow behind.

Here are my specs:
Sceptre X9-G Naga III on its DVI connection
BFG Tech Gf4 4600 running the 71.89 drivers.
Athlon XP "T-Bred B" 2600+
1GB PC2700 ram
XP Pro w SP2
If I forgot anything important, let me know and I'll add it.

Now, here's what I want to know:
1) Does anyone else have one of these Sceptre monitors?
2) If you do, does it ghost for you too?
3) Do I have a lemon, or is it just a crappy monitor?
4) Do all 19" LCDs ghost like mad when gaming, or are some actually good?

(After reading reviews, I probably should have bought a 1905FP when they were on sale...)

 

[Fenriss]

whats the response time on that? 16ms or below is needed to eliminate ghosting in gaming.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: Fenriss
whats the response time on that? 16ms or below is needed to eliminate ghosting in gaming.

Ooops, I knew I forgot something. Here are the specs. They say it's 8ms...I'm having a hard time believing that.

 

[rise]

i had considered that unit before finding the hyundai l90d+ (8ms) which has no ghosting. the sceptre scared me a bit because their site wasn't particularly informative if i recall. alot of companies, probably all, measure the specs differently. some have actually listed just the rise and not the rise and fall of each pixel as you should for response time. others measure black to white to black, as opposed to gray tones. anyway, i'm saying specs are tough to buy from with an lcd.

i do remember some guy here had one though and he didn't complain about it but maybe he just wasn't a gamer.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: rise4310
i had considered that unit before finding the hyundai l90d+ (8ms) which has no ghosting. the sceptre scared me a bit because their site wasn't particularly informative if i recall. alot of companies, probably all, measure the specs differently. some have actually listed just the rise and not the rise and fall of each pixel as you should for response time. others measure black to white to black, as opposed to gray tones. anyway, i'm saying specs are tough to buy from with an lcd.

i do remember some guy here had one though and he didn't complain about it but maybe he just wasn't a gamer.

He probably wasn't. I'm a gamer and I'm not terribly happy with this monitor so far.

 

[Washoe]

It sounds to me like classic ghosting although by your description it sounds exceptionally bad with this particular monitor. At the advertised 8ms response time, you should not have much noticeable ghosting at all. So maybe there is a combination of ghosting, plus a bad monitor.

I wonder if upgrading your video card would help. You might try testing it on a system with a more recent card, if possible.

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

Ghosting is common with LCDs, very few of em are fast enough for it to not be noticable. Manufacturer specs are pure crap, the only good way to judge a panel is from subjective reviews by multiple people. Acer's 1731 is one of the fastest panels out there, and it's got a 20ms response time, but ghosts less than some supposed 8ms panels.

The reason being, there's no standard procedure for measuring an LCDs response time, a lot like fans and CFM/noise ratio (Thermaltake fans spec'd at 21dba and 78cfm). The best thing to do is read up on reviews and find yourself a proven performer. I've only owned 17" models, but can say from experience the Hitachi CML174 and the Acer 1731 ghost very little to not at all.

Edit: from re-reading your post I think what you're describing is bad viewing angles and blacks, not necessarily ghosting. These are about the only 2 areas LCDs (good ones) currently lack in compared to CRTs. Ghosting is more color smearing. If you sit face to face with the panel and move around at slightly different angles you'll notice the shadow effect start to lessen and worsen depending on where you're looking at it from. This is a combination of bad viewing angles, and LCDs just plain sucking with blacks. Ghosting is an entirely different animal, my Hitachi CML174 really didn't ghost at all, but it did have severe problems with darker/black areas like on Cbble in CS:S or in a game like Thief: Deadly Shadows (which was hell to play). It can be helped somewhat by adjusting the contrast and brightness, but some monitors are unable to do this when using DVI.

 

[Matthias99]

The reason being, there's no standard procedure for measuring an LCDs response time

Actually, there is, but it's pretty much useless. The standard VESA response time measurement is the time for a pixel to go from 0 (black) to 255 (white) to 0 (black). Because of the way LCD technology works, this time can be a lot lower than the time, for instance, to go from 128 (grey) to 255 (white) to 128 (grey), or 64 (dark grey) to 192 (light grey) to 64 (dark grey). So a monitor that might just eke under 12 or 16ms on the black->white->black transition is likely to be more like 20-40ms on grey-to-grey transitions. Toms Hardware goes over this very thoroughly in their LCD monitor reviews, and does actual real-world response time testing, which is rare.

I've also never heard of "Sceptre". You don't happen to know who makes the panel (ie, LG Phillips, AU Optronics, etc.)?

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

my lcd has a 20 ms response time which is really slow. however it is a very high quality sony and the other specs amke up for that. i notice ghosting but i don't care, i rarely move fast enough for it to be evident. (also 8ms black to white is faster than greys to gresy, whic is about 1.5 tiems as much, as matthias mentioned above)

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Wow, that's quite a few responses. Ok, in order...

Washoe: That's not possible. Unfortunately, out of the people I know who have computers and game, I've got the most advanced graphics card.

Inappropriate4AT: You might be right about my seeing a very poor "black." Every time I've noticed a "ghost" it's because it was an object on a dark surface, an object moving in front of a dark surface, or an object moving in a dark area. I guess I'll play around with the contrast, but I'm not entirely certain if I'll have any luck.

Matthias99: I'd never heard of Sceptre either when I recieved the monitor, and frankly I'm starting to see why. They appear to be a second rate manufacturer. I've looked for everything I can about the monitor, but nothing has mentioned who made the panel itself. I'm going to keep looking to see if I can find it, but I don't think I'll have any luck.

 

[homercles337]

If youre a gamer go high end for the transition to LCD. Res, contrast, and brightness are all going to be superior, but response time is always gonna suck--for now at least.

 

[coomar]

my benq fp937s has an advertised 12ms response, in the tomshardware review they said it was around 16ms, it doesn't ghost though

 

[housecat]

I have the Dell 2005FPW and I don't notice any ghosting. I'm not sitting 1 inch from the screen examining it either, just using like anyone would and I dont think it ghosts at all.

But some flunkie told me that my eyes must be shot, because according to the guru all LCDs ghost.. 90% half of us just can't see it on alot of panels including the Dell 2005 and 2405 LCDs.