Monitor choice for older PC?
Last year I was asking for advice to replace my old 17" CRT monitor (linky). Instead of buying a new LCD I ended up getting an iMac and putting the old Wintel PC and monitor in a cupboard. Fast forward to now, and I'm moving interstate in three weeks time. I'll be trying to fit whatever I can into a couple of cars to make the trip, but it's probable I'll need to leave some things behind (and it's not going to be the shelf-fulls of books I've collected over the years!). Given the 17" monitor is now nearing nine years old, the picutre dim and slightly shaky, it's possible I might have to turf it. Which means if I want to use the PC I'll have to get a new monitor for it. I'm also planning on getting a good quality second monitor for the iMac, but I'll just ask about a monitor for the PC here.
The PC itself is somewhat low specs by today's standards. Specifically, the graphics card is an older AGP Radeon 9700 Pro, and I usually ran the thing in 1024 by 768 mode for both work and games, although some games needed to be run in 800 x 600, some legacy 2D games even lower. Unfortunately today it seems most monitors are LCD panels with a much higher base resolution and I don't think they scale very well. When I resurrect the old PC, I'll be using it as a legacy PC gaming machine and Windows XP test bed, so the monitor doesn't need to be great but I'd like it to deal with the lower 1024 x 768 resolution with grace.
What sorts of monitors do you recommend I should be looking at? Is there anything new out there, or do I have to hunt around for something second-hand? Or am I crazy to be turfing my trusty old 17" PanaSync CRT (I would feel a bit guilty about leaving it behind; I've been using it almost non-stop from 2000 to early this year).
There really is no good reason to use a CRT these days unless you have an eye for detail and can tell the difference or work in film or tv. Actually, I can tell the difference when I switch from my 20" LCD to my old 20" Sony triniton CRT(colors more vibrant,darker blacks,etc) but the benefits of reduced heat output, less deskspace used, lighter to move if necessary, and reduced power with the LCD really can't be beat. Not to mention LCD's are getting better everyday so LCD is a nobrainer if you plan on getting a new monitor.
[size="2"]Don't talk about writing games, don't write design docs, don't spend your time on web boards. Sit in your house write 20 games when you complete them you will either want to do it the rest of your life or not * Andre Lamothe
Quote: Original post by daviangelThe difference is very easy to tell if your LCD has a low color gamut and a bad refresh rate! There is a huge quality difference between different models of LCD. Look for one with 97-100% of the RGB color gamut, and 2ms refresh, and the highest contrast ratio.
There really is no good reason to use a CRT these days unless you have an eye for detail and can tell the difference or work in film or tv. Actually, I can tell the difference when I switch from my 20" LCD to my old 20" Sony triniton CRT(colors more vibrant,darker blacks,etc) but the benefits of reduced heat output, less deskspace used, lighter to move if necessary, and reduced power with the LCD really can't be beat. Not to mention LCD's are getting better everyday so LCD is a nobrainer if you plan on getting a new monitor.
My LG LCD is very crisp and it seems like my screen is printed on some nice paper. Especially the text with the nice LCD specific anti-aliasing. But the LCD I have in the other room is foggy crap. It has a low gamut, and a poor contrast ratio.
I love my LCD monitor. Just make sure you get a proper one. Get the best one within your budget, and not the cheapest one.
That's what I think too. I'm mainly looking for an LCD monitor that would work well for a computer that's going to be running at a low resolution.
The Catalyst drivers have options to handle scaling the output image on the GPU rather than the LCD hardware, which can help when (for example) running 4:3 games fullscreen on a widescreen monitor or to combat the ugly scaling some LCDs do.
For what it's worth, my cheap Dell LCD handles non-native resolutions very well.
For what it's worth, my cheap Dell LCD handles non-native resolutions very well.
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Quote: Original post by benryves
The Catalyst drivers have options to handle scaling the output image on the GPU rather than the LCD hardware, which can help when (for example) running 4:3 games fullscreen on a widescreen monitor or to combat the ugly scaling some LCDs do.
For what it's worth, my cheap Dell LCD handles non-native resolutions very well.
Yeah, most monitors look like crap at non-native resolutions so what you want to look at is the smaller LCD's probably in 15-17" range that run at 1024 x 768. My 20" LCD's native is 1280x1024 which is good enough for me at the moment.
p.s. You should go to a local best buy or circuit city and check out the wide selection of LCD's on display to get an idea of the range of quality and brightness,etc of the monitors. The reason I say this is that what you see read on paper(excellent technical specs,reviews,etc) just doesn't convey if you will be happy with your pick. I was originally going to go with a gaming LCD but when I actually compared in in store to other LCD's it's brightness and vivid colors were lacking so I ended up going with a brigher more vivid LCD. Not to mention my LCD can double as a tv it's the samsung syncmaster 910mp.
[size="2"]Don't talk about writing games, don't write design docs, don't spend your time on web boards. Sit in your house write 20 games when you complete them you will either want to do it the rest of your life or not * Andre Lamothe
Quote: Original post by daviangel
Yeah, most monitors look like crap at non-native resolutions so what you want to look at is the smaller LCD's probably in 15-17" range that run at 1024 x 768. My 20" LCD's native is 1280x1024 which is good enough for me at the moment.
I'll hunt around for some smaller monitors. It seems most stores over 19" as the smallest size these days.
Quote: The difference is very easy to tell if your LCD has a low color gamut and a bad refresh rate! There is a huge quality difference between different models of LCD. Look for one with 97-100% of the RGB color gamut, and 2ms refresh, and the highest contrast ratio.
No such monitor exists! The cheap TN-based panels will not produce proper colors and the best and most expensive PVA/MVA/IPS panels will not not reach those response times. Also TFTs are often advertised with having up to 10k to 1 contrast, which is bullshit.
Scaled TFT image quality is always bad, but can still be worse depending on the monitor. Your only options to avoid this are getting a 1024x768 panel (nearly impossible, though I have seen LCD-TVs that have it) or have the panel display 1:1 with black all around the picture (for this you need DVI).
Update: It occurs to me that 15" TFT monitors are still being manufactured, those have a native resolution of 1024x768. Note that 15" tft is almost as large as 17" CRT. Still you could get a larger monitor for the same price and use 1:1 scaling.
[Edited by - olep on September 14, 2008 10:40:49 PM]
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