Characteristics of a good LCD?

nuthinspecial

Junior Member
Feb 7, 2004
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I'm a gamer and my wife is a teacher and I'm headin out to buy a new LCD with the good old tax return. What should I look for in terms of specs and whatnot to play games?
 

Tab

Lifer
Sep 15, 2002
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High contrast ratio (600:1)
Brand Name (NEC, Hitachi, IIyama, Dell, Samsung ect)
Low Respone Time (ms < 25)

 

Alptraum

Golden Member
Sep 18, 2002
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Also do some searching on here to see people discuss ones they own and how happy/unhappy they are with them. That and reviews was a much larger factor when I purchased mine then specs. I am very happy with my 192t. Thats what I would get again in the around $700 price range. The next step up in my eyes is the 213t, but its quite abit pricier. In between the two is the Dell 2001fp. The Dell seems to be a mixed bag, and I for one would take either of the Samsung's over it probably. I am not very familiar with the sub $700 category, but there are tons of discussion on here about 17" LCDs. Good luck with your search. And if you get a good LCD I doubt you will ever want to look at CRTs again :)
 

KristopherKubicki

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2002
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Contrast ratio really doesnt mean anything: If the brightness is 150 nits its pretty silly for contrast ratio.

Brand name is pretty silly too. Samsung has put out some generally good monitors with one or two bad ones. Viewsonic puts out generally poor monitors with one or two good ones.

Response time is also a farce. There are too many different ways to measure it which makes it inconsistant to base your purchase on it.

In my opinion, if it matters any:

First look for an LCD that handles DVI. If it doesnt handle DVI, you dont want it. Next make sure it displays 16.7M colors correctly. A lot of 16ms LCDs are totally wrong in this aspect - they are 262K colors.

Next look at the aspect ratio. a 5:4 resolution in a 4:3 aspect ratio doesnt make sense :)

After that, everything else is kind of gravy. Go with an LCD that has a high brightness and good reviews.

Kristopher