Dumb question about LCD monitor resolution

[49erinnc]

Anniversary is coming up and I have hinted to the wife that I would like a 17" LCD (eyeballing the Samsung 710N Black.) My video card is a 9600Pro, so obviously, I'm rarely able to run the newer games (Far Cry/Doom3) higher than 1024x768 with acceptable performance. From what I've read about LCD's, it seems as though you're forced to use a specific resolution (1280x1024 with the mentioned LCD). My question is, if I'm gaming, will I still be able to adjust the game settings and play at at 10x7 or 8x6 or would I have to play at 12x10?

I honestly don't foresee me upgrading my video card until maybe Christmas and even then, it would likely only be a jump up to a 9800 Pro. I spend about half my time gaming and the rest is internet, email and my wife does some Excel/Word stuff. From what I've read, the 710N does a good job with gaming, even though LCD aren't notorious as great gaming monitors. I just don't want to see her drop that much money on this LCD if my 9600 Pro won't work well with it. Would that be the case?

If I don't go with this LCD, I'm looking at the NEC FE991SB 19" CRT or the ViewSonic P95F+ 19" CRT. I know both would be better for gaming than the LCD but desk space is a big problem for me so I love the small size of the LCD but at the same time, the cost is significantly higher than both the CRT's.

Thanks in advance

 

[cmv]

There is native resolution, the resolution the LCD is built for (pixel for pixel corresponding), and non-native resolution. For non-native resolution, the LCD scales the image to fit. All the LCDs I've seen do this do a poor job when reading text at non-native but otherwise okay. I mean, if I had the money, I'd get a video card that could play games at native but if I didn't, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You should be able to find a computer in a retail store with an LCD attached that you can switch resolutions on to see if it is acceptable.

 

[lament]

i posted this in another thread, but I'll copy and paste it here:

Something to remember for LCDs and gaming: the lower the response time, the better. 16ms or lower.

anything higher, and you'll have ghosting. and the problem with most LCDs bigger than 17" is their weak 25ms response time (like my awesome Samsung 191T that's great for everything but gaming).

I just got a Hyundai L70S 17" LCD with a 16ms response time to replace my aging CRT, and there is NO ghosting. It was only $279.99 at Fry's (or Outpost.com). AT deal discussion on this monitor here

You'll always get better color with a CRT, btw. But with some color adjusting, you can get it pretty close to your CRT.

 

[49erinnc]

Originally posted by: cmv
There is native resolution, the resolution the LCD is built for (pixel for pixel corresponding), and non-native resolution. For non-native resolution, the LCD scales the image to fit. All the LCDs I've seen do this do a poor job when reading text at non-native but otherwise okay. I mean, if I had the money, I'd get a video card that could play games at native but if I didn't, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You should be able to find a computer in a retail store with an LCD attached that you can switch resolutions on to see if it is acceptable.

Well, it seems like only gaming would be the issue then since performance is affected so much by resolution. I'm guessing that for internet, MS Office, email, etc. that my 9600Pro would be fine at the (higher) native resolution of a LCD. But how bad can I expect the picture to look on that Samsung 710N if I play a game on it at 1024x768 or 800x600 with my 9600P?

And Lament, the response time of the 710N is only 12ms, one of the lowest you'll find for a 17" LCD which is why I'm eyeballing it. But as mentioned in my first post, my issue is just whether or not the graphics would look good if I'm playing a game at a lower resolution than the native resolution since my video card tends to favor 10x7 and not 12x10?

 

[Garfield3d]

Originally posted by: 49erinnc

Originally posted by: cmv
There is native resolution, the resolution the LCD is built for (pixel for pixel corresponding), and non-native resolution. For non-native resolution, the LCD scales the image to fit. All the LCDs I've seen do this do a poor job when reading text at non-native but otherwise okay. I mean, if I had the money, I'd get a video card that could play games at native but if I didn't, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You should be able to find a computer in a retail store with an LCD attached that you can switch resolutions on to see if it is acceptable.

Well, it seems like only gaming would be the issue then since performance is affected so much by resolution. I'm guessing that for internet, MS Office, email, etc. that my 9600Pro would be fine at the (higher) native resolution of a LCD. But how bad can I expect the picture to look on that Samsung 710N if I play a game on it at 1024x768 or 800x600 with my 9600P?

And Lament, the response time of the 710N is only 12ms, one of the lowest you'll find for a 17" LCD which is why I'm eyeballing it. But as mentioned in my first post, my issue is just whether or not the graphics would look good if I'm playing a game at a lower resolution than the native resolution since my video card tends to favor 10x7 and not 12x10?

Hi 49Erinnc,

I just recently recieved a Samsung 710N and it seems like a fine LCD to me. About blurriness and resolutions... it's kinda weird. When you change the resolution, your eyes will probably be able to notice something that isn't quite right. The text won't be illegible, and you'll still be able to type of miniscule size 4 font notecards and tell what you're writing. However, things will kinda lose a "crisp" to their "sharpness." You might not notice it at first, but you can tell that things outside of the native resolution do not look as sharp as they're supposed to be.

The ghosting seems fine to me. You can see a faint trail on your mouse if you run it across solitaire or opposite colors, but I couldn't notice it until I looked closely to satisfy my curiosity. I don't know if it qualifies as "12 ms," but I doubt anyone suffers motion sickness or has to fight off dizziness with these monitors.

I'm a fairly casual user, in terms of LCD panels. This is the first LCD that I've personally owned. Perhaps some people will warn you of the analog vs. DVI, color tracking, and a bunch of other intracicies, but those things are alien to me. The 710N seems fine to me and I think, that although you'll notice some blurriness outside of the native resolution, you'll be able to live with it.

--Garfield3d