flat screen or computer monitor?

[abes24]

i just recently purchased a new gaming rig, that someone built for me, and ive been gaming on my 50" plasma flat screen, should i stick with that or go with a monitor? whats better for gaming?

 

[Blain]

ive been gaming on my 50" plasma flat screen, should i stick with that or go with a monitor?
whats better for gaming?

* It's up to you and the type of gaming you're doing.
* A monitor

 

[piasabird]

You might want to use a screen saver with a plasma screen.

Seems like some games if you spread it out too much you cant really keep track of it all or it might cause eye strain. Most people might like something like a 24" widescreen. There is no wrong answer. It is whatever makes you happy.

 

[abes24]

well thank you! so its my preference, so neither one provides better graphics or better resolution than the other?

 

[wuliheron]

Its a comparing apples and oranges. In general larger TVs are better for some types of games like flying or racing, while smaller monitors are better for first person shooters and other games. Without knowing what kind of games you want to play or whether you want something like a super high resolution monitor or eyefinity or whatever its impossible to make comparisons.

 

[abes24]

ok gotcha! i mostly play first person shooters is there much of a big difference? and if im right dont computer monitors put out higher resolution than flat screens?

 

[mfenn]

ok gotcha! i mostly play first person shooters is there much of a big difference? and if im right dont computer monitors put out higher resolution than flat screens?

Not necessarily. Your plasma could be:
720x480
1280x720
1920x1080

A monitor could be:
1440x900
1600x900
1680x1050
1920x1080
1920x1200
2560x1440
2560x1600

and so on. It really depends on what particular TV and monitor you're looking at.

 

[wuliheron]

ok gotcha! i mostly play first person shooters is there much of a big difference? and if im right dont computer monitors put out higher resolution than flat screens?

Yeah, for first person shooters the ideal is a 120hz LED backlight monitor somewhere between 24 and 27". That's big, but not so big it cripples your computer with outrageous resolution and small enough you can see all the action at a glance without your eyes roaming all over the place. The extra frames per second allow for smoother motion and the ability to respond faster. LED backlighting has a slightly better picture, uses 1/3 less electricity, and can last almost twice as long.

I've got a 27" 1ms 60hz Samsung myself. Samsung has special low latency internal circuitry and with the 1ms response time its a very acceptable compromise. Its not LED backlighting either, but I got it dirt cheap on Black Friday, the big sale day after thanksgiving.

 

[abes24]

hmmm well maybe thats what im looking for in a way, my plasma is 1920X1080 and i really dunno if im satisfied or not and besides that its a 50" inch. so if i downsized to an led monitor and say ran at 2560x1600 would there be a noticable difference?

 

[Blain]

if i downsized to an led monitor and say ran at 2560x1600 would there be a noticable difference?

There would be a HUGE difference in your bank account.

 

[wuliheron]

hmmm well maybe thats what im looking for in a way, my plasma is 1920X1080 and i really dunno if im satisfied or not and besides that its a 50" inch. so if i downsized to an led monitor and say ran at 2560x1600 would there be a noticable difference?

Its the distance you sit from the monitor or TV and their size that makes the difference but, yeah, 2560x1600 @ 30" is such a high resolution that you could almost press your face against the monitor and not see pixelation.

 

[piasabird]

I purchased my first lcd monitor about 2 years ago. It was a Dell 18.5" widescreen. It was cheap ($99.99) so I added a sound bar and when it got to me I looked at it and it looked awfully small. However, when I hooked it up and got it going it seemed pretty nice even though it was VGA only. Even though it is kind of small, it has excellent picture quality compared to my Samsung 40" LCD widescreen. Sometimes the TV looks almost white in the background compared to the same image when I am watching HD Video streaming.

 

[mfenn]

hmmm well maybe thats what im looking for in a way, my plasma is 1920X1080 and i really dunno if im satisfied or not and besides that its a 50" inch. so if i downsized to an led monitor and say ran at 2560x1600 would there be a noticable difference?

That'll run you about $1200 or so for such a monitor. Depending on your current GPU config, you might need an upgrade or have to go SLI/CFX to drive that resolution at an acceptable framerate. Remember, 2560x1600 is almost twice as many pixels as 1920x1080.