LCD or CRT vs. New Video Card

[Wariogiant]

For Christmas this year I can't decide on whether to get a new LCD or a CRT, the LCD would be the Samsung 150N-Black 15" TFT LCD Monitor Retail. I am mainly going to be playing games and I want an LCD that shows a brilliant picture and pretty decent refresh rates. I was mainly concentrated on upgrading my Radeon 8500 LE 64 mb, but my old Compaq MV520 monitor is just so ugly that I desperately want a new picture. But, on the other hand, I want a bigger size than my current 15 inch one and I want better refresh rates to. My maxium price allowance is up to 340 bucks just to inform you all. So the CRT I am considering getting is the Samsung 955DF-T/T 19" DynaFlat CRT Monitor Retail, which looks pretty good to me in picture and refresh rates; plus the price is better than the LCD. If you have any other good CRT monitors for around this price feel free to tell me.

Now I am also faced with the descision of upgrading my video card. I have been dead on set on upgrading my old battered Radeon 8500 LE 64 mb, since it was performing well until recent games started coming out like Halo. The video card I am looking at however, is the Ati Radeon 9700 Pro. Is the 9800 Pro really worth the extra bucks that I have to spend? I know the performance gain would probably be worth it, but I am also wary on the amount of money I would like to spend.

So the Ultimate descision is what should I get this Christmas, to have a Happy Christmas?

 

[Jdinh04]

you said the card you have right now works well right? well do you really need a better one?
i would stick with the card you have now and just wait til u have more money

for the crts and lcds, i'd get the 17 or 19'' u said flat screen , i would go with the CRT 17''-19" flat screen it'll be better if you want to pay less well have a happy christmas

 

[acemcmac]

samsung (19 inch) 955df's are to be had for 200$ shipped and they roxxor my boxxors... lcd's are a few years off being a worthy crt replacement for dual headers like me

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I have a HP Pavilion MX70 that I paid $80 for back in August at Best Buy (it was last years model so they prolly dont sell it anymore - the new model is MX703). Anyway, its a 17'' CRT with flat-screen, that does 1280x1024@60Hz (but I run it at 1024x768@85Hz). I couldn't be more pleased, especially for the price! See if you can find one of these. About the video card, a GeForce4 Ti4200 would be a nice replacement. I bought a Chaintech GeForce4 Ti4200 with 128MB DDR Ram (ChainTech GX-21) for $115 shipped off eBay brand new in box! So look around. You might be able to get both, and have a really great christmas!

 

[Ardan]

In my opinion, the price of the Radeon 9800 Pro does not justify buying it. The 9700 Pro or regular 9800 are the better choices. However the Ge-Force FX 5900 (regular 5900, not the Ultra) does extremely well in games, often times matchining or exceeding the 9800 cards (probably 5 fps or 10 lower than the 9800 Pro) and it can be had on Newegg for $208!

If you've budgeted $340 and primarily want a new monitor, get the NEC FP912SB 19" CRT...it is the BEST monitor around, and can be bought @ Dell's Store or Newegg for some pretty nice prices ($260-$285).

 

[Atlantean]

Get the 19" CRT, and I am not sure about how much better the 9800 pro is compared with the 9700 pro, but I have the 9800 pro and its really really pretty.

 

[ponyo]

Buy the monitor. For your budget, I would look into nice 19 inch CRT monitor. Your 8500le should be able to play pretty much any game out at 1024x768 at decent setting. Don't worry about Halo. That game ran crappy even on my 9800 Pro.

You can usually get some good deal on Nec/Mitsu or Viewsonic monitor at Dell site. I would go for the 19 inch Nec monitor.

 

[0roo0roo]

sounds like ur on a tight budget, lcd is decent if you can pay the premium for a 17-19+", but thats probably outa the question and even then the response time still isn't quite there. ur best off with a 19" flat crt, and well yes, your vid card needs upgrading use the entire amount left for one, preferably from ati unless u get a sweeet deal on a nvidia card.