I've had an LCD for about a year and a half or so. And I'm getting tired of it, my patience is wearing thin with a few issues with these monitors:
- inability to handle multiple resolutiions nicely
- 5:4 aspect ratio, instead of usual 4:3
Now, those might sound like small problems, and for routine computer use they aren't problems at all really. Windows is smart enough to work with just about any setting. But with games it's another story.
Many games at 1280x1024 have unreadable text. Very small. I wanted a largish monitor because I have low vision, and these games don't fix the problem- even though with Windows I can just incrcease the font sizes. There's no way to increase the text or GUI size in most games, and some aren't smart enough to scale with the resolution. Lowering resolution was what I used to do with games when the text got too small. I can't do that now days, not without the text and graphics in the game looking blocky or blurry (mostly blocky).
Now, LCD monitors aren't a small investment. I payed 500 dollars for mine. And the problems with the monitor didn't crop up until after I bought it. I feel the hardware sites aren't doing enough to warn people about LCD downsides. The worst part is most stores aren't carrying many CRT's any longer, becaues every idiot thinks LCD's are so much better (aside from the weight, maybe some desk space, and lack of static... um, no, they aren't).
- inability to handle multiple resolutiions nicely
- 5:4 aspect ratio, instead of usual 4:3
Now, those might sound like small problems, and for routine computer use they aren't problems at all really. Windows is smart enough to work with just about any setting. But with games it's another story.
Many games at 1280x1024 have unreadable text. Very small. I wanted a largish monitor because I have low vision, and these games don't fix the problem- even though with Windows I can just incrcease the font sizes. There's no way to increase the text or GUI size in most games, and some aren't smart enough to scale with the resolution. Lowering resolution was what I used to do with games when the text got too small. I can't do that now days, not without the text and graphics in the game looking blocky or blurry (mostly blocky).
Now, LCD monitors aren't a small investment. I payed 500 dollars for mine. And the problems with the monitor didn't crop up until after I bought it. I feel the hardware sites aren't doing enough to warn people about LCD downsides. The worst part is most stores aren't carrying many CRT's any longer, becaues every idiot thinks LCD's are so much better (aside from the weight, maybe some desk space, and lack of static... um, no, they aren't).