LCDs, CRTs and refresh rates

[beatle]

Ok, as some people know, the refresh rate of an LCD doesn't affect eyestrain. ie: you don't need a high refresh rate to have a flicker-free picture, but what about smoothness? How is it for games? I definitely notice a difference in games if I play @ 120Hz vs. 60Hz. Ghosting aside, playing a game (especially an FPS) with a higher refresh rate seems much smoother and more accurate to me. Any opinions on this? I don't play too many games, but when I do play I prefer the smoothest play.

FWIW, I'm trying to decide if I'd be happy with the Dell 2001FP (when it goes back on sale again).

 

[fredtam]

Response time is what to be concerned with and not refresh rate. I have a 191t and its fine for games at 25ms so you should definately be alright with the 2001FP at 16ms. You may still notice some ghosting because 16ms is the black-> white response time and the response time to go from othere colors ie. gray to gray can be significantly higher.

 

[BZeto]

Like you mentioned, you cant see flicker on an LCD, and refresh rate doesn't really have anything to do with it since the technology is different than a CRT monitor.

I keep my LCD at 60Hz. I heard somewhere that it is good for the monitor to keep it at 60Hz, I dont know if thats true or not... But since I dont notice any difference in changing the refresh rate on my LCD I just keep it there.

 

[beatle]

Right, I know about ghosting and response time, but my question is this (I guess I wasn't very clear):

When moving a window across the screen, the window moves smoother when I have the refresh rate higher. With it set low, it has fewer frames per second. Are LCDs special in this respect or is refresh rate the real factor here? ie: with a refresh rate of 60fps, even on an LCD, you're limited to having 60 frames drawn per second.

 

[Wiktor]

You got that right: at 60Hz refresh rate you will get no more than 60 fps.
However, that's a constant 60 fps, 60 fps may seem low but only for avarage - which means that sometimes you may go as low as 30 fps or so. That's why avarage 60 fps is not all that great, but if it's just a limit of 60 fps, you will not see a difference, given a fast pc.
So it's not something to be concerned about, contrast and ghosting on the other hand is

 

[beatle]

Well, I notice a difference over 60fps on my CRT. If I limit my fps (either by refresh or otherwise) to 60fps on a game like Quake3 where I can run at over 100fps constantly, gameplay seems somewhat sluggish by comparison. How is Dell's return policy?

 

[thomsbrain]

i notice the difference when i crank up the refresh on my LCD as well. it makes sense: 60 Hz is 16.7 ms per refresh. if your LCD is quick, you're actually improving the image response time. mine only claims around 25 ms but i still notice the difference when i crank up the refresh. probably has to do with always having a refresh for the LCD to "work" on.

 

[zephyrprime]

Your perceptions may be real. Even though an lcd can't draw "full" frames at a very high refresh rate, it should maybe still be able to draw partial frames. These frames never come close to their desired ultimate luminousity values but that's not the point. The blurry partial frames would have an effect similiar to the "motion blur" effect used in video games and movies.