Looking to upgrade my Gaming CRT

[ItsFlybye]

Yes you read right. lol. I have a Sony GDM-FW900 I game at 2304x1440@80hz.

Has anything caught up to it in terms of refresh/input speed and true blacks?

I havent tested an LCD in over 5+ years for gaming. Last time I did it had a considerable amount of lag. You could actually tell the difference between the time you move your mouse and the time it takes your crosshairs to move. From what I understand this was due to the lag in LCD pixels switching AND input lag of an LCD. I obviously didnt have that trouble with the FW900 which is why I went back to it and also the color rendition on it. This is only my gaming rig.

Ive read OLEDs will finally give all the color advantages and speed of a CRT, but I havent seen any gaming OLEDs.

 

[repoman0]

What's your budget? IMO LCDs have surpassed CRTs for gaming. 80 Hz is slow now Just depends what you want to spend.

I use and can highly recommend the LG 32GK850G.

 

[Campy]

I used to game at 120Hz on a CRT, and I remember how terrible it felt when I out of curiosity tried playing multiplayer FPS games on my (then) new 60Hz fullHD LCD. There was a huge delay between mouse movement and movement on screen like you described.
Today I game on a 240Hz gaming LCD and input lag is definitely much much lower on the new gaming monitors than on old 60Hz monitors not made for gaming. The input lag is possibly still higher than on CRT, but low enough that it doesn't really matter. I no longer have my CRT to compare the two, but I doubt the CRT would feel better. I recommend you to try a good 144Hz or 240Hz gaming monitor, they're great.

 

[mnewsham]

OLEDs are still outside of consumer price points.

The only one on the radar as far as I am aware is a 21" Asus OLED (PQ22UC) meant for professional color work. Launch date and price are still unknown, wouldn't be shocked by $1500-2500 though. Maybe even more.

high refresh rate OLEDs probably wont hit gaming panels for another 3-5 years. Maybe 18 months if you're willing to drop a few thousand.

 

[ItsFlybye]

What's your budget? IMO LCDs have surpassed CRTs for gaming. 80 Hz is slow now Just depends what you want to spend.

I use and can highly recommend the LG 32GK850G.

It is, but considering I have a response time the speed of light and no input lag, 80Hz isnt all that bad. I'll check out the LG 32GK850G. Thx!

 

[ItsFlybye]

I used to game at 120Hz on a CRT, and I remember how terrible it felt when I out of curiosity tried playing multiplayer FPS games on my (then) new 60Hz fullHD LCD. There was a huge delay between mouse movement and movement on screen like you described.
Today I game on a 240Hz gaming LCD and input lag is definitely much much lower on the new gaming monitors than on old 60Hz monitors not made for gaming. The input lag is possibly still higher than on CRT, but low enough that it doesn't really matter. I no longer have my CRT to compare the two, but I doubt the CRT would feel better. I recommend you to try a good 144Hz or 240Hz gaming monitor, they're great.

Thx! Glad to see someone else experienced the same thing I did years ago. Do you play FPSs on the 240Hz? It would drive me nuts feeling any type of lag between the mouse and the crosshairs.

 

[ItsFlybye]

OLEDs are still outside of consumer price points.

The only one on the radar as far as I am aware is a 21" Asus OLED (PQ22UC) meant for professional color work. Launch date and price are still unknown, wouldn't be shocked by $1500-2500 though. Maybe even more.

high refresh rate OLEDs probably wont hit gaming panels for another 3-5 years. Maybe 18 months if you're willing to drop a few thousand.

So my CRT has 2 inputs. BNC and VGA. One of the BNC connectors already loosened up its connection inside the CRT and lost that color input. I switched over to VGA, and all is well...for now. I havent bothered taking it to a shop to take apart and see what happened to that one connector.

I have no sentimental value over the CRT, but I'll be damned if I get a monitor without at least the same capabilities as what this 100lb monster has. Id like to spend maybe $800-$1000 IF I had to replace it, which I dont at the moment.

So could I wait 3-5 years for a high refresh rate OLED? I sure can as long as this CRT keeps on working. Another factor is my video card. 980Ti is the last of the GPUs that supported analog out. I have an i7 3770k overclocked to 4.6ghz watercooled that maxes out the 980Ti. Im sure I wont bottleneck 2 x 980Ti. So yeah. Even if the CRT keeps working, there is going to come to a point where I cant even buy a video card for it. Digital to analog adapters exist, but no one seems to make a converter yet that can do a higher than 60hz for a high res like 2304x1440.

 

[Campy]

Thx! Glad to see someone else experienced the same thing I did years ago. Do you play FPSs on the 240Hz? It would drive me nuts feeling any type of lag between the mouse and the crosshairs.

Yes, mainly CSGO. I couldn't tell you how big the difference is between your CRT and a high refresh rate LCD, or whether there is any noticable difference at all. All I can say is that modern gaming monitors are leagues above any old 60Hz LCD you have tried years in the past. Everyone I know or know of who plays FPS competitively uses LCD displays today, including pro players. It's not like you're going to feel like a good gaming LCD is handicapping you.

 

[ItsFlybye]

Yes, mainly CSGO. I couldn't tell you how big the difference is between your CRT and a high refresh rate LCD, or whether there is any noticable difference at all. All I can say is that modern gaming monitors are leagues above any old 60Hz LCD you have tried years in the past. Everyone I know or know of who plays FPS competitively uses LCD displays today, including pro players. It's not like you're going to feel like a good gaming LCD is handicapping you.

TY! That is awesome to hear. I'm picky about control since I used to be in a UT2k4 clan that competively played against other teams on different ladders.

 

[SKORPI0]

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I reckon you already know this site?
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

 

[ItsFlybye]

I reckon you already know this site?
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

Nope, but thank you.

Ive read several articles the past few weeks and it just feels that waiting for an OLED gaming monitor will be the way to go having the fastest response rates, the deepest blacks and the highest contrast ratios.

 

[mnewsham]

it just feels that waiting for an OLED gaming monitor will be the way to go having the fastest response rates, the deepest blacks and the highest contrast ratios.

You'd probably be satisfied with a high quality high refresh rate VA panel, but even those will set you back $700-1000 currently (LG 32GK850G). Good VA panels have close to 3000:1 static contrast ratio. Decently fast response time, and good black levels.

The OLED panel you want will exist soon (within 1-2 years likely), but I don't see it hitting your price range for several years beyond that, unless some major breakthrough happens soon in OLED production.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Nope, but thank you.

Ive read several articles the past few weeks and it just feels that waiting for an OLED gaming monitor will be the way to go having the fastest response rates, the deepest blacks and the highest contrast ratios.

Maybe, but oculus rift uses OLED and they don't go all the way down to black to keep the pixels "awake", or something. You can change a value in the registry to change it but there are slight artifacts since the "off" pixels need a bit more time to go to their next desired state. So OLED is not a guaranty for perfect contrast. But it does allow for crt-like motion clarity and low latency. Unless they build in some lag to boost the contrast

Currently the best contrast available is with VA panels, some of them have a backlight strobing mode to combat motion blur but since pixel response times are on the slow side it's not perfect.

Input lag on high end gaming oriented screens is quite low. 5 years ago some high refresh screens had a frame or 2 of processing time but luckily that's no longer the case now that all the high end stuff is redesigned for gsync/freesync. Make sure to check on tftcentral though.

 

[ItsFlybye]

.....The OLED panel you want will exist soon (within 1-2 years likely), but I don't see it hitting your price range for several years beyond that, unless some major breakthrough happens soon in OLED production.

That is fine so as long as the FW900 still works, and I can always upgrade to the last great analog out card being the Titan X or 2 of them.

But thanks to you guys and a bit of reading I now know OLED is what will most likely make me happy and good to know its on the horizon. I really dont want to buy an LCD just to upgrade myself to an OLED in a few years.

 

[AMD64Blondie]

Just on a side note...this thread makes me miss my old HP A7217A CRT(re-badged Sony FW900).

The day it died back in May 2013(I'd had it for 6 years)..even though it's only a lump of metal and plastic..I cried.

Still miss it to this day(even with my new 32-inch Samsung S32D850T being way bigger,and higher-resolution now at 2560x1440).

 

[ItsFlybye]

That is interesting because my HP also died in 2012/2013. That is when I got the Sony.