Technical question about LCDs

[Rhezuss]

I start to gather information about LCD panels. I currently have and love a Viewsonic P95f+ (black). This year, i'll probably replace it with my first LCD panel. I've read lots of posts in different hardware forums and i'm a little confused.

I know that a 1280*1024 native res LCD has 1280 pixels x 1024 pixels, so if you take this panel, is it true that you can only play games with that resolution? What happens if you play a game with 1600*1200?

Same thing with widescreen LCD like the Dell 2005FPW?

My monitors have to be for gaming (85%) and good for AutoCAD/3DstudioVIZ (15%).

Normally I play games in 1280*960 (4:3 ratio) and with my config and the latest games, it's the higher I go before sacrificing too much FPS.

I'm a little confused and newb about LCDs for now. I know my P95f+ is one of the best gaming CRT (my 2 cents 😛) and I'm still pleased with it (I got it 3 or 4 years ago). I'll probably get my first LCD around september this year so I try to get as much info as I can before I choose my next monitor.

Thanks a lot for your comments.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Rhezuss
I start to gather information about LCD panels. I currently have and love a Viewsonic P95f+ (black). This year, i'll probably replace it with my first LCD panel. I've read lots of posts in different hardware forums and i'm a little confused.

I know that a 1280*1024 native res LCD has 1280 pixels x 1024 pixels, so if you take this panel, is it true that you can only play games with that resolution? What happens if you play a game with 1600*1200?

You can't run a resolution that is higher than the 'native' one; on a 1280x1024 panel, 1600x1200 is simply not an option. An application that tries to force it to that resolution will probably fail spectacularly.

You can run lower resolutions, and they will either be blown up and/or stretched to the 'native' resolution (eg, 640x480 would either become 1280x960 and have small bars on the top/bottom, or get stretched vertically into 1280x1024), or displayed "1:1" with black bars on some or all sides.

Same thing with widescreen LCD like the Dell 2005FPW?

Yeah. If you try to display a 4:3 resolution on a 16:10 display, it will either be stretched out or be 'pillarboxed' with black bars on the left/right.

 

[Rhezuss]

Ok, so...to play games on an LCD you have to backup yourself with hardware that can allow you to play ALL games at 1280*1024?

 

[JMWarren]

Not at all. If your hardware isn't capable of the native res you can run a lower res and the LCD will scale it to full screen.

 

[Rhezuss]

Originally posted by: JMWarren
Not at all. If your hardware isn't capable of the native res you can run a lower res and the LCD will scale it to full screen.

Ha ok, but with black bars on the sides tho.
Thanks guys for your comments.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Rhezuss
Ok, so...to play games on an LCD you have to backup yourself with hardware that can allow you to play ALL games at 1280*1024?

No...

You can run lower resolutions, and they will either be blown up and/or stretched to the 'native' resolution (eg, 640x480 would either become 1280x960 and have small bars on the top/bottom, or get stretched vertically into 1280x1024), or displayed "1:1" with black bars on some or all sides.

With a 1280x1024 monitor, since it is 5:4, to avoid having black bars or distortion you would probably have to run at 1280x1024, unless your game supports custom resolutions (such as 960x768). But you could run 1280x960, or 1024x768 (blown up to 1280x960), or 800x600 (blown up to 1280x960); you'd just have small black bars at the top and bottom of the display.

It will look best at the native resolution, or if you run in a 1:1 mode with no scaling (say, running 1280x960 directly, rather than a lower resolution and scaling it up to 1280x960). You can run lower resolutions 1:1, but you'll get increasingly large black bars on all sides of the actual content.

 

[gramboh]

I'm also an LCD newb as I prefer the clarity/multiple resolutions of CRTs.

Are there LCDs out there now that can scale/stretch without massive distortion? The only LCD's I've played with are my laptop LCD and a cheap Benq my sister is using and scaling looks absolutely awful on them. Not acceptable for gaming if you have spent a lot on a good system and are used to a good CRT.

 

[spikespiegal]

If your hardware isn't capable of the native res you can run a lower res and the LCD will scale it to full screen.

...and looks like crap. Which should bring me to my pet peeve with all these people buying large LCDs to replace their CRT TV's, and ultimatley get worse picture quality because of all the upscaling involved, unless they like watching the Discoery Channel High-Def all day.

CRTs do a much better job at lower resolutions than LCDs.

However, I'll take even a cheap LCD over a CRT when it comes to running native resolutions.

 

[Rhezuss]

Ok another question (n00b one too):

I see that 17" and 19" both have an optimum resolution of 1280*1024. This means that on the 19" the image will be bigger/larger?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Rhezuss
Ok another question (n00b one too):

I see that 17" and 19" both have an optimum resolution of 1280*1024. This means that on the 19" the image will be bigger/larger?

That's correct.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Rhezuss
Ok another question (n00b one too):

I see that 17" and 19" both have an optimum resolution of 1280*1024. This means that on the 19" the image will be bigger/larger?

Yes. Text and everything is bigger on 19" LCD's over 17" LCD's because they use the exact same resolution and same # of pixels. So the 19" uses bigger pixels.

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Windows doesn't look too hot at non-native resolutions, but some games can be tolerable at non-native resolutions (eg. running a 17" or 19" screen at 1024X768). The aspect ratio stretching (going from 5:4 1280X1024 to 4:3 1024X768 is barely noticeable). The jaggies are pretty annoying at 1024X768, but it's the same in that respect as a CRT.

 

[Rhezuss]

So the 19" uses bigger pixels.

If 19" use bigger pixels, do you lose some sharpness/image quality?