Any good LCD's for gaming?

[Sxotty]

Just curious if any LCD's are getting up to par for gaming. I am getting tired of cumbersome heavy CRT's but at the same time I want to be able to play well. Ah well such is life.

 

[Paul]

If you get one with a good refresh rate it should be fine.

 

[MuFu]

The latest Hitachis are pretty decent. Go and have a look at some in a store, that's what I did. Different people have different views as to what is an "acceptable" level of ghosting.

MuFu.

 

[Sxotty]

Yeah mufu you are right that would be the simpleist approach and I guess it is what i shall do (if stores here have them that is).

 

[Natoma]

Make sure you get a LCD that has a contrast ratio of 600:1 or better, has a response time of 25ms or better, and that the refresh rate for the native resolution is at least 75Hz.

Those should be the minimum three specs that you should adhere to in this day and age. After that, it's up to you.

 

[Pete]

I'm not sure how a 75Hz refresh rate is necessary, as you'd need a 15ms pixel response, currently the lowest on the market in certain 17" LCDs, to achieve 60fps/Hz.

The contrast ratio is also somewhat false, as it doesn't necessarily mean you get blacker blacks--on the contrary, it seems monitors with very high contrast ratios just have blindingly bright whites.

Sxotty, 17" monitors have the current fastest response times, ~16ms. Two are the Hitachi CLM174 and the NEC 1760 (IIRC). GamePC has a few LCD reviews you might want to check out, as well as (*shudder*) Tom's Hardware. Ars Technica has a HUGE LCD thread in their A/V forum--check out the last few pages, at least.

And make sure the ones you see in person are hooked up via DVI.

 

[nutball]

Mine rocks!

 

[MuFu]

Ditto! 8)

Agreed about DVI - it's a must.

MuFu.

 

[Sxotty]

Well dogonit, I was looking at this one

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcd_vx900.htm

But the response time is 25ms according to its specs, it only costs $618 with shipping though and that seems like a good deal for a 19" and it sounded better than many more expensive models I found, I think the msrp is like $1200 or some bs. I wanted to get something under $700, and I was hoping to get a 19" b/c I have a 21" monitor now and I wanted to lose only 1".

Thanks though guys.

Wow is the NEC you mentioned really good? I could buy 2 of them for the same price almost.

 

[Tagrineth]

The contrast ratio is also somewhat false, as it doesn't necessarily mean you get blacker blacks--on the contrary, it seems monitors with very high contrast ratios just have blindingly bright whites.

Brightness is black balance, contrast is white.

 

[Pete]

I thought white balance was more a camera term having to do with the reference white color, whereas monitor contrast merely meant the difference between "white" and "black." Most ppl think contrast means blacker blacks in addition to whiter whites, but in many LCD reviews I've read it seemed a very high contrast ratio simply meant brighter whites (backlights), not darker blacks (less light seepage).

I can see how brightness is black balance, but it may be slightly different on LCD's, which don't seem to be able to produce very dark ("true?") blacks because they can't effectively block all the backlighting. I'm not sure how contrast is white balance in that case (though I can see brightness being black balance), but I may just be confusing or misinterpreting terms. Perhaps a pointless ASCII illustration will help ... illustrate my ... point.

*cough*

Starting range: B-----[-----|-----]-----W
++Brightness:   B--------[--|--------]--W
--Brightness:   B---[-------|---]-------W

Starting range: B-----[-----|-----]-----W
CRT ++Contrast: B---[-------|-------]---W
CRT --Contrast: B-------[---|---]-------W

Starting range: B-----[-----|-----]-----W
LCD ++Contrast: B-------[---|---------]-W
LCD --Contrast: B----[------|----]------W

Edit: This is pretty neat--an interactive java tutorial on black- and white-balance.

 

[nutball]

I thought white balance was more a camera term having to do with the reference white color

Colour temperature?