Who plays EQ on a flatscreen?

[Diaf]

Anyone? My 21 inch CRT went to monitor heaven today after 7 years of constant use. I feel lucky that it lasted that long. I would love to free up some space with a 19inch Flatscreen but I hear for gaming they still suck. I will prolly go with another CRT but if someone has a flatscreen they like let me know please.

[Tappin]

EQ plays fine on a flat screen. You would notice the difference on other (faster) games far more. Games with beautiful graphics or fast frame rates (FPS's) you would see the lower quality more.

Obviously the more money you spend, the better quality you'll get. Things to watch out for are low refresh rates (giving you low frames per second even when the computer/video card support far more on the game) and colors that are slightly off. On cheaper monitors you can also get 'streaking'. This is caused by a delay in the time it takes a pixel on the monitor to go from fully light to dark. If you spin fast on a game with light and dark areas, this can cause the light areas to streak, as they don't fade away quick enough.

Ask for a demo on a first person shooter with nice graphics on the monitor before you buy it. That's a good test for it.

[Kowaru]

Halo is a good game to test that on about the fps. there's lots of this blue light crap, that causes some slow down for me. even on FFXi there's this blue light in one of the dungeons, makes my comp just go so slow. while my other crappy comp has no prob cause it has a normal monitor.

however in some shooters there's this bug that even though from a distance with the fog of war thing, i can still see the other players way way wya way way way way out there and they cant see me. so its kind of a cheap way to shoot people hah.

[Malinaa]

Toms Hardware did a comparison of Flat Screens for gamers. They looked for the problems with artifacts and what not. If I remember correctly, it was about 500 to 700 for a good gaming flat screen. Definitely make sure its dvi input and that your video card has a dvi output.

[Dariys]

We just got a flat screen for Mennoly... Sony... and I'll get the model later if you want it - ran about 650ish, and it is beautiful. Refresh wise - I'd be willing to play faster games (i.e. counterstrike etc) on it. Slight size decrease - down to a 17" panel - but you usually get more screen for your " when you're talking lcd vs crt...

[Dephton]

the dell fp2100 is about the best rated line of affordable flat panels out right now. ghosting is nearly non existent, and it supports a reso higher than 1024x768 without any distortion.

the fp2100 is the 21"version i think, but the 19 and up all have the same specs just different screen sizes.

[Laferty]

Who is it making Dells model atm Dephton ? I know they have used some shitty ones in the past but for awhile when CRTs were getting unbelievable they ran Trinitron or whatever sonys , and they were awsome. Just wondering if it would be cheaper from dell or the base manufactuer.

[Dhamphiir]

One thing I remember fromt the Tom's Hardware flat screen review was that most of the lcd screens have a native resolution and have to reprocess the image to run in other resolutions which some brands did well and others not well at all. Look for high contrast ratios and refresh rates and multi resolution capability and you should be fine for EQ. For twitch game play you still want a CRT. Here's a couple of article links:


http://www4.tomshardware.com/display/20040413/index.html

http://www4.tomshardware.com/display/20040326/index.html

[Dephton]

No idea who makes the baseline Dell, it isn't ever mentioned int he reviews of the fp2100, even on the hardware review sites.

The dell has the capability to run at more than a single reso, and very few others can at the same price.

[Guldar]

My monitor keeps going off and on, and sure to die soon. So doing a bit of comparison on flat screens. I don’t really want to go with a 17” so 19”+

Price is an issue, like spending $600+ on a monitor hurts, but don’t want to get a piece of crap either. A voice in my head says to want another 6 months or so and see if prices drop, but that is a pointless cycle.


Eitherway, I really like Samsung and View Sonics, and these below are th eoptions I am considering, also looked up the dell Dep mentioned to compare.

The SAMSUNG SyncMaster 193P got great reviews, lowest 19" response time of 20, with 800:1 ratio, price is $700 + though.

ViewSonic VX900 19" LCD $530.00 Ebay - $650.00 retail
19”
1280 X1024
Ratio - 600:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2

SAMSUNG SyncMaster 193P $690.00 Ebay – $790.00 retail
19”
1280 X1024
Ratio - 800:1
Aspect Ratio – 4:3
Response Time (ms) – 20ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2


SAMSUNG SyncMaster 193S $580.00 Ebay – $600.00 retail
19”
1280 X1024
Ratio - 700:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2

Dell UltraSharp 1901FP $650.00?? Ebay – $630.00 retail
19”
1280 X1024
Ratio - 600:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2

DELL UltraSharp 2001FP $750.00 ebay - $700.00 retail (Eagle computer sale, normal $900.00)
20.1”
1600 X1200
Ratio - 400:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2

ViewSonic VX2000 $1000.00 retail
20.1”
1600 X1200
Ratio - 600:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2


SyncMaster 213T 21.3 $1200.00 retail
21.3”
1600 X1200
Ratio - 500:1
Aspect Ratio – ?
Response Time (ms) – 25ms
Brightness – 250cd /m2

[Dhamphiir]

The reasons lcd's flicker and don't do fps well....response time. 25ms response time = max refresh rate 40hz, and 20ms =50hz. Most analog monitors 72hz-115hz depending on resolution.

The reason lcd's hurt your eyes....contrast ratio. The higher the better.

And they still don't make em viewable from wide angles, like a big screen tv they have a narrow arc of focus so you have to have them at the right height and angle to you and no watching the guy playing across the room.

For cost/performance/eyestrain I'll still go for a CRT any day of the week. High quality 19" monitor for under 200 bucks vs 500-700 for an lcd. If I wanted a laptop display I would get a laptop. The only selling point is the smaller footprint or hanging them on the wall.

[Tsarina]

I play EQ exclusively on a laptop, and never had a problem with the refresh rates in the game. I've never noticed any sort of streaking anyway, and the only visible sorts of lag happen because of computer power.

I'm not sure I'd trust it for some of the faster paced games, but for EQ there should be no issues if you get a decent flat screen. I've actually become used to it now, and the game looks weird when I see it on a regular CRT screen. (So will probably take a few days adjustment time vice versa as well.)

[Dephton]

EQ rarely breaks 30fps, which is essentially the same as 30Hz refresh rate. FPS games go over 100 often, and the human eye can "recognize" about 72 fps max, which is why you want your monitors to generally operate at 80Hz minimum at your preferred viewing resolution. anything less and things will start to shimmer.

Refresh rate on an LCD is not the same as on a CRT, because LCDs don't redraw the entire screen like a CRT does, it only redraws what changes. The refresh rates that get listed are some pseudo value that rarely means much more than the value itself.

You also have to look at how the companies are measuring their response time. Some measure from pixel on the pixel off, which is not the whole story. pixel red to pixel green is more accurate, which is where i think the samsung shaves that 5ms from, unless it is their most recent product. I know a few months ago, the fastest true 26ms response monitor out was that dell. Samsung LCD's look very nice though, as do Viewsonic. NEC uses a viewsonic panel if I recall, so those should look the same as well.

Another thing to pay attention to is your warranty. Some mfr only offer a very limited pixel burnout warranty, requiring over 8 pixels to fry before replacing the screen. others will replace any defect. there is software out there that will help you burnout pixels if you need to, but when companies stand behind their product and dont force the consumer into that scenario, its generally a good thing.

bottom line though, is that if you plan on getting a remotely comparable LCD to a 19" CRT, you are gonna shell out $600 minimum, and there is still no guarantee you will always be happy with it.

Personally, I bought a bigger desk and I run with a Viewsonic 19" P95 f+b that rocks the house. It's one of the only Aperature grille CRT's left on the market and ran a good $150 less than the similar sony. It runs 1920x1440 @ 75Hz (which I wouldn't ever get to) and a max reso of 2048x1536 @ 68Hz which is simply crazy. I run mine at 1280x1024 @ 80 Hz I think, which is about perfect screen real estate/clarity imo for a 19" monitor.

You can find this thing for just over $200 sometimes, $250 regularly, with free shipping at most places. I think I got mine from CDW over a year ago. Viewsonic also has one of the best warranty systems on the market.

[Diaf]

I bought a Sony sdm hs93 19 inch flat screen, I have been playing unreal solo missions on it, so far its not to bad some light streaking but nothing I cant live with.

[Umgrog]

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=4190936913

That thread has some really good information on current LCDs, with posts from people who actually bought one and use it daily. There are over 150 pages of posts. The thread started in 2001, so you will have to flip pretty far into it for the most recent posts.

[Gromikon]

All this techno-babble is quite a good read. Here's some real life experience though:

EQ on a regular VGA flat panel: Not so good.
EQ on a DVI-In Flat Panel on a decent vid card with DVI-Out: Looks better then my CRT to me.

-G