Flat Panel Info

[jgep]

I have a few questions I was hoping I could get answered. Early last summer I bought a top of the line 17" Hitachi LCD monitor. I was very pleased with it except for a few things. It always had to be run at 1280x1024 resolution in order for the picture to look "good". This was especially a problem with games, so much so that I sold it (at a huge loss as the prices dropped sharply last summer) and went back to my CRT. The resolution is also so high that I need to be about 4 inches from the monitor to read any text.

So here are my questions: What resolution do most gamers run their 17" LCD monitors at, and are they satisifed with the quality of the picture at that resolution. I especially had a problem with Battlefield 1942, it didn't even have a setting for 1280x1024. That, and my video card is pretty good (GeForce 4 Ti 4200) but running any FPS games at higher than 800x600 gave me rediculous frame rates to try to play - (this is also assuming the rest of the pc is capable of handing higher resolutions for gaming). I sold my monitor because of the fact that the picture isn't very good running games at anything lower than 1280x1024.

Are there any plans in the future to make a 17" LCD monitor that runs at 1024x768 so I can at least read the text from a "normal" distance away from the screen. My laptop at work is rediculous for this also. I also can't justify buying a $400 video card to play games at a high resolution so that they will look good on an LCD when my $150 video card works great at 800x600 on a CRT (which is also cheaper, but takes up most of my desk space).

I was also hoping someone at Tomshardware could look at a Benq 15" LCD monitor and tell me what they think of it. The model number is FP591. It seems to be pretty good. It has a 16ms response time, runs at 1024x768, so hopefully I can read it, and maybe play some games on it. The user reviews on NewEgg.com don't seem too bad. The Benq is the only 15" with a 16ms that had a DVI input as well. There is also only 1 other model that has a response time lower than 25ms!

I wish more manufactuers would update their 15" model lines with better screens more suitable for gaming/multimedia like they did with the 17". In my opinion, the resolutions for 15" monitors are easier to read and more portable for lan parties.

Please respond with your thoughts.
Thanks

 

[p05esto]

I'm pretty sure most 19" monitors are at 1280x1024 and that should be pretty easy on the eyes. You can always bump up the OS screen font if that's a problem.

I thought the native resolution on 17" monitors was 1024x768??? Maybe I'm wrong in that but I can't imagine it would be the same as a 19" monitor?

Can you actually go down to a 15" screen? I'd save your money and buy a good 17" or 19" LCD later this summer when some really good ones come out.

<A HREF="http://www.proactivedesign.net/eric" target="_new">More than you want to know about me . . .</A>

 

[jgep]

17" monitors (any worth buying) all have native resolutions of 1280x1024. True 19" ones also run at this, and maybe that's where I need to go in the future, when a model is worthy of gaming. However, playing any games at this high of resolution is nearly impossible for me. This all leads me towards the 15" which is fast, and runs at a resolution that my computer can handle with games (1024x768). Which still leaves the question: What resolution do most people use to play games on their lcd, and are they satisfied with the image quality?

I forgot one thing in my original post. When I recieved my first LCD monitor, it stated nowhere on websites, postings, etc. that the power supply built into it had an average life span of about 5 years and then would need to be replaced (something about an aluminum depletion or something, I can't remember exactly). Where was that in the specs when I bought it! It was only in the manual after I recieved the monitor and read through it. I would never buy something with a power supply that needed to be replaced after 5 years! And how much would that cost, and I'm sure they wouldn't want me (the consumer) to install the new one. More robust power supplies last forever.

 

[Darfur]

Games are played at the native resolution (1280x1024 for a 17") on an LCD Panel. As I don't currently own one, I'm not sure how much Anti-aliasing would help non-native resolutions to look better.

Also there is a trick to run BF at 1280x1024, let me know if you're interested.