response time and contrast ratio in TFT monitors

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blade85

blade85

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Sep 19, 2006
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Well......what is it???

Most TFT screens say 8ms, some lower some higher. Would that affect game play? faster = better??

is 8ms bad for gaming, or not too bad, or good, or perfectly fine??

And what about the contrast ratio. Generally i see stuff like 700:1
Is that any good?


and finally, what make and model would you recommend for a 19" screen?
 
The contrast ratio has nothing to do with number of pixels, its to do with the brightness of the display. From Wikipedia:

"The contrast ratio is a metric of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest and the darkest color the system is capable of producing"

Basically that means that a high contrast ratio will show darker darks and brighter brights.

While it's generally considered that the higher the better, it also depends on the quality of the monitor. A crap monitor that has, say an 800:1 contrast ratio should be worse than a good name-brand with a lower contrast ratio.

Also, response times are not always clear cut. Apparently some (dubious) manufacturers measure the time it takes to go grey-to-grey, when in fact the real test is black-to-black. Testing grey-to-grey gives quicker times so they seem better.


MrMaestro
 
okay cool


the isuue is that my current crt monitor is pretty shite..and going over 1024x768 cause this fuzziness to appear through out on all icons and on the desktop in general. However, games run just fine :? :? :?

So i dunno why...i tried playing around with the refresh rates from 60-85, but at 75 it seems most acceptable but its still fuzzy...any higher or lower and the screen feels distorted in some way. I'll try to get screenshots when i get back home.

might just go for a new crt monitor as space is no problem.
 
Sounds like you're currrent moitor is just about wore out. If you are looking at getiing the best color representations and hightest resolutions and have the room for it, a nice 21" CRT is unbelievable. Resolutions of 1800x1440 are common at this size of CRT. The only downside is they are bulky, heavy, and use more power.

For home I use a pair of Samsung Lcd. When I first installed them, I had my CRT still set up so I could compare. With them all on, you could see the collors on the LCds were not quite as rich and the blacks were a little grayer. But once I unhooked the crt and only have the LCds on, I don't even notice. I don't see any ghosing in gameing and don't notice the color or contrast differences in movies.

This, of course, is my opinion and others my see things that I don't.
 
Most CRTs max out at 1280x1024. Now it may be your video card that is hindering your picture qualtiy. The higher the resolution the more work the card has to do to produce that image. What card do you have? Is this only a problem in games or does it also happen on the desktop? Are we talking a single monitor on the card or are you running 2? More monitors means more stress on the video card.
Click to expand...

im using a x1950 pro (512 mb) and its just one monitor. at 1024x768 its great...no isuues no nothing. lower res that that also has no issues...but higher becomes fuzzy. The fuzziness is only on the desktop...never in game.
 
8ms and 700:1 is fine, although the response time is a bit vague in its testing. Still, my LCD panel is 16ms and I don't notice ghosting. Maybe a little if I was moving something white quickly back and forth across a black screen, but for all intents and purposes, you won't notice it. Especially at 8ms.

The biggest drawbacks of LCDs are the response time and poorer dark grey/black. Neither of those are a big deal though, new LCDs have minimized that a lot. Overall I'd say LCDs are much better than CRTs for general viewing comfort. A very good quality CRT running at 85Hz is okay though I'd still prefer my LCD panel, not even considering the whole desk space and weight issue.
 
Odd. Well it may or may not be a problem with the monitor. If it's an older monitor then that may be the problem. If not then there is a chance the card may be at fault.
Click to expand...

thing is i had the same issue with my 7800gs. And the make of the is unknown to me..infact it has no name in the front...and i forgot what the code is to find the thing online. However...i wouldnt call it old...its about....hmm...2-3 years old maybe. was a replacement for my previous monitor which died on me. Mind you the replacement was done by pc world...and they are cheapskates...so i wouldnt be suprised if it was the monitor. Gonna get another monitor from my aunts place and see if that works out.

Thanks for the help any way :)

just realised i crossed 500 posts....yaay me 😳 :roll: :lol: :lol:
 
im using a x1950 pro (512 mb) and its just one monitor. at 1024x768 its great...no isuues no nothing. lower res that that also has no issues...but higher becomes fuzzy. The fuzziness is only on the desktop...never in game.
Click to expand...

Your video card drivers could have become corrupted. Try the following:

1. Uninstall current drivers.
2. Reboot.
3. Re-install drivers.
4. reboot.
 
I'm using an old CRT, about 7 years old i think. I have to keep it to 1024 x 768, because although it will go to 1280 x 1024, it goes fuzzy to the max. I believe that its just someting that happens as CRTs age. I've also noticed that the screen is darker than it used to be. Was a little annoying but I'm used to it. And yeah same thing, it happens as it ages. A friend of mine had a monitor for about 6-7 years and his went really dark, brightness, contrast and gamma settings didn't do anything significant. Really hard to play games on that.

I'll invest in a new LCD sometime.


MrMaestro
 
I saw a CRT once that was about 10 years old and even on max contrast and brightness, it was still too dark to see. Whats really annoying is when older CRTs go all green/purple/blue etc randomly. I used to have to bash my old one (or the table) to make it go normal again.
 
A new thing LCD manufacturers have released is DFC (digital fine contrast)(this is LG's name for it). It adjusts the brightness for optimum contrast. Most of the time it is unnoticable and is very helpful, sometimes it isn't. This is how monitors jumped from 1000:1 to 3000:1 instantly.

I would also suggest 8ms or less. I have 2 LCDs with 8ms and 1 with 2ms. I can't tell the difference in games, they are both equally good.

A good 19 inch LCD (if that is what you are after) that includes all of the above options is the LG L1933TR-SF.
 
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