[Capnbob]

I'm curious if the monitor in the link below is bad for gaming? I really don't know anything about monitor specs, so could someone please give me an idea on the quality of this monitor? I'm sure it's a good monitor, I'm just a little worried about the refresh rates of flat-screen monitors since I play online games a lot.

DELL E172FP 17-inch Flat Panel Color Monitor

Thanks for any help

 

[kiwiguy]

Refresh rates?
Thats only relevant to CRT monitors.

Response Time is whats important for gaming, and that one has a claimed 25 ms.

I have seen monitors with claimed 16 ms, so the Dell is pretty average. Having said that, its probably OK on most games, but if you can get 16 ms all the better.

 

[StillLearnin']

To be honest, even the general computing field ( not the manufacturers of course) doesn't recommend LCD monitors for gaming yet. They are getting better, but with the games being more demanding, the gap isn't actually closing very fast. You still can't beat a quality, total flat screen CRT (bulky as they are!) for visual quality when it comes to streaming video or gaming. The biggest advantage the LCD screens have, is in the workplace as far as eyestrain relief is concerned. Sitting in front of an LCD screen for hours is easier on the eyes. Even though the refresh rates may still go up to 75Hz @ 1024x768 on the LCD, it actually isn't going as fast as on a CRT monitor set the same. There is a slowdown in the resetting rate due to the difference in screen constructions. The monitor you listed is with several workstations at some places I've been and for that type of work, it looked pretty nice. I haven't had the opportunity to try one out for gaming, but I know of ones with better specs that didn't work that well so I would assume this one is no different. I have noticed a big difference in the appearence/loading/etc. of pages when using the Internet as the LCD monitors don't seem to respond as quickly nor as well in matching the visual quality in the same time frame as a CRT. I wish a person could get a lower priced LCD monitor such as this to replace these big, bulky 19" and 21" ones we have all over the place!! But we haven't found anything reasonable that can do the job, so.....................

 

[Capnbob]

Alright, thanks for the help : )

 

[StillLearnin']

What you say is somewhat true kiwiguy about the refresh rate. However, since the refresh rate is controlled by the video card, you will find that the high-end video cards are held back in the choices for refresh rates due to the low usage of a LCD monitor. If an LCD screen is blurry/faded/dull and you can't go any higher than 75Hz to try to stop it, the monitor is useless. We've seen a lot of LCD monitors that you couldn't get the symptoms out of them. In fact, most of them don't run well at any setting but 60Hz.That's harder on your eyes than a CRT. Since many of the quality cards go much higher than 75Hz in just everyday usage, it seems a waste to have a system like that with a monitor that can't handle the visual settings you want to run at. It's also been published that most LCD monitors that DO run games halfway decently have response times of no MORE than 17ms. A lot of it is up to the individual. Some people can look at one and say it's great while someone else standing there shakes their head and walks away. You need to ACTUALLY see a game and play it in the store before you buy. Of course they have some promotional crap running on them that makes the monitors look like a million bucks until you get it home and it doesn't look nearly as good!! But try to get a salesperson to let you game on one! Good luck! None of the demo computers have anything more intensive on them than the wallpaper (background) and an automated sales pitch that promos the system at it's best.

Here's a pretty informative read:

http://www.legge40.freeserve.co.uk/Monitor.htm