Which LCD Do I Buy?

Don't know what the price will be in the USA but here in the UK I've just purchased a Viewsonic VP201s and it's a stunning display with fantastic color reproduction and fast (15ms I believe) response time that is great for playing Doom III on. If you can you really should check it out. Great display, great build quality, 1600 x 1200 display that pivots between landscape and portrait mode and 4 USB ports. Truly a fantastic monitor.

the VP201s seems to be a pretty solid monitor. Excellent price-point (around $700 US most sites I've checked). Pretty good reviews (though a few complaints about using the analog input and trying to autosync... but I'll just use DVI). Most people seem to say UT 2k4 works really well, so I imagine most other games would as well.

Excellent suggestion, it's now on my "consider" list!

I personally don't know much about lcd monitors, as I don't have one (my 21 inch sony monitor works really well for everything i do, and it was cheaper than 18 inch lcd monitors at the time i got it), so i can't help you with brands to buy/not buy.

However, when you do decide on a few models you like, check out pricewatch (pricewatch.com) to compare prices and get the best deal. You can also look at the monitors they have within your price range to have a better idea of what models are available that are within your pric range.

Stay away from HP monitors.

and Hercules also. Hercules are major doggie doo.

I learned a while ago to stay away from anything HP/Compaq. It's unfortunate too because I remember the days when HP had excellent products and service.

Get this one:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=24-009-022&DEPA=1
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$305, and sometimes, it goes on sale for $299, which is what I paid.. I was a staunch CRT user myself up until about a month ago, when I purchased 2 of these... I loved them so much, I purchased 2 more of them.. The space and power savings is AMAZING!

I have to say, these are the best LCD monitors i've seen. The specs on it rival the $500-800 models in other brands. 16ms response time as well.. I'm a big gamer too, and this monitor is a DREAM for gaming. Auto-Adjust for games is a great feature. No ghosting, crisp images, and incredibly well defined graphics.

Like I said, I purchased 2, loved them purchased 2 more. I'm extremely picky about my hardware, so that has to tell you something. No need to spend $800 on a superb LCD.

Viewsonic vp201 series here. i like it so much i am actually considering getting a second one for dual display. great for gaming and tv/movies. definitely stick with 16ms response time or less.

I had such horrible experiances with Viewsonic CRT's, i'd never touch another product of theirs again. I had two seperate 19" CRTs from them, and both had the same issues, and what I would consider general lack of quality control.

These Acers are a very pleasant surprise at an amazing price.

Whatever LCD you choose, just remember that LCD's don't look too good when they're not set at their native resolution. For example, the products supplied by Kobrano's links above have a native resolution of 1280 x 1024. Actually, most if not all 19" LCD monitors have a native resolution of 1280 x 1024. A different resolution than that will make the display look a little blurry, as opposed to the crisp perfect image you get at the native resolution. If you want a 1600 x 1200 resolution, I strongly suggest you look at 20" LCD's, much they're a bit more pricy. Dell's Ultrasharp 2001FP 20.1 inch LCD Flat Panel sells for about $750.

So essentially I'm either going to have to get a 19" and accept the resolution decrease, or go for the 20" to keep my beloved 1600x1200... It's a tough choice.

Since you game make sure that the LCD has high Contrast ratio(700:1)and low response time (12 ms) LCD really aren't there yet for gameing.

But I've heard rumors about Organic LCDs...maybe another time

Toms Hardware had some reviews of low response time (8ms) LCD flat panels

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/display/20050215/index.html

First, native resolutions are only important when NOT in a game. Visual quality isn't effected whatsoever in a game when playing outside of the native. I play games at all resolutions, even 1600x1200, well over my native 1280x1024, and the visual quality is superb. But I must confess, 1280x1024 has been my choice resolution for the last couple years.

MS rating of monitors is pretty misleading. There have been several articles (i'd have to dig up links) that point out that manufacturers often label monitors differently. Thus that 8-12ms LCD might actually be a 28ms LCD depending on manufacturer. So a nice 25ms might actually be better due to sneaky manufacturers.

I've also read many articles that say there is no motion blur(commonly mislabeled ghosting) in games on anything 19ms or faster. I can attest to no blur with the Acer @ 16ms. I have played over 60 different games on mine so far, and have yet to notice any blurring. I have 4 of them here, and when people come over for lan games, nobody has noticed blurring. I was a bit worried about moving up to LCD because of "Rumors" of bad ghosting in games and fuzzy resolutions outside of native, and was pleasantly suprised that the Acer's don't have either. I'm an incredibly picky person, and can afford to buy anything that I want, but I like a bargin and I like quality, and its not often I can find both, but I did with this one.

All for $299 each and a whopping THREE year warranty.

Kobrano -
How is the color quality, crispness of text and such at the native 1280x1024 resolution? In addition to the issue of games I don't want to be dealing with poor quality when I'm spending time using other applications (about 60% of my computing time overall).

Evorg-
Yeah, I've been hearing things about Organic LCDs too... for over a year now and they've always been days away from hitting the market, yet no one has a publicly shown prototype yet. I've already been waiting 5 years for the prices to drop/quality to improve. I'm not sure how much longer I'll want to wait.

Thanks for the tech notes though, gives me something to search for

Go for the Dell UltraSharp 2001FP. Had a great review on anandtech.com. Also my friend owns one and I can tell you it looks great. Right now you can pick it up for $506.75 shipped. Just check out techbargains.com for the coupons. You can't beat that price for an LCD that does 1600x1200.

A cost effective 1600x1200 LCD will most likely sacrifice on the response rate (above 12ms) and/or the brightness and contrast ratio (below 250cd/m2 and 500/1 respectively).

I woud strongly recommend a dual display solution (2x17" or 2x19") for same/lower budget (i.e $800), if your Graphics card supports it
1. You get 2x 1280x1024 = 2560x1024!!
2. Benq has one of these that does 8ms response!
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Yet, if you can pump up the budget, to let's say $1200-1500, then i've got a surprise for all of you and they come from Dell & HP at 23inches (both). They are the most impressive 23inchers out there (yep, Dell & HP, go figure)

Don't worry, 20-inch $769 at Gateway, 1600x1200, DVI interface (requires DVI video card), integrated USB hub!!!

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You don't buy a lcd, you get a crt. they cost less, display a crisper nicer picture, and are way better for you eyes.

My favorite test for LCD:

Create a 6x6 pixel bitmap picture.

Draw it so it has white and black checkers pattern.

Set it as wallpaper, tiled.


It will cause headaches, but you can REALLY see difference in quality. Avoid blurry ones, too much wavy movements, etc. If you see a perfect discrete black and white pixels, it's highest quality LCD you can buy. I have seen LCD montiors so bad I can't see any black or white pixels. It was just a grey blur area.

Of course, it's not THE test to determine which one to buy, use this test and some others to make a decision.

My personal opinion, I don't think LCDs are up to the quality of CRTs yet. Almost but they are still slightly off. I'll give it another year till I look more into the LCDs. A Flat face CRT has really good quality. Well, this is just my opinion.

A large part of my wanting an LCD is for size and weight. I like having lots of desk space, and I hate having to lug the damn thing whenever I move (I've moved once a year for the past 5 years or so).

And I've found LCDs are far less strenuous on my eyes than CRTs

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20 inch dell lcd baby.nuthin less.

LCD monitors are good but I think that CRT monitors are actually the best at gaming. They have a nice grey-tone color reproduction and they don't ghost at much. But the primary reason while a CRT might be better is because you said you are a gamer. If you have crap for a videocard, CRT is the better choice cause the picture reproduction doesn't look bad when you switch to lower resolutions. When an LCD's resolution is lower than its native resolution, the LCD has to interpolate the image creating some set pixels to have to cover like 4/3 of a pixel or something. Not only does this look bad it will lower the overall life of an LCD monitor in the fact that pixels will seem to blend together and bleeding might occur.
I don't know but if you like LCD monitors better and you have an Nvidia 6800 SLI rig then go for it. Oh and don't buy one of the Apple Cinema monitors cause those are not good for gaming.

If you haven't bought yet i just reviewed my new 21" here.Link

I hate flatscreen monitors, and honestly wouldn't have one. That said, the last machine I built for someone else he went for a reasonably priced Samsung ( ~400) and it looked almost tolerable to me.