Contrast Ratio

[Shadinn]

I'm looking to purchase and new 19"-20.1" widescreen monitor. I have been looking a couple of different brands and they seem to have a 500:1 - 2000:1 contrast ratio. Can you tell me what contrast ratio means.

This monitor will be used for mostly gaming and web browsing hooked to a 7800 GT video card if that helps.

Thanks.

 

[bootstrap]

I'm looking to purchase and new 19"-20.1" widescreen monitor. I have been looking a couple of different brands and they seem to have a 500:1 - 2000:1 contrast ratio. Can you tell me what contrast ratio means.

This monitor will be used for mostly gaming and web browsing hooked to a 7800 GT video card if that helps.

Thanks.

It's basically a measure of the dynamic range -- the ratio between the luminance of the brightest white and the darkest black. See wikipedia for more details. Generally the higher the contrast ratio the better, but you should keep in mind that not all companies evaluate their contrast ratios the same way, so you should take the manufacturer's specifications with a grain of salt.