PearlChoco
n00b
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2011
- Messages
- 22
I've been gaming on CRT monitors all my life, and never experienced any problems with it.
But now that my trusty old 19" CRT monitor is finally starting to die on me (I have to turn the brightness all the way up to 100% to get some light out of it), the time had come to buy a brand new LCD monitor.
After ALOT of reading and investigating, I decided the Dell U2311H was the perfect monitor for me: pretty good all-round image quality, good viewing angles, pretty fast for an IPS panel, and perfect size / resolution for my gaming.
Yesterday my new monitor arrived, I installed it next to my 19" CRT, and compared gaming on both of them.
I assume there are still plenty of CRT gamers, and since they'll ultimately all have to switch to LCD, I thought it might be useful to share my initial findings!
LCD - Pro's:
1. Size and aspect ratio. There's no denying it: my once huge 19" CRT looks like a tiny dwarf next to this behemoth. All Windows/internet/office work is a lot easier and more fun. I can easily put a complete webpage next to my Word document and still read the text: a true revelation!
2. Brightness - crispness. The Dell is really really bright. I turn down the brightness to 20% and it's still very clear and shiny. I can easily use this in sunny daylight circumstances, even with direct sunlight on the screen, which is completely impossible with my CRT. Also: very crisp/sharp. Maybe too sharp? I can almost count the pixels! The CRT is less sharp, but this gives it also a smoother, more 'real' appearance (like some native, always-on FSAA).
That's about it for the plusses
LCD - Cons:
1. Bad contrast / blacks. This is my main complaint. No matter what some people on some forums say, the black are just horrible. I knew this before I bought the IPS, but alot of people claim this is hardly noticeable. Well it IS noticeable, in fact it is extremely obvious and it bothers me alot. This screen CANNOT produce blacks, only some kind of dark gray. All games look washed out and are ALOT less appealing than on my CRT, even less-than-dark games like Dirt 3 and Dead Island.
2. Slow responsiveness. Having always used a CRT, I never exactly knew what people ment when talking about slow responsiveness. Well, now I know. In an FPS game, it feels like there's a heavy weight tied to the player's head, making looking around sluggish and less exact. Even on this 'relatively fast' U2311H, it's very noticeable and the difference with the CRT is day and night. Not only in fast FPS games, but also slower FPS games like Deus Ex, RTS games and even in Windows (scrolling Google maps!). I tried some BFBC2 online and I didn't get butchered, so guess I can live with it, but it's far from ideal.
3. Sharpness and jaggies. Something I didn't expect: this screen may be TOO sharp. On my CRT monitor, everything looks very smooth and natural, without being hazy. On this LCD, all in-game polygons look terribly sharp, and introduces alot of jaggies. I didn't understand all the fuss about 8xFSAA, MSAA, SSAA, etc etc. I played 1600x1200 games on a 19" screen, so the slightest AA was enough to give me perfectly smooth images. Not any more! I'm already searching how to enable better FSAA modes in Dead Island, because it looks terrible with all those jaggies.
All in all it seems like LCD gaming implicates alot more tweaking. Tweaking your monitor to get the best possible blacks, looking to get the best FSAA modes enabled, tweaking the FOV for 16:9 (Dead Island!),.... On a CRT it seems like life is much easier!
Conclusion:
A CRT monitor still rules for gaming, no doubt about that. LCD doesn't come even close. If I could walk into the store anno 2011 and buy a 23" 16:9 CRT monitor, I would.
As long as my CRT still produces any light, it'll be my main gaming monitor, while I keep my LCD for general usage. And I keep praying one day they'll make the perfect flatscreen which renders CRT finally obsolete.
But now that my trusty old 19" CRT monitor is finally starting to die on me (I have to turn the brightness all the way up to 100% to get some light out of it), the time had come to buy a brand new LCD monitor.
After ALOT of reading and investigating, I decided the Dell U2311H was the perfect monitor for me: pretty good all-round image quality, good viewing angles, pretty fast for an IPS panel, and perfect size / resolution for my gaming.
Yesterday my new monitor arrived, I installed it next to my 19" CRT, and compared gaming on both of them.
I assume there are still plenty of CRT gamers, and since they'll ultimately all have to switch to LCD, I thought it might be useful to share my initial findings!
LCD - Pro's:
1. Size and aspect ratio. There's no denying it: my once huge 19" CRT looks like a tiny dwarf next to this behemoth. All Windows/internet/office work is a lot easier and more fun. I can easily put a complete webpage next to my Word document and still read the text: a true revelation!
2. Brightness - crispness. The Dell is really really bright. I turn down the brightness to 20% and it's still very clear and shiny. I can easily use this in sunny daylight circumstances, even with direct sunlight on the screen, which is completely impossible with my CRT. Also: very crisp/sharp. Maybe too sharp? I can almost count the pixels! The CRT is less sharp, but this gives it also a smoother, more 'real' appearance (like some native, always-on FSAA).
That's about it for the plusses
LCD - Cons:
1. Bad contrast / blacks. This is my main complaint. No matter what some people on some forums say, the black are just horrible. I knew this before I bought the IPS, but alot of people claim this is hardly noticeable. Well it IS noticeable, in fact it is extremely obvious and it bothers me alot. This screen CANNOT produce blacks, only some kind of dark gray. All games look washed out and are ALOT less appealing than on my CRT, even less-than-dark games like Dirt 3 and Dead Island.
2. Slow responsiveness. Having always used a CRT, I never exactly knew what people ment when talking about slow responsiveness. Well, now I know. In an FPS game, it feels like there's a heavy weight tied to the player's head, making looking around sluggish and less exact. Even on this 'relatively fast' U2311H, it's very noticeable and the difference with the CRT is day and night. Not only in fast FPS games, but also slower FPS games like Deus Ex, RTS games and even in Windows (scrolling Google maps!). I tried some BFBC2 online and I didn't get butchered, so guess I can live with it, but it's far from ideal.
3. Sharpness and jaggies. Something I didn't expect: this screen may be TOO sharp. On my CRT monitor, everything looks very smooth and natural, without being hazy. On this LCD, all in-game polygons look terribly sharp, and introduces alot of jaggies. I didn't understand all the fuss about 8xFSAA, MSAA, SSAA, etc etc. I played 1600x1200 games on a 19" screen, so the slightest AA was enough to give me perfectly smooth images. Not any more! I'm already searching how to enable better FSAA modes in Dead Island, because it looks terrible with all those jaggies.
All in all it seems like LCD gaming implicates alot more tweaking. Tweaking your monitor to get the best possible blacks, looking to get the best FSAA modes enabled, tweaking the FOV for 16:9 (Dead Island!),.... On a CRT it seems like life is much easier!
Conclusion:
A CRT monitor still rules for gaming, no doubt about that. LCD doesn't come even close. If I could walk into the store anno 2011 and buy a 23" 16:9 CRT monitor, I would.
As long as my CRT still produces any light, it'll be my main gaming monitor, while I keep my LCD for general usage. And I keep praying one day they'll make the perfect flatscreen which renders CRT finally obsolete.