Gaming on my first TFT

[RichL]

I've been tempted to go TFT for the last couple of years, but finding a TFT capable of matchng the 1600x1200@100hz capabilities of my 19" Iiyama 454Pro means going beyond 19", and the cheaper panels capable of that resolution arent very fast refresh times.
So the grand plan became to run two DVI capable 19" TFTs in dualhead for greater overall desktop and 2/3rds of the cost of a high end 21" TFT.

Budget 19" TFTs don't often seem to have DVI inputs, so it when one of the UK retaliers placed the AG Neovo F419 with DVI and 12ms response on offer for just over £200 including delivery, I bought one.

It looked fantastic running DVI off my G550, although the Matrox software refused to run it at more than 60hz at 1280x1024 , and running the RGB connector to my games box's ATi 9500Pro at 1280x1024@75hz looked nearly as good.

With high expectations I fired up Half-Life TFC for a fragfest.
Okay, so I hadnt actually had the games box running for a week, but I was distinctly unimpressed compared to the Iiyama.
The display quality was superb, there was no ghosting or smearing I could see, but with the DirectX rate override set to desktop (75hz) and the FPS peaking at 72hz, everything just seemed jittery compared to the 100hz of the Iiyama.

Looks like I'm going to have to retain the Iiyama for games only

[Umfriend]

I think for gaming the best refresh rate is close to the lowest FPS you get out of your system, so 60Hz may be just fine actually.

[rylan]

The LCD glass module refreshes at 60Hz anyway, so if you have it set to 75Hz refresh through analog and are feeding it 72fps, then its dropping frames because its partway through updating the screen while your graphics card is feeding it a new one.

[Rakido]

Maybe there's a little misunderstanding. The refresh rate of crt's means not the same as the refresh rate of tft's.

Refresh rates and response times
A CRT monitor shows a picture by continuously redrawing the entire screen many times a second. How quickly it does this, is set by the refresh rate setting in your graphics card driver options. 60Hz corresponds to 60 refreshes a second, and at that setting you can see the flicker as the screen redraws itself which causes headaches and eye strain in a very short time. A higher refresh rate of 85Hz looks much better, but can still cause eye strain after a few hours of use. An LCD monitor is more comfortable to use all day, since each pixel of the screen is controlled by its own transistor, and stays lit up until it gets a signal to change it. Only what is changed is updated. This means there is no flicker and a sharper image, which is considerably better for your eyes. You will definitely notice a difference if you upgrade from an older CRT monitor.

The liquid crystal inside an LCD monitor takes a certain amount of time to change from transparent to opaque. This delay is very noticeable on older LCD monitors where ghosting can occur as the screen is updated. This delay is referred to as the response time, and is a very important specification to look up when you are shopping for an LCD screen. A lower response time is always better. Response time is almost immaterial for office work, but is very important to gaming. To give yourself a good idea of how much of a problem this is, divide 1000 by the LCD's response time, to give the equivalent refresh rate in Hertz. 20ms works out as equivalent to 50Hz, and 16ms as 63Hz.

http://www.spodesabode.com/content/article/tftbuyers/2

setting your refresh rate higher than the one supported from your tft doesn't help. If it's 60 hz, set it to 60 hz.

I guess the response time of 25 ms is more your problem, especially with the 1280x1024 native resolution. There are TFT's out with 25ms and good gaming experience, but in generally the response time should be 16 ms or better

R.

[Taz]

There are two versions of the F-419, the one you linked to which has a 25ms response time and a 700:1 contrast ratio and the F-419(R12) which has a 12ms response time and a 500:1 contrast ratio.

http://www.neovo-usa.com/products/F-419_r12.htm

[xortam]

... and response times are reported by LCD manufacturers like frequency response is reported by stereo equipment manufacturers. Be very careful when looking at their claims to see how they measured response time.

[rylan]

Yeah, the response times are also measured from 10%-90% Tr and 90%-10% Tf. Problem is the response time in the middle areas is much worse (say going from 40% to 60%), sometimes by a factor of 2x-3x slower.

[Rakido]

you guys are confusing

Here's a link that explains the myth behind the response time measurement and what Rylan's "10%-90% Tr and 90%-10% Tf" mean:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...d-guide_2.html