TFT any good?

[MJS]

Hi,

I have always loved how the picture on a TFT monitor looks, so clear and sharp and the sleek design makes any old PC look good .

Well, I was all into getting one when I found out on the net that TFT monitors are bad for gaming and also, when you buy a TFT monitor, it sometimes has black dots (or something like that) over the screen where the transistors in the TFT monitors are supposedly supposed to break all the time.

I'm not sure how true this is, but now I am really considering buying one again because of the convinience of less space taken up. Do any of you use TFT monitors for gaming, or have tried TFT monitors for gaming and/or are there known problems with black dots on the screen, or any faults similar to that?

Thanks

 

[Taurus]

the reason lcd's aren't ideal for gaming is because they have a high response time which is the length of time for a pixel to go from total black to total white. when the response time is high, you get bad "ghosting", which is where the moving objects on the screen seem sort of smeared. but some the newest lcd's out right now have almost eliminated this issue.

my Dell 1800FP is great. i bought it over 6 months ago and use it for tons of gaming. sure it has some ghosting, but it's really minor and doesn't detract from the gaming. i lanned on a dell laptop through 2002 and the ghosting on it was downright gross, but gaming was still doable and i still did fine. my point is, even with moderate ghosting, you won't find games unplayable. and all lcd's today have minor amounts of it.

the black dots you speak of are dead pixels. it's when a pixel gets stuck closed (black) and when you have over a million of them on the screen, it's normal to get a couple. but realize that they aren't very noticeable and, if you get any, you would quickly get used to them and it wouldn't be long before you didn't see them at all. i don't know if i got really lucky or what, but i can't find a single dead pixel on mine.

what size are you thinking of or how much are you willing to spend? we can help you find a good one.

 

[JJB6486]

If you're getting an LCD and play high-FPS games, make sure to get one with a really low pixel response time. That time indicates how long it takes for the pixel to change color, and the longer it takes, the more a game will appear 'ghosted.' Any LCD with a pixel response time below 20ms should look fine for gaming.

JJB

 

[LeeJend]

There are multiple types of pixel failures. As Taurus said dead(black) your brain will filter out after a while. The most annoying is a red one stuck on in the middle of the screen. Check the dead pixel return policy for the brand (and store) where you want to buy.

As for visual faults. One brand of crt monitor (trinitron?) has 2 gray lines across the screen 1/3 and 2/3 of the way up the screen because of the wires used to keep tension on the shadow mask. I had one like this at work for 5 years. I tuned it out most of the time. Occassionally I would notice it when doing word processing or spreadsheets. The gray and black stuff will be less noticeable on games since they tend to be dark backgrounds. That ugly red dot can get annoying though. If you're a type A personality make sure you can return an LCD with an irritating defect.

On the philosophical side - Would you buy a CRT monitor that had a scratch on the tube? Think about what you are supporting when you buy an LCD with a known defect. Just say no and make them deliver defect free product, unless they will give you a big discount for the defect...