• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

lcd monitor response time

devinXkillyou

devinXkillyou

Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
388 (0.06/day)
Location
Texas
i know i've read somewhere on these forums about what a good response time is for lcd monitors. im looking to buy one, hopefully a 19" under $300 USD. i was just wondering what kind of specs i should be looking for in this price range of lcd monitors (response time, contrast ratio, etc...) i appreciate all the help
 
8ms or less, 300 bucks would get you a nice 8ms 19 in
 
you could get one easily for under $300 with an 8ms response time. I got my 20.1 8ms Viewsonic for $300.
 
make sure that it's grey to grey and not black to white, thats how they try to screw you over.
 
KEEP THE REPLIES & INFO. COMING (that is, if any more detail's necessary)

See my subject-line/title of my post here in this thread above, first... thanks!

:)

* I say this, because first of all, I am curious myself (not looking for one, but part of why I joined this forums as a few of you know, is to 'catch up' & learn on hardwares. E.G.-> Either the fairly "current" stuff that I do not own, or have worked w/ recently enough, because my job focus shifted about a decade ago from hardware, to nearly solely software)

(Secondly, because I am sending this to a pal of mine via email who recently was wondering what was better (per my NVidia 7800GS vs. ATI x800 thread here -> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=18103 ) & is fairly heavily investing in updating/upgrading his system in THIS capacity, video display (& he bought what seems to MORE than fit your criteria for a flatscreen, for the MOST part, so far - he tends to be a HELL of a comparison shopper & researcher + got a GREAT deal on price on it))

APK

P.S.=> Thanks... & remember: You will probably have an 'audience' of sorts on this one, quite possibly, because if I know him? He WILL take a peek @ this (Hi Mike!)... apk
 
Hey devin and Alec,

I have been looking through forums and reading articles for about 3 months on LCDs and I believe and I have some info to help you guys.
Sorry if I start out too noobish for you guys but I will take it from the beginning.

A lot of 19" are well under $300...Hell you can even find them for under $200, but which to choose is a tough decision. First of all you dont want to cheap out on the brand. Some well known and trusted brands are Viewsonic, Acer, LG, NEC and Samsung (sorry if I left out a few). Just like with PSUs, the saying goes, "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR".

Now we will dive into specifics. One main thing to look at with monitors is the response time. The response time is the amount of time it takes for the monitor to refresh the screen. Obviously you dont want a really high response time, but 16ms and below is good for this so you dont see ghosting of an image (aka Picture lag). Obviously if you are a gamer you want a lower response time, around 8ms is sufficient. Please note though that some monitors with 2ms response time have had issues where the image gets stuck on the screen.

Another important thing to look at is the contrast ratio. This is how well defined and the quality of the picture. Obviously the higher the ratio, the better the picture (ex: 1000:1 is better than 400:1).

A third thing to look for is the input compatibility. This is the type of connection your monitor will have to your GPU. Right now their are 2 types: Analog and DVI. All monitors have Analog inputs, however, only more recent monitors have DVI inputs since this is a newer input. Just as a note, DVI input creates a better picture on many monitors. This is the reason why Analog ONLY monitors are cheaper.

Here is some other information:

The viewing angle. This is the angle you can look at without the monitor becoming very distorted (from left to right). Obviously you cant look at the monitor at 180 degrees and see a perfect picture like you can right in front of it. This is important to some people.

The Horizontal and Vertical Refresh is the Hz at which both refresh at. Most monitors are pretty much the same so their is not much of a difference around these.

That is pretty much it for LCDs. Now please note that you dont want to go for the cheapest LCD monitor if you are looking to game, graphic design, photos, DVDs. Stuff like that requires very good LCD monitors. However, some of the really expensive monitors' response times stink, so please be aware of that. Overall you want to look for a mid-range monitor. For gaming you want a good response time and for Graphic design, DVD and photos you want a good contrast ratio.

Well if you guys need anymore help just let me know.

P.S. - Grey to grey is the response time of the monitor going through all of the colors (strarting with grey and ending with grey).
 
hey thanks for that very informative post, it cleared up alot of questions i had. i was looking at this widescreen one. the brand is Hanns.G, which ive never heard of. but, it has a 700:1 contrast ration and a 5ms response time. $190 USD
 
devinXkillyou said:
hey thanks for that very informative post, it cleared up alot of questions i had. i was looking at this widescreen one. the brand is Hanns.G, which ive never heard of. but, it has a 700:1 contrast ration and a 5ms response time. $190 USD
Click to expand...

I have never heard of that brand. And once again, you are going to get what you pay for. I have looked at LOTS of LCD's lately and I have found 3 major brands that seem to be reliable. Acer, Samsung and LG.

Check this one out. I think you would be better off and I have read (somewere, don't have the link) that it is reliable. http://www.directron.com/al1916fbd.html

Personally, I would not go to that monitor as I can see something wrong with it. Go to a Brick and Mortor store and look at monitors and then search online for a better price. At least then you can see the picture quality before you buy.
 
I did forget to mention one thing that is kind of important. There is another feature to look at when looking at LCD monitors. It is called display colors and tells you the amount of colors you can see within the LCD monitor. There are 3 types of display colors: 16.2 million, 16.2 +dithering and 16.7 million. The 16.2 million and 16.2 +dithering are run on 6 bit panels (6 bits of color). The 16.7 million is run on an 8-bit panel. Just please be careful if you are concerned about this as this is something to look for in DVDs, photos and graphic design. If you want you can look into if you want a lot of color differentiation within games. Pretty much it goes 16.7 million the best for colors, 16.2 +dithering and then 16.2 million. Just as an FYI 16.2 + dithering uses technology that makes a 6 bit panel look very much like an 8 bit panel.

Also there are different types of panels as well, but I unfort. dont have enough time to go into that right now.

I have heard of HannsG. They make cheaper panels that are affordable. I am an avid gamer and would not go with this panel, bc it is more of an unknown company. Also, devin would you consider a 20.1" panel. You might want to look into the ViewSonic VX2025WM. It is one of the best 20.1" panels out there with 8ms (grey to grey). It costs roughly $330 as shown here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116381). Also another good 20.1" panel that is a bit cheaper is this BenQ (another well-known brand that makes Dell's LCDs). THis Benq is shown here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014105).

Here is an identical Acer monitor for a few bucks more (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009083).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top