Flat panel Monitors

[deck99]

How well does a flat panel monitor compare to a traditional full size monitor for gaming? I plan to use a Dell 1503FP with a GF3 video card?

Thanks,

deck99

[RJ]

Hello,

depends on the quality and brand. But most of today's TFTs are fast enough to provide fast graphics without ghosting.
If you get the right TFT, it will rock. I remember a gamer posting here in pcmech a few weeks ago that he played games on a 17" TFT and he said that the TFT rocks.
I have a 15,1" TFT and it is also very good for gaming. Friends who have CRTs always wanted to play on my TFT.

A weakness of the TFT is the color accurancy. A CRT provides accurate colors, a TFT can't do this. This can be a problem when you play in dark areas in games. Looking at the specs of the Dell TFT, I personally would suggest you to look for a monitor with a higher contrast ratio. 200:1 is pretty low. 250:1 is better (mine has 250:1. . it is 2 years old). Today there are better TFT's out there, with 350:1 and more.
Wide viewing angle of 100° horizontal and 80° vertical is pretty sorry. Good TFTs have 150°+ horizontal.
The response time of 45ms is not too bad, but not too good, either. Keep it 30ms or below.
TFT has DVI-D connection. This is a good point about it. Also make sure that your graphics card has DVI output. It is possible to connect it via VGA anyway, but if you buy a TFT, then why bother with VGA since DVI is better. . .

From personal experience avoid Viewsonic TFTs. They are crap for gaming.

Here are a few TFTs that look good (I have no personal experience with them, though).

EIZO L365 (contrast 450:1, brightness 300cd/qm, DVI-D input, viewing angle: 160° horizonal, 150° vertical, response time 25ms, 16.7 million colors)

Samsung 151D (contrast 330:1, brightness 250cd/qm, DVI-D input, viewing angle: 140° horizonal, 120° vertical, response time 25ms, 16.7 million colors)

RJ