widescreen TFT - better than a CRT?

[anonymous-user]

I'm not too hot on what makes a good TFT monitor, or if it will be more pleasant to look at than my old CRT, so I'm hoping people here can help me out.

I'm currently using a 19" AOC normal CRT monitor, and I'm finding that the text is a bit blurry around the edges and suchlike (at a res of 1280x1024, 85hz), so I'm considering a 19" TFT, to be specific a Dabs value 19" - (dabs.com, quicklinx: 4CKTWS). This gets a good 5-star rating from many people, and is nice and cheap.

The specs on the TFT are - 19inch diagonal, 8ms response time, 1440x900 res - are these OK?

How much larger / smaller will the visible screen area be on a 19" widescreen TFT screen compared to a 19" CRT?

What happens if I don't run it at the full 1440x900 res? Does it make text and suchlike unreadable? What happens in games at 800x600 or 1024x768?

many thanks for your help

[PJ S]

If you can't afford to change the GC or whatever else needs changing as well perhaps, along with the monitor, then you're better off sticking with where you are until you can.
LCDs really only look their best in native mode. As soon as you downscale the resolution - it doesn't look great.

[v8 animal]

Once you've bought a TFT you won't go back to CRT.
You would be happy at 1280x768 IMHO
Much brighter and clearer text the only difference i have noticed in games is the text changes if you play about with the resolution.
I would have thought your game would run quicker the smaller the resolution.
V8 Animal

[rebelstar]

Go for a TFT at it's native resolution and make sure you use a DVI connector and not VGA! You'll never go back afterwards.

[ThePassenger]

As to the "what happens at 800x600" bit. That rather depends on your graphics card, the drivers and the screen.

Often their are settings to scale the display to the native aspect ratio (i.e. stretch) although, quite often the default setting is that you will get a big square o' stuff slap bang in the middle of the screen and black all around it. Which is Ok for games. Having said that any reasonably modern GFx card (Nvidia 6000 series) should be able to push pixels enough to do native resolution on that display without having to turn the detail level down that much.

But in terms of desk space saved and easy on the eye... once you go TFT you really won't want to look at a CRT for too long.

[CommanderJameson]

I've not had a CRT for about 3 years now, and I'm never going back.

There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, the image quality is just fabulous when you get a decent digitally driven panel (as in all things, there are good panels and bad) .

Secondly, I doubt very much that Apple will ever make another CRT iMac.

I've got a 24" one now (1920x1200) and it's fearsomely bright, mega-crisp and fast enough to play games on without a hint of ghosting or smearing. It's also big enough to enjoy watching DVDs on in proper widescreen.