CHOOSING MONITOR FOR GAMING

Are you looking to buy a monitor to be used for gaming? The monitor is one of the most expensive parts of a computer, so you should learn some basic information before going out and spending your money on a crappy monitor. This article will help you buy the best monitor for gaming. LCD monitors are the standard these days and more better than CRT monitors. LCD monitors have many advantages over the old style CRT monitors. They are slim, light and compact, and won't take up as much space on your desk. LCD screens are also easier on the eyes and use less power than CRT monitors.

What To Look For When Buying

As mentioned earlier, Response Times are the primary concern of any TFT LCD screen. Viewsonic is advertising their VP201s monitors as having Response Times (Pixel Response, Video Response) that are fast enough to present "Realistic, artifact-free 3-D gaming." These monitors have a "blistering 16 millisecond (16ms) Response time." Hitachi also advertises their CML174B and CML 175B LCD monitors with Response Times of 16ms "enabling smoother computer video, animation and gaming movement." Samsung goes one step better with their 172X LCD monitor that sports an amazing 12ms Response Time.

Next, be sure to select a screen that has a native resolution that meets your needs. That is to say, if your system can only play games at 800x600 then buying a 2048x1536 monster display won’t give you any advantage and will almost certainly do more to hinder your game playing and your enjoyment of it.

Check the dot pitch measurement and make sure you are comparing like-for-like if you are looking at more than one display, especially from different manufacturers.

High contrast and high brightness, but low power comsuption is a very good combination because this will give you impressive visuals and your display will hopefully last longer.

Other, smaller, concerns (like the price) I will leave to personal preference. A TFT LCD that satisfies all of these criteria will hopefully do justice to your game visuals and give you the gaming experience that you desire.

Response Rate

The response rate of a monitor is perhaps one of the most important specifications you need to consider if you will be gaming. The response rate simply refers to how fast the LCD monitor updates its display. Monitors with a slower response rate will suffer what is known as 'ghosting'.

The ghosting effect will be noticeable if you play high-paced games, such as a first person shooter. It's when the previous image displayed on-screen can still be seen as a blur for a split second after the image has updated. Don't worry if that doesn't make sense to you, all you need to know is that the lower the response rate of a monitor, the less 'ghosting' you will experience.

I would recommend buying a monitor with a response rate of 8ms (8 milliseconds) or lower. The lower the better. The best monitors on the market offer very good response rates such as 4ms or even 2ms. With a monitor like this, you would completely avoid the 'ghosting' effect altogether.

What Size Monitor is Best?

Buy the biggest monitor you can afford, it's as simple as that. With a bigger screen, you will enjoy a more surreal gaming experience. Playing a high-end 3D game on a large 22" widescreen LCD monitor is a totally different experience than playing on a small 17" screen. Sizes for monitors range from 15 inches all the way up to 22 inches and above.