Are TFT screens ok for games?

Are TFT screens ok for games?

Author
Discussion

diver944

Original Poster:

1,844 posts

283 months

Friday 5th December 2003
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I am hoping that Santa will be bringing me a new system for Christmas to replace my aging PII 350mhz, one of the items I must have is a TFT flat screen as I have litte desk space. I rememeber when these first came out that 3D games were said to be poor on these screens but what is the situation now?

Does it all depend on the quality and brand of the screen and resolution?

Does anyone use a TFT for gaming?

I never used to be interested in PC Games (I have a PS2 for that) but am now getting rather hooked with online GPL and Unreal Tournament

FourWheelDrift

89,632 posts

291 months

Friday 5th December 2003
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Should be no problem at all.

dragdolph

3,924 posts

257 months

Friday 5th December 2003
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im using a flatscreen!

its fine...good good good!

AJLintern

4,239 posts

270 months

Friday 5th December 2003
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Dell 18" Digital flat screen here - looks very nice

horton

804 posts

259 months

Saturday 6th December 2003
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No they are not.

they have a high latency which means the time it takes to change the image

if you are playing a game which has a fast frame rate then you will see some ghosting of the image, ie. it blurs cos the game moves faster than the screen can handle.

for most games its not a problem because they dont move fast enough, but for some they look sh*t

if you are determined to get one anyway then look at the latency figure - anything under 20ms should be just about ok, the new samsung screens have pretty low figures.

but for the ultimate in gaming a CRT is always better

AJLintern

4,239 posts

270 months

Saturday 6th December 2003
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Well Unreal Tournament on my P4 3Ghz looks fine to me!

horton

804 posts

259 months

Saturday 6th December 2003
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how many frames per second are you getting?

to run a game like unreal tournament nicely you should be getting over 100 frames per second and your monitors refresh rate should be synced with your FPS if possible.

I have my FPS for quake 3 set at 125fps and refresh rate set to 120Hz

I doubt there are any LCD screens that can get anywhere near that refresh rate.

LCD is for showing off to your friends that you have a cool looking PC, CRT is for profesional designers and serious games players.

AJLintern

4,239 posts

270 months

Saturday 6th December 2003
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I was worried about how my TFT would perform with fast 3d games, but it turned out to be much better than my old 17" CRT - so much more sharp and clear. It is a digital TFT though, if that makes a difference. Uses a different plug to a standard monitor and was advertised as ideal for viewing DVDs and games.
The only possible problem would be if you wanted to use those 3d LCD stereo image glasses as they will only work with a CRT monitor.

outlaw

1,893 posts

273 months

Tuesday 9th December 2003
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horton said:
how many frames per second are you getting?

to run a game like unreal tournament nicely you should be getting over 100 frames per second and your monitors refresh rate should be synced with your FPS if possible.

I have my FPS for quake 3 set at 125fps and refresh rate set to 120Hz

I doubt there are any LCD screens that can get anywhere near that refresh rate.

LCD is for showing off to your friends that you have a cool looking PC, CRT is for profesional designers and serious games players.


Il second that.
only crt nothing else

simpo two

87,066 posts

272 months

Tuesday 9th December 2003
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17" Sony here, and themain difference I notice in games (eg Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honour) is that you get less detail in the very dark areas. I think that's becasue TFTs can't do a black which is black as a CRT, hence you have less room for contrast.

No problems with frame rate or ghosting though, and that's with only an on-board GeForce2. Do it!