[NTLUG:Discuss] re: video card recommendations

[Bryan J. Smith]

Fred <fredstevens at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The key at that point is a damn fine monitor, which still
> happens to be crt-based. 1600 at least, 20" diag at least. 

I disagree.  I guess you haven't seen some of the latest 8ms
(or even just 12ms) 22-24" widescreen LCDs from Dell, HP and
others that do 1920x1200 (16:10).  They can emulate just
about any mode you'd want at the correct aspect, 1080p
(1920x1080 -- perfect 1:1 at 16:9), 1600x1200 (perfect 1:1 at
4:3), 800x600 (perfect 2:1 at 4:3) if I need it, etc...  Cost
is around $800+ on-sale though.

Even my wife's 8 month-old Dell 20.1" widescreen LCD does
1680x1050 and it's pretty good at everything -- does 1080i
fairly good (just a little loss), 1280x1024 looks good,
800x600 just has a little loss vertically.  The desktop at
1680x1050 is outstanding though, and she loves it.  You can
get them for under $400 shipped these days.

Most of the new generation 19" LCDs for $250-300 look very
good with 12-16ms referesh rates.  1280x1024 is fine, and
does 1280x960 and 640x480 good.

> One of my clients has a very good video card in her system
> but kept complaining about not being able to read license
> tag numbers on her lcd monitor.

Make sure you get a good dot-pitch on a 8-bit design.  I have
a slightly aged 19" LCD Scepter X9G series that is a 6-bit
design that is just right on dot-pitch.  In fact, my new 19"
LCD AOpen F90GS is almost "too clear" on its dot-pitch at
1280x1024.  I think they should have gone 1600x1200 and it
would still look good enough.

> I put in a $40 surplus 17" crt monitor and now I walk on
> water - according to her. Oh, yeah. that lcd monitor is on
> my wife's puter now, 'cause the client didn't want that
> "piece of crap" in her office. Fair trade, I thought.

What LCD did you buy?

There are a _lot_ of crappy 15-17" LCDs.
You should _never_ buy a LCD _unless_ it has DVI.
Otherwise you're going to have bending and misalignment.

Of course LCD looks like crap compared to CRT when you put an
_analog_ signal through it.  The LCD units are _fixed_ in
location.  But a LCD with DVI _toasts_ CRTs.

[ And trust me, I have some high quality 21" CRTs. ;-]


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
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