TFTs

[oldrocker1]

Anyone got a recommendation for a 17" TFT? Budget is about £350 without grovelling to the Significant Other.

[LucaZone]

try searching the forums, people are always asking about TFT's

[Dspring]

I have not got a TFT but one key thing to watch for is the refresh rate. This is the time it takes for a pixel to change from one colour to another colour. If the screen has a 30msec refresh than each pixel can change 33 times per second, If the rate is 25 msec then 40 changes per sec are possible OK?

Now think what will happen if your graphics card tries to refresh the screen at say 40 frames per second on a 30 msec refresh rate TFT. The pixels will not have time to change from the original colour to the new colour before yet another refresh arrives. End result is that if the pixel was part of a static view of say green grass, then the pixel cant change rapidly enough to keep up with the graphics card refreshing it BUT the graphics card keeps sending the same green value, so no problem the pixel remains green anyway, BUT if the image is moving, and the pixel is initially part of the green grass, then part of some drifting steam, then green grass again, the TFT will not be able to keep up with the graphics card and the effect will show a slight ghosting of the image. This takes the edge off faster moving images which is why gamers tend to prefer CRT's which dont have this latency effect because they have no pixels to change.

The fastest TFT's have refresh rates of about 16msec which can handle frame rates of 62 fps which is more than MSTS will deliver, so you'd be ok with one of these.

Hope this helps

dave

[davidspooner]

I'm currently wayching a few TFT screens on ebuyer. They start at around £250 (i think) for 17" screens.

web address is http://www.ebuyer.co.uk They are usually pretty cheap and i've only ever had to send 2 items back to them. Both motherboards and both with the same fault which i put down to a faulty batch. Plus i live local to their warehouse so i just dropped the items off there rather than posting them back.

Cheers

Dave

[ForburyLion]

Try to buy from a manufacturer that has a no dead pixel policy, Apparantley there is an acceptable limit of about 5 dead pixels - If you have dead pixels the manufacturer is under no legal obligation to exchange your monitor as it's within limits. This is because TFT's are supposedly so hard to make (I imagine the process has been refined over time though)

[NeutronIC]

I have been using an AOC 17" one for a while, price is £299 including VAT.

I can highly recommend it, looks gorgeous for MSTS and has had no problems with any other game i've through at it so refresh rates (which are set at 75 hertz on my system - them as I used to run my monitor) are not a problem.

It's optimal resolution is 1280 x 1024 so it's got a reasonable screen estate too.

I'd recommend TCO Computers (click 'buy a new pc' on the front page of the main site), they have the screen for the above price and Jonathan is a top bloke (and an MSTS fan!).

The monitor is also quite sleek in black and silver rather than the usual cream that most PC equipment is.

Definitely gets my vote

Matt.

[jjules]

My LG 15" TFT is plenty big enough. MSTS runs on it well, and I've had no problems with anything on it, and it's near 2 years old (will be in February).

No idea how much it would be, but I highly recommend TFTs anyway.

[TimIngman]

Do you use a graphics card which has a digital output (DVI). If so, I think it is worthwhile buying a screen which can handle this. In my experience of installing TFT's at work, digital gives a much sharper, more stable image than the usual analogue output. I use an Eizo 17" at home, but there are probably better, cheaper ones around nowadays. Latest PC-Pro "A-list" recommendation is Iiyama ProLite E431S @ £318 inc VAT from http://www.wstore.co.uk.

Regards

Tim

PS Incidentally, I have a good Graphics card for sale - Gainward Ultra/650-8X XP Golden Sample/AGP 128MB DDR Ti-4200 withDVI output – £85 (cost £152). Send PM if interested!!