LCD Monitors and Gaming

[spinbot]

When playing fast paced First Person Shooter games, do the LCD monitors suffer any in their ability to display the image clearly?

When buying an LCD, in order to ensure smooth play during gaming, what should one look for? Is their a minimal response time you need?

I'm looking at a futureshop flyer and they list 3 different LCD's.
Samsung 17" ($379)- 600:1 Contrast Ratio ( no repsonse time given )
BenQ 17" ($299)- 450:1 Contrast Ratio - 12ms Response time - 260 cd/m2 Brightness
NEC 17" ($349) - 450:1 - 16ms - 250 cd/m2

Thanks for the feedback!

[Menace]

Add Hyundai L90D+ $438 from tigerdirect.ca (almost sold out when I was there last week)

[rai_dei]

I assume that the Samsung you're referring to is the 730B, it has a 8ms responce rate.
I've been using it for a bit under a month now and it's very good. It probably has the best build quality of all 3.
The Hyundai Menace mentioned is also a great monitor.

If you want an LCD for gaming make sure to get the lowest responce rate (12ms-8ms, or even 4ms if you have the money). I haven't seen any noticeable differences between LCDs in store (just by looking at them), so I guess, do your research before buying.

[temporalillusion]

Also the lower response LCD's typically have a 6-bit panel, which sacrifices colour for response time. If that's acceptable then it's ok. There are a few good panels out there with both, I have a the Dell 2005FPW which has an 8-bit panel but a 12ms response and I'm happy with it.

The best advice I can give is to make sure you get it from somewhere that you can return it if you aren't happy with it.

[spinbot]

OOps -- I didn't mean that I was looking at those 3 models -- they were just the one's in the flyer, thus gave me some "specs" for comparison.

I was trying to figure out is something like a 16ms response time to slow for gaming? Is a 6ms response time more than necessary? Is a 12ms good enough for gaming, yet reasonable enough in price?

Thanks!

[Amourek]

Get a 12ms at least. My LCD has a 8ms response and games are smooth as silk. Acer AL1715S-8. It uses the same panel as the BenQ FP71G+.

[Riflem@n]

Response time on a monitor mean nothing really, a 16ms can be just as bad as 20ms. You really have to use it to find out if the response time is acceptable for you.

As for the monitors up there, I would get the Samsung, it has DVI as well. The 730B.