Choosing TFT

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:11 am

Hi!

I am having a slight problem choosing between TFT's. Now I have choice Acer's AL1916CS 19" TFT 4:3 ratio screen 5 MS'

The other is 22" Wide Screen is Acer AL2206W. The trouble is that: 19" costs 200â‚¬ on retailer while the 22" Wide screen is 210â‚¬'s.

This is not problem. Of course problem comes here: I have lot's of legancy games. I got one shelf full of games which around 100 is like Serious Sam First encounter released in 2001! Other Games I often play is Red Faction, I even hit Quake 2, Thieves and lot's of other Legancy games besides your usual Assassin's Creed, Oblivion and Bioshock.

Now old games do not go that well in Wide Screen. Like Return to Castle Wolfenstein is not that good in Wide Screens without hacking. So 4:3 sounds more reasonable... but you can get bigger screen almost same price... so you see my problem?

Either I take problem free 19" 4:3 inch TFT and will not suffer from problem's in picture being stretched and no need to worry about legancy games' picture being stretched. But I feel like I paid from Air

Or I take 22" flat and feel I got worth every penny but I might have some problems with my favourite legancy games being stretched and look butt ugly...

WideScreen Gamers have lot's of ways to hack games to wide screen. But EA doesn't offer Native WdieScreen support and some statement from EA is that they feel WideScreen's are form of cheating in Battlefields as they give tremendous advantage over regular 4:3 inch.

So which you think I might take: Should I take safe bet and feel slightly ripped off. Or should I take Gamble and prepeare for some problems?

Both are 5ms responsive and Acer is pretty good brand.

Edit:

I contacted the retailer I do business usually. He said I can take my own computer with games installed and test it there on the scene which one suits better. If 22" Acer has no problems in old games i take ( i.e. placing the black bars and no stretch ) I will choose it over 19" regular.

My HD 3850 should be enough to game at 1650 x 1080 resolution but I am already getting HD 4850 Toxic from Sapphire to ensure enough horse powers.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:16 am

Acer makes good value LCDs, particularly for gaming as many of them have low response times.

As for which model to get, it's really up to you. What do you want to do with it? If you spend 80/20 with material that's incapable of going W/S then go with the 4:3 model. If you watch movies and can play the occasional W/S-capable game, go with the W/S model.

People who work with multiple documents/spreadsheets also enjoy the benefits of widescreen models, along with those who like Vista's Sidebar feature.

I will say that the 22" is the sweet-spot for LCD's right now in terms of value, as long as you can live with the limitations of TN panels (viewing angles and bad color reproduction).

I have a Dell SP2208WFP and I absolutely love it (so does the wife). Glossy screen can be a pain, but the built-in USB hub is great for hooking up a gamepad without fuddling around under the desk. The panel is dead quiet when run less that full brightness as well.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:51 am

Yeah, 22" is sweet spot. I'll take first serious Sam, Command and Conqer Anthalogy, Painkiller, Oblivion, Red Faction and Return to castle Wolfenstein as my test games tomorrow.

if I had money I'd buy both and put better suitable for gaming rig and another for main rig. Serious Sam and Red Faction are reprisenting Legancy games. C&C Anthalogy Startegy and EA's which is known for having non-native WS support and Return to Castle Wolfenstein Slightly newer games and Oblivion reprisent modern games.

I think those games help me see if 22" WS is compatible for me... All I need to do is play like 2 to 10 mins each game to see how screen handles my game. Wolfenstein uses pretty common graphics engine. Was it UT 3's modified engine, while Serious Engine in sam's and Painkiller's engine differ mainstreams pretty heavily.

L2GX · Post by **L2GX** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:15 am

Unreal engine based games should be easy to run, the older ones might require you to manually add the resolution in their setup text file.

If you have a ati card check the catalyst settings for 'aspect ratio' something or other, I have a hd4850 at home but not sure if I'll remember to check it. Aneyhows, that setting should give you the original game resolution surrounded by black bars.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:26 am

Buy one of each, and switch the primary display as needed? lol.

Best of both worlds.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:44 am

protellect wrote:Buy one of each, and switch the primary display as needed? lol.

Best of both worlds.

If I just would have such money... : P

dragonfire · Post by **dragonfire** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:52 am

IMHO, even with black bars on the side of the screen, your standard aspect ratio games will probably be just about the same size on the 22 as on the 19. Those extra inches make a big difference.

I had a Dell 20in std aspect ratio, bought Dell 24 in widescreen, my old games still play at 1600x1200 (or 1024x768) at about same physical size. But man my desktop looks sweet at 1920x1200.

So I put in my vote for the 22in, all else being equal.

Modo · Post by **Modo** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:10 am

I see no problem with the bigger monitor. Graphics card drivers (both ATI, and NVidia), and most modern monitors themselves, give you the option to either scale 3x4 images to widescreen, only scale to fit the screen (keeping the aspect ratio, with black bars on the sides), or not scale at all (putting a small picture in the middle of the screen, with a black area around it). Pick any one you like. In addition, many games, will run in windowed mode, so you can have your IM window open on the side.

If you do any work on your PC, you will definately love the added desktop space. Not to mention the joy of watching movies. I switched from 19'' 3x4 to 24'' wide late last year, and I'm never going back.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:29 pm

I probably go for 22" model. As difference is 10â‚¬'s... but difference is around 3". But I got tomorrow 6 game test session. Games vary from Vintage 2001 Serious Sam into Obilivion.

Since my rig is purely for gaming and not the one I am using for this, looking movies is not big deal. However I am planning eventually get 2nd TFT also for main rig.

My 17" HP RealFlat CRT has served me well and my 10â‚¬ 2nd hand 19" Trinitron CRT has served me aswell... I am kinda saddened to change monitor but I really do not have space in desk and CRT takes huge chunk of space from my game rig desk.

Even its head of schedule... I think changing game rig's CRT into TFT will bring me huge chunk of more desk space... And modern games are designed for TFT generation... Thank you everyone for the input. In Friday I know more ^^

Oh... yes... That 22" TFT will be larger than my room's 21" CRT TV... Its kinda shocker... lol

edit:
Right I got my display today: Acer P223W 22" wide screen and HD 4850 with stock cooler. After installing Scythe S-flex 800 and accelero S1 rev 2 on cooler ( + ram sinks and few small heatsinks on VRM's.

I have to say this: God!! I love that screen!!! No lag, excellent picture... Huge desktop... I have to get my another of those for mainrig ^^