New Monitor
 

Hey guys,

I just got a new 22Ó Widescreen LCD Dell monitor (E228WFP), my old monitor was a 20Ó CRT NEC monitor which was the size of a hippoÕs head. Not only is the quality 5 times better, but I got to set my resolution up to 1680 x 1050, 60 Hz (On my old monitor it was 1280 x 1024, 75 Hz). It makes a huge difference in Maya (Or anything on my computer). But since it was from Dell the first one they sent me had a problem with it. ;) I have a couple questions:

What is the refresh rate (the Hz part) and what does it do? Am I supposed to set it higher or lower?

Who here has the biggest monitor and highest resolution?

-Jr.Who
:beer:

Re: New Monitor
 

A bit of monitor envy ;)

The refresh rate has somthing to do with how many times the picture is displayed and changed per second. Its a bit like framerate to put it simply. The higher it is the smoother the picture.

1 Hz is 1 cyle per second. If you monitor is set to 60 Hz which is usually default if windows does not recognize you monitor, then that means the picture on your screen is being redrawn 60 times every second. I believe the recommended setting for a monitor is 72 - 75 Hz (especially for larger monitors). If it's too slow you will see your screen flicker and will be more bothersome to your eyes. Faster is better, but be careful because I believe you can damage your monitor if you set it too high (higher than your monitor can handle). If it's plug-n-play, the operating system should adjust the Hz accordingly to your resolution setting, make & model.

You said you monitor is 1680 X 1050 res. I would think that 75 Hz would be fine.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/monitor6.htm

this will let you know what each setting means... keep in mind though that most times anything more than 60 fps (or Hz) is faster than the normal human eye can track.

My Monitor goes to 1900 x 1200 resolution, it is a laptop though!

Refresh rate does not apply to LCD monitors becuase of the difference in operation between LCD and CRT monitors. LCD monitors still have a refresh rate property becuase it would have cost too much money to replace it with something else, since our graphics cards are designed to operate with a refresh rate.

Anyways, for more information, check out the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate

In LCD monitors, I think (don't try it at home, I'm not 100% sure) that if setting a refresh rate higher than what is supported won't fry your screen becuase of built in protection, unlike CRT monitors where the refresh rate controls the electron gun.

well refresh rates are measured differently in lcd monitors than in crt monitors because lcds still do have a refresh rate, but in an lcd it's the time between the changing current to alter color which lessens or eliminates an lcd's famous 'ghosting' effect (which was seen in early laptops).

True, the 'refresh rate' in LCD monitors is called the response time and thats usually measured in milliseconds.

But whatÕs the size of it? :confused:

When I relocated here I dumped my two CRTs and replaced them with a Dell 2407WFP 24" (1920x1200 native) and it's been the best upgrade I've made to my machine in a very long time :)

Its 17" Didnt really fancy getting a 19" or 20" laptop, kind of defeats the point of it, although 17" is pushing it for portability but Ive not had any problems lugging it to and from uni every day.