Advice on monitors

[jibstar]

Can somone please give me advice on monitors, I really need one that's is low on eye strain, as I have to work on my PC for long hours and the one I have the moment hurts my eyes at times when I work on it all day.

[cool_dude]

REccomend a TFT as they are low in eye strain (as ive read) im getting one soon, and i play games alot.. and get headaches sometimes.

sorry if i cant help anymore, but any tft is low on eye strain :)

cool_dude

[Big Adam]

Two areas to consider really. First is the monitor and the second is the graphics card.

A high end monitor will still look appalling if fed via a low end card or dodgy on-board graphics.

A decent brand CRT monitor will do you fine set at as high a refresh rate as possible without affecting performance. A colleague of mine at work complained of huge headaches. I simply upped her refresh rate from 60Hz to 75Hz and the problem disappeared.

Clearly a TFT will cut the 'flickering' effect but unless you get one with a decent response time <=16ms then you may find ghosting in fast moving games.

I'd say that most gamers would opt for a decent CRT over a TFT.

[jibstar]

I have a Raedon 9600 graphics card, I changed the settings my monitor form 60Hz to 75 Hz I see how it goes for the next week.

[Big Adam]

You might be able to crank it to 85. Only reason I went to 75 was i was limited by the hardware at work.

[jibstar]

Thanks Adam, I tried 85Hz, no luck though.

[DT1]

What resolution are you currently using?

And for that matter what monitor do you have? :)

[jibstar]

At the moment I have some old Panasonic CRT monitor.

Is screen resolution the same as pixel area? If it is then its 1024 x 768.

[jibstar]

Are bascially saying the greater the frequency is on a monitor, the less likely it will cause eye strain?

[Mojo]

I have my monitor running at 100Hz and i have been staring at it for pretty much 2 weeks straight (not literly!) doing programming and i havent felt any eye strain. So basically i think the higher the refresh rate the better.

[cool_dude]

ive just put mine on 85hz, (was 75)

and haven't noticed any diffrence yet...

one thing, on the setting the box was ticked (where it says about damging your monitor etc) and the highest its allowed me to go with it ticked is 85 so im assuming thats fine??

Haven't had a headache for ages @ 75hz.. shouldn't have none @ 85hz :p

[brumster]

To cut eyestrain you're all overlooking some of the more basic points, and the best thing is they're all free!

Firstly, try looking away from it every now and then. Just a relaxation of the eyes to something at a different focal distance - look at the wall, or out the window, or whatever. Just change your focus to something else.

Also, try not to have the brightness too high - fiddle with the settings and try dropping the brightness/contrast to a useable level.

Finally, and most importantly, starting at a bright screen when it's got a very dark backdrop (ie. whatever is immediately behind the monitor and to the sides) will put strain on your eyes. Doom III might look great when you're playing it completely in the dark, but staring at a bright screen in the dark will not do you any favours. Best is to have a bright backlight around the monitor - a white wall, a none-too-bright window maybe (not necessarily a lamp, and certainly not shooting straight into your eyes, but you get the idea).

Refresh rates of anything less than 75Hz are a bit outdated these days - most things should be above that by now.

P.S. Ok, I know, Doom III doesn't have any bright bits in it :D

[ViperVenoM]

aye the refresh upping did me wonder too was stuck at 60hz on my old monitor, got me a nice new flat screen crt 100hz @ 1280x1024 no headaches whhaattsoever! i used to get them every...frigging 5min on my last monitor

im never going TFT! :D