Monitor selection assistance

[Bruzey]

Hello! I've only ever owned two monitors in my entire life, one being a big ass CRT, and the other being this Viewsonic 19 inch I purchased roughly 6 years ago I would say. I'm in the market for a new one, and originally I was going to go with a TN panel because they're cheap, and I do play a lot of FPS's, however in one of the Techtips video's Linus states "get anything but TN at this point". That made me start researching IPS/MVA/PVA/whatever the hell else.

I'm basically asking for a little guidance, I would like something in the 22" to 24" range, and no more than $200 canadian and 1920x1080 would be amazing, considering I've been on 1280x1024 for the last 6+ years.

I know any monitor I purchase at this point will likely be an upgrade over my current monitor ( http://www1.viewsonic.com/products/archive/va903b.htm#tabbox_specs ) but there's a few things I'm unsure of. My current monitor is 8ms, which to be perfectly honest, I had a hard time adjusting to long ago. I noticed ghosting in any FPS I played, but I guess I eventually just got used to it because I no longer notice it, but I had picked out two monitors, and one says "GTG" while the other doesn't. Does that mean if one monitor is 5ms GTG, and the other is 5ms non GTG, is there much of a difference? or is "GTG" just a marketing term and that's the generic way to measure monitor MS, and it can be left out or threw into specs and it's just assumed?

Another is, which panel would be best for me? I always read ("TN = FPS") ("IPS = anything you need true colour") and VA's were known for horrendous ghosting issues, but I seem to read mixed reviews where one person once owned a horrible one, and can't change their opinion, while others defend VA panels. Keep in mind, I do play FPS's but I've been playing on this 8ms monitor for 6+ years now, and I'm assuming that anything would be better and have less ghosting than this currently does.

These are two of the monitors I was looking at, if anything, I would like this to be a bit of an educational thing, IE statistics to look for, things to stay away from when selecting a monitor, there are tons of specs to go by but when you don't really know which does what, it's rather hard to know if there's a point to them being there.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=24-236-288&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=4&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=24-009-255&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=4&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

Any help to point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated, thanks =)

[GoodBytes]

You should check out my monitor guide here (I think I'll transfer it to this forum when I have more time on my hand): http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=218867

You'll better understand monitor, and why your 8ms response time monitor was probably a big lie. Read everything!

To me, the 2 monitor you are looking at are both crap. I would definitely save money and get a proper monitor.

I strongly believe that for the best computer experience you need:

-> An adjustable stand monitor. Having this monitor this low, is just plain ridiculous

-> Non glossy, so that you can focus on your work or gaming, and not reflections

-> Solid build quality. People tend to keep the monitor for a long time.

-> Decent brand.. well I mean not the Acer one. ASUS one is fine, although it is a very low end monitor from ASUS.

[Bruzey]

Thank you! also appreciate the time you put into that thread for people like me =)

[GoodBytes]

Glad I could help :)

[NewKID]

keep that crt!