4 ms·
Let's not forget that you could freely adjust the refresh rate to resolution ratio to the maximum bandwidth supported by the monitor. On my old 21" CRT, I woul
by ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Let's not forget that you could freely adjust the refresh rate to resolution ratio to the maximum bandwidth supported by the monitor. On my old 21" CRT, I would have the desktop at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz for maximum productivity and when gaming I would switch to 1024x768 @ 120Hz for "pwning n00bs" in Unreal Tournament '99/Quake 3 Arena.
Meanwhile my 2019 4K display is a fixed 60Hz regardless of how much I lower the resolution. What a downgrade.
I heard some modern gaming displays now also let you crank up the Hz as you lower the resolution, but every cheap CRT could do this back in the days as everything was purely analog so the limit was the bandwidth of your monitor and you were free to experiment with any resolution to refresh rate ratio between the available bandwidth in your GPU control panel as the RAMDAC of the GPU did all the heavy lifting in driving the display, while now, the driving is handled internally by the LCD control board so whatever the manufacturer decides, you're stuck with.
Most CRTs also supported overclocking beyond factory spec, but you really ran the risk of frying some internal components after long term use. Ask me how I know.
- beebeepka 4y agoThere was nothing quite like Quake 3 in 800x600 @ 120hz. The smoothness and incredibly low input lag. I maintain that it was better, in many ways, than my current position 1440p @ 180hz setup. Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. It was very noticeable, especially at the time when my body was still young. I am still twitchy but not even close to what I could pull off 20 years ago. Mid 2000s to early 2010 were tough for monitor enthusiasts. LCDs were total crap and the vast, vast majority of gamers, let alone regular consumers, couldn't even wrap their heads around the whole FPS / Hz thing. The stupid 3d TV push didn't help much either because the masses were convinced all these TVs could do 100/200/400 etc. refresh rates even though the hdmi input was capped at 60 hz. Scary times
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago>Sadly, UT99 was capped at 85 or 90 hz. Such were the days when videogame engines tied the physics to the framerate, as having too many FPS would basically ruin the game. Just ask present day Bethesda :D
- nyanpasu64 4y agoSadly CRT SDTVs don't allow increasing the horizontal refresh rate beyond around 15.7 KHz (480i or 240p). I wish I had a CRT monitor, but don't have a space set out for it, and haven't looked for one.
- dontlaugh 4y agoYou get the same with OLED TVs. You often have a practical choice between 4k @ 60HZz and 1080p @ 120Hz, whether you're using a PC or a console.