Hi all,I've posted a few weeks ago that I had purchased a hp 23 inch widescreen monitor but I took it back until I got a better understanding about the LCD monitors. I reviewed your thoughts and in the past few weeks, I've got more information from computer experts. I'm not sure just how much frame rate loss I experienced from switching to the LCD from a CRT but it may be in the order of 5 fps at the most, if that much. According to one computer expert, he said that the LCDs have advanced in technology in the past 4 years and their resposed times are in the order of 2 to 5 ms. The ph I took back had a response time of 5 ms. He also said that todays monitors are much better than the CRTs. I'm using my CRT monitor now and I still experience some jerky movements, especially in high scene settings, and it may not have been the LCD monitor that was causing the slow frame rates of around 8 to 12 fps. It's really hard to tell because I can only use one of them at a time. I just have to remember what the frame rate was on a particular scene when I compare the CRT to the LCD. From what I have learned in the past few weeks, the LCD monitors should not pose any frame rate loss and replacing the video card might not be a bad idea. I have the old Ge Force Ti 4200, which is 128MB of video memory. I have the Ge Force 6200 and it's 256 MB of video memory and I guess it's time to switch. The problem I was having with this video card was that when I'm creating a flight in flight simulator, my screens blacks out for a spit second. It only does that when I'm creating a flight and I'm not sure why it does that. However, I may switch to the Ge Force 6200. I'm still thinking about switching back to the LCD monitor and I was told by the people at Bestbuy that I should go with the Samsung or LG monitors and that the hps were the lower end monitors. I was wondering if any of you have the Samsung and LG LCD monitors and how you rate them. Ken Manning

Got three Samsung SyncMaster 2053BW @ 5040x1050, they gave me a pop-up when I raised the res. from 4080x768 not promising performance, but so far they have been good. I

Hi all,I've posted a few weeks ago that I had purchased a hp 23 inch widescreen monitor but I took it back until I got a better understanding about the LCD monitors. I reviewed your thoughts and in the past few weeks, I've got more information from computer experts. I'm not sure just how much frame rate loss I experienced from switching to the LCD from a CRT but it may be in the order of 5 fps at the most, if that much. According to one computer expert, he said that the LCDs have advanced in technology in the past 4 years and their resposed times are in the order of 2 to 5 ms. The ph I took back had a response time of 5 ms. He also said that todays monitors are much better than the CRTs. I'm using my CRT monitor now and I still experience some jerky movements, especially in high scene settings, and it may not have been the LCD monitor that was causing the slow frame rates of around 8 to 12 fps. It's really hard to tell because I can only use one of them at a time. I just have to remember what the frame rate was on a particular scene when I compare the CRT to the LCD. From what I have learned in the past few weeks, the LCD monitors should not pose any frame rate loss and replacing the video card might not be a bad idea. I have the old Ge Force Ti 4200, which is 128MB of video memory. I have the Ge Force 6200 and it's 256 MB of video memory and I guess it's time to switch. The problem I was having with this video card was that when I'm creating a flight in flight simulator, my screens blacks out for a spit second. It only does that when I'm creating a flight and I'm not sure why it does that. However, I may switch to the Ge Force 6200. I'm still thinking about switching back to the LCD monitor and I was told by the people at Bestbuy that I should go with the Samsung or LG monitors and that the hps were the lower end monitors. I was wondering if any of you have the Samsung and LG LCD monitors and how you rate them. Ken Manning

Ken- In general terms- the larger the monitor, the higher the resolution needed to maintain a quality image. Higher resolution = more pixels, all of which have to be computed by a single CPU. I use 2 LCDs - both 5 ms response- in conjunction with a CRT. I can't distinguish one from the other. My video cards are even older- GeForce FX5200's.Jerkiness is almost certain to be caused by the sim needing more pixel output than your CPU can provide. This occurs primarily when the scenery is changing very rapidly- such as on the ground when the airplane swings around quickly or in rapid inflight manoeuvres.If you are getting stutters, try gradually turning back some of the FS display settings.Alex Reid

Ken- In general terms- the larger the monitor, the higher the resolution needed to maintain a quality image. Higher resolution = more pixels, all of which have to be computed by a single CPU. I use 2 LCDs - both 5 ms response- in conjunction with a CRT. I can't distinguish one from the other. My video cards are even older- GeForce FX5200's.Jerkiness is almost certain to be caused by the sim needing more pixel output than your CPU can provide. This occurs primarily when the scenery is changing very rapidly- such as on the ground when the airplane swings around quickly or in rapid inflight manoeuvres.If you are getting stutters, try gradually turning back some of the FS display settings.Alex Reid

Hi Alex,Thanks for explaining. That's basically the way I understand it. I've tried lowering the Display Settings in fs, such as Scenery and Textures, but I didn't see any improved performance. What I really need is a better motherboard with a quad-core processor and a PCIe slot so I can have a better video card. By the way, I want to make sure I understand correctly. When you say CPU, are you referring to the CPU on the motherboard or the CPU on the video card? Does the CPU on the video card handle most of the stress? And is there a good website that explains how they work?Ken.

Hi Ken,Well, I purchased three Samsung SyncMaster T260HD TV/Monitors (25.5"). They are connected via TH2Go Digital @ 5040x1050, my view spans 76.5". Prior to this I had a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB which is an "OUTSTANDING CRT" monitor, the Mitsubishi CRT monitor is FAR superior to the LCD Samsung's I have now.If the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB was still available (new) I would of purchased two more of these at approximately $1,000.00 each. The Samsung's cost me about $1,000.00 for all three. All-In-All, I find the triple Samsung monitor setup more than satisfactory for flight simulation.

When you say CPU, are you referring to the CPU on the motherboard or the CPU on the video card? Does the CPU on the video card handle most of the stress?

Central Processing Unit (CPU) refurs to the proccessor on the motherboard / Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) refurs to the processor on the graphic boardMicrosoft Flight Simulators (FS2004 & FSX) are CPU intensive programs. The GPU comes into play when you begin to increase the resolution and-or Anti-Aliasing / Anisotropic filtering of the Sim.Looking back, I wonder how I ever managed with just one monitor. :(

Hi Alex,Thanks for explaining. That's basically the way I understand it. I've tried lowering the Display Settings in fs, such as Scenery and Textures, but I didn't see any improved performance. What I really need is a better motherboard with a quad-core processor and a PCIe slot so I can have a better video card. By the way, I want to make sure I understand correctly. When you say CPU, are you referring to the CPU on the motherboard or the CPU on the video card? Does the CPU on the video card handle most of the stress? And is there a good website that explains how they work?Ken.

Ken: Mike nailed it- it is the CPU, not video card GPU, that does the heavy lifting. The computation for every frame has to be generated first by the computer processor- then spat out to the video card GPU to be organized for display. So improvement of the CPU will generally give best bang for the buck, as they say.By toning down some FS9 settings, I continue to run triple monitors w triple unified views on a 6 year old AMD XP2200 w 2 GeForce FX5200 video cards. It still works so smoothly I have no hankering to spend money on something better and vastly more complicated!Sure, I tone down some FS9 settings and in some respects miss out on the potential of the sim. On the other hand, I have a (3X) wider view than most simmers and it is SMOOTH. Here are some typical reduced settings-AI very low, Special Effects medium, Terrain Mesh 80%, Scenery Complexity sparse, Autogen sparse, No Sun or Lens Flare, Simple Clouds w medium coverage, Sight Draw Distance zero, 3D Cloud % 60. These settings work well for complex stuff like PMDG 747: less demanding planes /airports allow me to bump them up. I do use Ultimate Terrain and Ground Environment- both full blast, as well as better/finer mesh for my home area.A lot of simmers will giggle at this- on the other hand I have 3 times the pixels in a 45" wide perspective to distract and fool my eyes & brain! And no balance on a credit card!So don't give up on your 'puter yet!Alex Reid