Datasheet
61
CHAPTER 3
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MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP
Figure 3.1. The most common desktop resolution settings are readily
accessible in the Display Properties dialog box.
Next, your LCD will look its best at its native resolution which should be
listed on the box or at the manufacturer’s Web site. Though your LCD mon-
itor can perform scaling (taking an input at one resolution and changing it
to another), you’re better off passing it a signal that doesn’t require addi-
tional calculations and incur dithering and jaggies in the process.
Third, pixel response time is typically slower than CRTs. If you plan on
playing high-speed games with intense graphical changes, LCDs will blur
and look messy, because the crystals can’t change as fast as CRT pixels in
response to the video signal. There are some expensive LCD monitors with
response times of approximately 8 milliseconds, but most are in the 18–25ms
range.
Finally, Windows XP has a feature made initially for laptops called
ClearType. This is a font dithering algorithm that can make screen fonts
look cleaner. You can try using it on your LCD monitor to see if it helps with
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