Bumping up my monitor screen refresh - dangerous? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I just bought the new Dell 24" monitor.

Honestly, the monitor is giving me a headache.
It may be that I am sitting too close to such a
huge display.

I am also thinking that bumping up the refresh
rate may help.

The monitor is currently set at 60 herz.

Is it dangerous to bump it upo to 100?

Would like to hear your thoughts.

 

[Gabriel.H]

Normally your display adapter (video card) will be set to only allow the refresh rates that are compatible with your monitor, you should see this option under where the refresh rate selection is found named "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" make sure there is a check mark in that box. So I say go for it!

 

[MikeEn]

Ron,

One assumes this is the 2405FPW? Flat panels aren't really like CRTs. They run at lower refresh rates and look great. I run my 20" Dell at 60 Hz, which would make my head explode on a CRT. Looks terrific. Check the specs, but most FPs can only run at 60 HZ, some can do 76 Hz at lower resolutions IIRC.

On resolution, you should make sure you are running at the native resolution, which IIRC is 1920x1200 on that unit. Anything lower will look a little blurry due to upconversion.

ME

 

[DaveF]

Had an eloquent reply and the submission failed, losing the text

Short version:

If CRT, increase refresh rate, according to your video card and monitor limitations.

If LCD, it's not the problem.

CRT pixels are scanned and refreshed in brightness at the refresh rate. People can notice this up to 60-70 Hz, and flicker, like with fluourescnt bulbs, can be annoying.

LCD pixels are held on or held off. There's no flicker. The refresh rate determines the fastest a pixel can be turned on and off. A slow refresh rate will leaded to smearing of graphics during motion. But it won't cause a constant flickering (or strobing) effect as with a CRT.

 

[Gabriel.H]

Yes...all true. I had assumed a CRT monitor was being used. I thought a 24 inch CRT monitor was pretty unlikely, but hey...stranger things have happened.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Your problem is probably not refresh rate, but either resolution or tuning related.

If you try to set the refresh rate higher than 60 or possibly 75hz, the monitor won't even show an image usually if it's a TFT.

A TFT monitor out of the box isn't set up properly to show the image with full sharpness, and if you're running at any resolution other than the ideal resolution for your monitor, it will look like... uh... crud.

First of all, then - are you running at the full native resolution of the monitor? In other words, 1920x1200 pixels. That is crucial for image quality and sharpness, as the LCD panel has exactly that many pixels on it. Any other resolution will cause the monitor to start emulating that non-native resolution which has fairly catastrophic effects on sharpness.

Secondly, have you tuned the monitor to fit your graphics card? There are things in the monitor settings like timing (or clock) and phase that you need to tinker with to get right.

Often monitors have an auto setup that works well, but sometimes you may have to tune those manually.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hi, Kimmo!

The resolution is indeed at the proper
setting you indicated.

The problem I found is that the monitor
is very bright - as reported in many reviews.

I actually had to turn the brightness down to
"0", which greatly helped curb the eye strain.

I'll tinker more with the settings if I
am still not satisfied.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Aha.

I have a bit of the same problem myself, but it's not so bad when I have a measly 17 inch LCD myself.

I can imagine 24 inches of sun-like brightness might be a bit overwhelming.

Making sure the room you are using it in is brightly lit would help your eyes adjust too, I think.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Wear sunglasses.