Should I get a new Monitor ?

[benali72]

My display is like maybe 12 or 15 years old.

It's a Samsung 22" 1920 x 1280 (16:9) 60hz connected by VGA.

I'm wondering, if I bought one of those new sub $100 monitors from Amazon, would it give me a sharper display? Crisper text?

Even if I stuck with VGA? Or would I need to switch to HDMI make a noticeable difference?

Thank you for your advice.

[p310don]

In my experience, there is no perceptible difference between VGA and HDMI.

Is there a problem with what you have?

[Tippe]

I don't have a monitor for around 16 months now.
I'm using a 32 Inch Caixun HD TV and HDMI connection.
Unfortunately it supports only 1360x768 @60hz.
Though, I'm sitting around 2 meters away from the TV,
so 1920x1080 would make me trouble to see anything with my poor eye light.

So, I'm fine and comfortable with that 1360x768 pixels.

[bigpup]

1920 x 1280 (16:9) 60hz is a very good resolution.

There are some other features a monitor has that can affect the display.

If this monitor has internal settings you can access.

Check those settings.

Try doing changes to brightness, contrast, sharpness, if those are available in internal settings.

Do small changes and see how it now looks.

Specs of the monitor has an affect on the display.
So a newer monitor may have better response time, dot pitch, contrast ratio.

Resolution is the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in a display device; a higher resolution uses a greater number of pixels and provides a sharper image.

But the graphics hardware in the computer does have to support a higher resolution to use it.

VGA connection does have a limit on what resolutions it can support.

You are close to max resolution already.

This is general info from the Internet:

VGA
The quality of the signal begins to drop off above 1920x1080 (1080p) which will cause a drop in image quality due to the analogue nature of the signal.

[benali72]

Thank you all for the good advice. I will try Bigpup's good suggestions.

Also thanks for the advice about VGA and HDMI being similar.

Cheers.

[sonny]

If you are planning to buy a new monitor, get at least:
- IPS
- 75Hz (60Hz is SO outdated these days)

*As you age, you may prefer a higher-quality monitor
over a faster CPU or bigger storage

[bigpup]

Just because a monitor can do things does not make it so, that the graphics hardware in the computer, can provide these features.

If you run xrandr in a terminal.

It will give you info on what resolutions and refresh rates are possible.