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I am planning to buy a CRT (low price, high refresh rate, no ghosting, no input lag). On some specs page they list different values for maximum refresh rates and preset signal timing.

For example on the specs page of Sony E430 I can read:

Preset signal timing

VGA      640 x 480/60 Hz
EVGA     640 x 480/75 Hz
VESA     640 x 480/85 Hz
VGA-Text 720 x 400/70 Hz
VESA     720 x 400/85 Hz
SVGA     800 x 600/60 Hz
ESVGA    800 x 600/75 Hz
VESA     800 x 600/85 Hz
Mac 16"  832 x 624/75 Hz
VESA     1024 x 768/60 Hz
VESA     1024 x 768/70 Hz
EUVGA    1024 x 768/75 Hz
Mac 19"  1024 x 768/75 Hz
VESA     1024 x 768/85 Hz
VESA     1152 x 864/75 Hz
VESA     1152 x 864/85 Hz
Mac 2    1152 x 870/75 Hz
VESA     1280 x 960/60 Hz
VESA     1280 x 960/85 Hz
VESA     1280 x 1024/60 Hz
VESA     1280 x 1024/75 Hz
VESA     1280 x 1024/85 Hz
VESA     1600 x 1200/60 Hz
VESA     1600 x 1200/65 Hz
VESA     1600 x 1200/70 Hz
VESA     1600 x 1200/75 Hz

Maximum refresh rates:

800 x 600/155 Hz
1024 x 768/121 Hz
1280 x 1024/91 Hz
1600 x 1200/78 Hz

Is this "maximal refresh rate" a theoretical maximal limit which I cannot set? Or is it possible to get 120Hz at 1024x768?

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@Simon Sheehan - Not constructive: he gave four (4) reasons! – sawdust Sep 10 '11 at 0:07
@sawdust I know that, but CRT monitors are ancient technology now.. – Simon Sheehan Sep 10 '11 at 0:12
@Simon Sheehan - It's "ancient" mostly because the consumer has been deluded in to believing that thin (aka flat) is the most important attribute of a display (followed by refresh rate now that 1080p is the "standard" resolution). There are many parameters for a good display, some of which CRTs surpass a LCD. An unwanted-by-you technology is not necessarily an inferior technology. – sawdust Sep 10 '11 at 1:09
and power usage and. I've got an older CRT. darn thing heats up a fair bit. What i miss is the ability to get 5:4 monitors. I prefer them sometimes to widescreens. – Journeyman Geek Sep 10 '11 at 1:28
There is one area, where these aspects (refresh rate, ghosting, input lag) are very important: it is fast paced high fps gaming (think quake, unreal, etc). Also, people will say, you can't differentiate 60Hz from 120Hz. I say its rubbish. We did informal blind tests and I could tell every time the difference. The 120hz feels really smooth compared to 60 or 75hz. – gnidoc Sep 10 '11 at 9:05
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1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

The preset resolution rates are standards which most video cards should support out of the box. The maximum refresh rates are supported by the monitor, however might not be supported by the video card you are using. You need to check your video card's specification to see if it will support 120Hz @ 1024x768. This shouldn't be a problem in most modern video cards, though.

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On some spec pages they only lists presets (1024x768: 85hz), but they also write "Vertical Frequency (Hz) 50 to 160 Hz", what does this 160Hz refer to? – gnidoc Sep 9 '11 at 23:15
horizontal refresh is the time it takes the electron gun to make a draw from left to right and move back to the left. Vertical refresh is the time it takes the electron gun to draw all the horizontal refresh rates (the entire screen) and move back up to the top. – Keltari Sep 9 '11 at 23:20
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