I have the 3 (I guess) best CRTs ever made (not counting rebrands), below is a list with whats best about each of them since I had the opportunity to test them personally:

CRT Mitsubishi 2070SB - best all-around CRT, sharpness/convergence potentiometers accessible with long screwdriver without removing casing, service menu accessible without special hardware, two D-SUB ports with easy switch on the front panel

CRT Sony F520 - most vivid colors/contrast (by only about 10%)

CRT Sony FW900 - largest and widescreen (16:10)

Some of them advertise special color modes (Professional, Vivid, SuperBright, ...) and none of them were any good, the default one is always the best, for all types of content.

The first being in actual use (only have space for one on my desk), the others are in storage as backups when the first one dies. But all 3 are very good, its just that the 2070SB is the most convenient to use and is compatible with both old and new games in 4:3.

bahamutfan64 wrote:

- LaCie Electron 22 Blue IV, which had been rebranded a bunch of times. Can go up to 2048x1536@85Hz, although it's a bit blurry using Windows 10 and a GTX970. I do wonder if the RAMDACs on modern cards, in spite of pretty much all of them being 400MHz, are simply inferior in driving analog displays at high resolutions and refresh rates compared to those of the early 2000s.

Try downloading CRU by ToastyX and create a new "Detailed Resolution" at 2560x1920@57.21Hz. The refresh rate cannot be higher than 57.21Hz because it is limited by your 400MHz RAMDAC (see "Pixel clock" on my screenshot below). It will uncomfortably flicker on desktop (or anything mostly white) but in games its not really that noticeable and looks so good. Best for games like Half Life 2 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R where the textures are overdone with tiny details, unlike in most games.

Also, if you delete all the other resolutions via CRU and leave only one(!) then you can turn on NVIDIA DSR feature where it will downsample for example 5120x3840 down to your 2560x1920. I use this trick to downsample 2048x1536 to 1024x768 and then blast it at 160Hz (great for fast paced games such as Quake 3). Coupled with forced 16x anisotropic filtering and 60% digital vibrance, both set in NVIDIA control panel, and games look a lot nicer than native 1024x768.

Your Electron Blue should be sharp upto only 1024x768 just like any other CRT. After that its a bit blurry (especially corners) unless you crank the resolution to 2560x1920 and/or use a refresh rate of max 60Hz. Lowering contrast also makes it sharper but its good only for text/web because the picture is dark and washed out.

I have not noticed any difference in output quality on older GPUs, I think its just that older Windows had their font optimized for CRTs and newer ones have it optimized for LCDs. On the 2070SB, I am able to switch back and forth between two computers with a button and never noticed any difference, and I tried looking for it. But I would think that there are GPU/CRT combinations where this issue happens, possibly with the cheapest or oldest GPUs/CRTs.

Amigaz wrote:

I'm curious what monitor you use with your RETRO RIG

I use the one in my signature. It's fantastic for both my Commodore obsession and my DOS gaming fun. It has a ton of ports (RCA, S-Video, VGA and DVI) and works for everything I have. I was lucky enough to find it at a Goodwill for $5.