The Ultimate Guide for CRT Gaming on a Modern PC

CRU download page:
My last video on WHY CRTs are better than LCDs:
Nvidia display detection firmware fix for pre-20 series cards:

[DaiAtlus]

5:55 or just get a Displayport to VGA adapter (i had one, nice lil thing)

[thatzaliasguy]

Pro tip from 1998:

-LCD Gamma: 2.1-2.4 (2.2 recommended)
-CRT Gamma: 1.64-1.78 (tweaking required)

[ConsoleCombat]

FINE! I just bought a 19" CRT from a neighbour that can do 120hz at 720p just because of your videos. YOU HAPPY NOW!

[edin]

A note to anyone who's new to crts: If your Crt isn't pitch black after the contrast adjustments you might need to mess with the flyback transformer. Don't worry you won't get shocked by doing something as easy as that.

[BrunodeSouzaLino]

People complaining about how heavy a CRT monitor is is invited to carry the 29" Sharp TV I used to have. All of its weight was at the glass tube, there was no reasonable place to grab it for transport and it weighted around 45 Kg or 99 lbs.

[woohoo]

Step 1: find a CRT
Step 2: plug it into a modern PC
Step 3: game

[TheRetroRaven]

When you mention "DOS runs in 640x400" because the lines are doubled (320x200), that's actually not entirely true, only for games/programs using the graphics modes.
DOS (the prompt or whatever you'd call it) runs in 720x400 in VGA (textmode). And I believe it's usually at 72Hz, not 70Hz (yes, very weird).
The characters are 9x16 pixels each, resulting in (80*9)x(16*25) = 720x400 resolution.
MDA/Hercules is 720x350, EGA is 640x350, and CGA is 640x200 (respectively 9x14, 8x14 and 8x8 fonts).

Otherwise thank you for a very interesting video. I've got a Samsung Syncmaster 1200nf (a beast of a monitor) which is currently used with my retro PCs, but could be fun to hook it up to my modern gaming PC, especially for when I run PCem and DOSBox on it.

[boro]

Wow, so much good info in this video. You definitely know your stuff. Thank you for putting this all together into one clean video. There's a plethora of CRT info out there but it's all buried in obscure forums. Also, like you said, knowing the 'why' behind all these settings really helps. Seriously, thank you.

[sonyx]

Damn, look how gorgeous it looks @19:12 with that clarity and no motion blur!

[thohillesland]

One very important thing i would like to add, while the cheap HDMI to VGA adapters that you showed are fine, they have a very limited pixelclock. They are made to not support anything over 1920x1080 at 60hz, in the description for most of them it even says so. For monitors with smaller resolutions (1280×960 or under), that isn't a problem at all. However if you have a 1600x1200 monitor and want to do even 65hz, these cheap adapters will not be enough!

If you have a monitor like this, you will need a more specialized adapter. I believe the Delock 62967 is what a lot of people recommend. It supports resolutions up to 2560x1600 @ 60hz, which for most monitors should be more than enough. I myself am using that adapter with a Fujitsu Siemens 19T3 which i am running at 1600x1200 @ 85hz.

[MikeStu]

Recently bought a brand new (well, or at least unboxed for 20 years) HP s7502. Your channel's been a blessing!

[joman]

I have a bunch of tips for using a crt in modern games. Tip 1- most crt's are 4:3 but many modern games dont support that aspect ratio! You can add 16-9 or 16 -10 resolutions to get around this. Tip-2 because these aspect ratios are shorter, they use up less bandwidth for the crt. With a 16-9/10 aspect ratio you will be able to get even higher refresh rates than at 4-3. Tip-3 some games dont play well with weird or low resolutions. On amd cards(im sure this can be done on nvidia too) there is a feature called vsr that lets your gpu display a high res image on the native res screen, without software even knowing. For example my settings are 1022 by 600(16-9~) but with vsr windows lets me choose 1080p or 1440p 4k etc. -Tip-4 -experimental stuff. If you want the highest refresh rate, you need a shorter hight res, but that makes you loose out on detail. One way to this is with a 21 by 9 resolution! This will be quite narrow on an already small screen, but allows for some really high refresh rates while still maintaining a high res(on the witdth ) image. Ive gotten 150 hz with a res of 1260-540. Or 130hz at 1470 by 630

[DukeNet]

Loved your previous video and now this video on CRTs. Super underrated channel. ❤️

[ReclaimerTyphoon]

I really need to look up the e-waste facilities around here. I've been maining a Trinitron for a while now, and it's really great (for everything except reading) compared to an LCD, and every day of my life I've regretted throwing out the Dell P1130 I pulled from a dumpster 10 years ago (threw it out in the name of "saving space on my desk" - and my desk did look great afterward, but... I was a fool).

The monitor I have now was being thrown away at work, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (covering in a department I didn't actually work in, happened to be sitting there when someone walked by with it).

I need to channel that kind of luck more...

[kersencranwill]

Lmao the dell m991 that is on your eBay screen shot just so happens to be the exact one I purchased. A few weeks ago. I offered the guy 50 for it not expecting him to accept it but he did anyways. I couldn’t be happier with the monitor. 19 inches is the perfect screen size in my opinion

[ffwast]

"unless you live in the middle of nowhere" ah, there it is. High prices for me.

[d.ryan]

I was ultra close to go with CRT route for pc but instead settled with grandmas CRT TV for retro consoles + emulation with SCART converter from laptop. I hit jackpot after discovering that this old Phillips is capable of running both PAL and NTSC. When it comes to pc gaming, for me "CRT's are better" argument has finally fallen after experiencing recent 2024 OLED monitors, with HDR and VRR, running at over 120 fps.

[RedSntDK]

CRU is a blessing. Replaces old PowerStrip that used to do that way back in the day.

[MrSamadolfo]

🙂 neat, i have a Sony CRT in the attic, it was my brothers, I kept it for nostalgic reasons and because I felt sorry to throw it away, I'll bring it down one of these days and try some of ur recommendations, thanks and be good.

[blendernoob]

This was such an awesome video. I have been daily driving my Sun CRT for almost a year now, and I love it pieces, and I discovered most of the guidelines here on my own. Thanks for making a video that condenses the best tips for CRT usage all in one video! I will definitely make a resolution just for movies at 72 hz, I had no idea about that, and will definitely make a 640x400 resolution as well.

Here are some CRT tips I can provide as well.

1. If a game will still not adhere to the resolution or refresh rate you have set up, try running the game in borderless windowed mode. If the game supports it, the game will adhere to your current desktop resolution and refresh rate and it will be really nice. If the game doesn't have borderless windowed, get Borderless Gaming.
2. Some games, mostly older ones still have dev consoles or CFG files to configure to fix resolution and refresh rate disparities. For example, 2 commands I use all the time in id tech games are r_displayRefresh "x", and vid_restart. Some of these games are locked to 60hz by default, and by putting r_displayRefresh and vid restart once you start up the game will force the game to run at that refresh and resolution combo you set up. Removing those unwanted resolutions and refresh combos like in the video will also fix this problem, but for some reason if I screw with my resolutions to much, the name of my monitor will be "wired display" in the settings pannel and in some games and that bugs me a bunch.
3. Some games will not support 4:3 aspect ratios anymore. Examples of these include the newer RE Engine games, the newer call of duty games, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and The Last of Us Remake. A common fix for this is to get flawless widescreen and fix the aspect ratio that way, or to get a ultwawide mod. Try that or in the case of call of duty, check out the config files and set the aspect ratio to "standard."
4. It also doesn't hurt to run games at stretched 16:9 aspect ratios if you cannot fix the problem at all. I run Pizza Tower at 950x540, and Syndicate 2011 at 1280x720, and they look fine for the most part. Pizza Tower in particular looks incredible with the perfect scan lines. Also 1280x720 can produce very faint scan lines, not as noticble as 1024x768, but it is still there. Running a game like Eastward at that resolution is really awesome, as that is a game that is letterboxed and has a native resolution of 720p given it is a Switch port.
5. If a game as a super sampling option and your GPU can handle it, definitely take advantage of it! In the case of Call of Duty, The game has a super sampling slider in the options, so I can run the game at 800x600 at 160hz and with 2x super sampling making it 1600x1200, it really sharpens up the image making almost look like 1600x1200. You get the advantage of high refresh rate, higher performance and a sharp image.
6. A good fix for most of these problems is just launching your game at the resolution and refresh rate you want to play at before you launch the game. This is especially good for games running in Unity or Unreal Engine. If the resolution and refresh rate is different when you start the game, change it to the resolution you want, leave the game and come back and it will most likely adhere to what you want.
7. Finally, TURN OFF YOUR CRT WHEN YOU ARE NOT USING IT. Not only do they eat up more power than LCDs, but they can burn in as well if you have the same image on them for a really long time. I don't know if CRTs burn in faster than oleds, but its good to be safe. Use a screen saver, have your displays turn off automatically, and when you are done using your tube for the day, turn it off.


If any of these tips are incorrect or there are anythings I am forgetting, please tell me. CRTs are so incredible, and we definitely lost a ton of awesome stuff when we switched to LCDs. Even though CRTs exited my life around age 12, I am so fortunate to have a 21 inch beast of a display to play games on.