Power Management (DPMS) - Intel and
Microsoft developed a standard together called Advanced Power Management (APM), which is a
Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) interface between the Operating System (OS) and the video
hardware (graphics card and monitor.) In effect, DPMS/APM allows the OS to switch your
monitor into various states of low power during intervals of nonuse. Three main modes of
power down are stand-by, suspend and off. These modes are signaled by varying the synch
pulse to the monitor. Standby mode is the quickest to recover from (blank screen to
readability), while suspend takes longer and off will require you to manually push the on
button.
This basically concludes the CRT section. All in all, your eye is the best
discriminating tool you can use. If possible have the monitors set up side by side and
compare coloring, brightness, clarity and screen size. Not all people see monitors in the
same way, so that saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" applies very
much here.
