[perching_aix]

Yeah, DDC and EDID were standardized in '94, and were widely available and working well by '98 - if you were on Windows at least, running fresh hardware.

> This monitor could do something like 75Hz at 800x600, and I think < 60 at 1080p.

Assuming both modes were meant with 24-bit color ("true color"), that'd mean 17.36 Hz tops then for the FHD mode, ignoring video timing requirements. I don't think you were using that monitor at 17 Hz.

Even if you fell back to 16 bit color, that's still at most 26 Hz, which is miserable enough on a modern sample-and-hold style display, let alone on a strobed one from back in the day. And that is to say nothing of the mouse input feel.