They all advertise the highest res and refresh, using it was another matter, with the video cards and ram they had and then the monitor and how readable text was at a given CRT size and res and refresh.
My memory is bad but at the time most everything was 1280x1024. I was not buying displays everyday but we had lots of HMI projects and they were all like 1024x768 and 1280x1024 at 60Hz. no one in the office or on projects bothered with 75 or 80Hz. That is what everything had been and we were used to it. Maybe other were more affected but I worked on them all day and gamed and messed with them at home most nights and it was never the headache inducing unusable experience some speak of. I remember (sort of) messing with a 75 or 80hz and it had other issues. I want to say my last CRT was 17" but forget make, model, res and refresh rate. Being old is not fun.
I have no idea about others but just for fun I looked up what was one of the last Sony 17" CRTs.
Saw something that said they stopped in 2004 and this one came out in 2003.
CPD-200ES
On the cover sheet:
• Digital Multiscan Technology supports multiple PC and Mac resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 @ 60Hz
Then in the specs:
640 x 480 @ 60Hz VGA Graphics
640 x 480 @ 85 Hz VESA
800 x 600 @ 75Hz VESA
800 x 600 @ 85Hz Macintosh 16"
832 x 624 @75Hz VESA
1024 x 768 @ 75Hz VESA
1024 x 768 @ 85Hz VESA
1280 x1024 @ 60 Hz VESA
I'm sure I was at 1280x1024 @ 60Hz rather than a lower res. You forget how small those resolutions were but I wanted 1280x1024 more than 75Hz.
Even if the HMI was in 1024x768 I was in 1280x1024 so I had more room for toolbars and the like.