M992 19" crt question

I had the 17" flat screen, M782 crt monitor for awhile.  I just got the M992, 19" flat screen crt monitor the other day.  I noticed that playing my games at a resolution 1024x768 on my 17", looks a lot better then they do on my 19" at the same resolution.  I have to crank up the resolution to 1280x1024 to get the same crisp picure.  The specs on the two monitors are almost identical.  I've never had a 19" monitor before, so is this normal?  Or is the M992 just not a good monitor?