3D Gaming - State of the Market? Advice?

[Trajan]

I didn't see anything in the forums the past couple of weeks and thought I'd start a thread asking for any advice or updates on 3D gaming. I'm thinking ahead to Christmas and my tax refund and thinking that this might be the next big upgrade for me. I'm just starting to research this!

* Does anyone have a favorite resource/forum/thread/techsite for info on 3D gaming? I recall there was a blog or other ancillary post from an AT writer highly endorsing 3D gaming but it wasn't in the nature of a full review..

* Paging through the offerings at NewEgg, it looks like there are maybe three 120mhz displays on the market right now. Does anyone have a sense of how soon more will be coming out?

* Is 240mhz display tech something we're going to see in the next 6 months or so, or is this still years away at the consumer level?

* Going 3D basically involves double rendering every scene in the game (right?)--when predicting FPS, does it work as a rough measure to halve whatever you would get with a graphics card in normal use?

* I've looked a little bit into the nVidia hardware - looks like a glasses/transmitter set costs around $180 (on top of getting a 120mhz display). Are there major pros/con comparisons with AMD's solutions? I assume they have something similar (or will soon!).

* Biggest question of all (for me).. I know I'm going to be a bit of an early adopter if I go for this, and waiting is always better.. but are there any major developments anticipated in the next year that are definitely, absolutely worth waiting for?


Seems to me like the entry cost is pretty steep.. $300-400 for a 120mhz display.. $180 or so for the glasses/kit. And with my GTX 285, I'm guessing I'll probably need to go SLI (or go in for a major upgrade?) in order to get decent framerates on newer games. (Most) people who have been playing 3D say its an entirely new and kick ass experience though. Maybe I can talk my microcenter into setting up a demo station..

Sorry for all the questions but I figure there must be some other folks interested in this too. Thanks to anyone who has info or advice to share!!

 

[Arkadrel]

Is it really 180$ for 1 pair of 3d glasses/kit? does that mean if you want a intire family watching 3d you need to buy 3-4 kits (one for each family member). That along with a 400$ pc screen ouchies.

 

[Trajan]

I think there's a different kit made for 3D TV that might be at a different price point and have more glasses.. the $180 kit ($200 retail, but $20 at newegg) is just a single pair but is meant for sitting at a PC..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814998033

Since you're likely only going to have one person sitting at the PC this isn't so ridiculous.

There's also currently an ASUS 23" screen at newegg that includes the nVidia kit, for $500 total. That doesn't address any extra costs you would have if you need to upgrade your GPU(s) though.

(I'm not trying to be nVidia or newegg fanboyish, these are just the first places I've started looking)

 

[Bandit1]

Here's a very recent article.http://3dvision-blog.com/amd-hd3d-technology-what-you-shouldve-know-from-the-start/

AMD's 3d solution is a mess atm(imo,of curse),but i guess it's to be expected since Nvidia has had a nice headstart and is proprietary.I'm certainly hoping it gets worked out better in the next couple months.

Here are a couple upcoming monitors that have'nt hit the U.S. market quite yet,but are in europe now.

Nvidia certified.

http://www.sciencemagnews.com/benq-xl2410-led-backlit-gaming-display.html

First AMD certified,i think,to come.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/10/15/viewsonic-launches-24in-3d-monitor/1

Here are the 3 main sources to try and get a better understanding,too.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=209

http://forum.iz3d.com/

http://www.ddd.com/technology/technology.html


My general assesment is,atm,less headaches with nvidia and more straight forward.I am trying to wait out the AMD situation.I've got to give them a bit more times with fresh 6x drivers and HDMI 1.4a to decide.

 

[Seero]

I didn't see anything in the forums the past couple of weeks and thought I'd start a thread asking for any advice or updates on 3D gaming. I'm thinking ahead to Christmas and my tax refund and thinking that this might be the next big upgrade for me. I'm just starting to research this!

* Does anyone have a favorite resource/forum/thread/techsite for info on 3D gaming? I recall there was a blog or other ancillary post from an AT writer highly endorsing 3D gaming but it wasn't in the nature of a full review..

* Paging through the offerings at NewEgg, it looks like there are maybe three 120mhz displays on the market right now. Does anyone have a sense of how soon more will be coming out?

* Is 240mhz display tech something we're going to see in the next 6 months or so, or is this still years away at the consumer level?

* Going 3D basically involves double rendering every scene in the game (right?)--when predicting FPS, does it work as a rough measure to halve whatever you would get with a graphics card in normal use?

* I've looked a little bit into the nVidia hardware - looks like a glasses/transmitter set costs around $180 (on top of getting a 120mhz display). Are there major pros/con comparisons with AMD's solutions? I assume they have something similar (or will soon!).

* Biggest question of all (for me).. I know I'm going to be a bit of an early adopter if I go for this, and waiting is always better.. but are there any major developments anticipated in the next year that are definitely, absolutely worth waiting for?


Seems to me like the entry cost is pretty steep.. $300-400 for a 120mhz display.. $180 or so for the glasses/kit. And with my GTX 285, I'm guessing I'll probably need to go SLI (or go in for a major upgrade?) in order to get decent framerates on newer games. (Most) people who have been playing 3D say its an entirely new and kick ass experience though. Maybe I can talk my microcenter into setting up a demo station..

Sorry for all the questions but I figure there must be some other folks interested in this too. Thanks to anyone who has info or advice to share!!

Get yourself a 3d discoverer and experience it first. You can make one yourself with under 5 bucks. There is a huge thread about 120hz monitor, look it up. Nvidia's 3d forum have a lot of insight from people who have the gears and real experience.

 

[Dribble]

* Paging through the offerings at NewEgg, it looks like there are maybe three 120mhz displays on the market right now. Does anyone have a sense of how soon more will be coming out?

Slowly, there are a few others on the horizon but I wouldn't hold your breath.

* Is 240mhz display tech something we're going to see in the next 6 months or so, or is this still years away at the consumer level?

Years away - hard enough to get it to refresh at 120hz without crosstalk right now.

* Going 3D basically involves double rendering every scene in the game (right?)--when predicting FPS, does it work as a rough measure to halve whatever you would get with a graphics card in normal use?

Depends on the limitation, but yes approximately.

* I've looked a little bit into the nVidia hardware - looks like a glasses/transmitter set costs around $180 (on top of getting a 120mhz display). Are there major pros/con comparisons with AMD's solutions? I assume they have something similar (or will soon!).

Amd doesn't really have a solution and probably won't do for a long time. All they've said is they'll support 3rd parties, which basically means they won't do anything. There are 3rd party apps (which work for nvidia and ati) but they are going to find it very hard to catch up with nvidia due to the advantages the 3d vision team have of working closely with both the nvidia driver writers and the games devs.

* Biggest question of all (for me).. I know I'm going to be a bit of an early adopter if I go for this, and waiting is always better.. but are there any major developments anticipated in the next year that are definitely, absolutely worth waiting for?

Not aware of any, wouldn't surprise me if nvidia come out with a mk2 version of the glasses at some point.

Seems to me like the entry cost is pretty steep.. $300-400 for a 120mhz display.. $180 or so for the glasses/kit. And with my GTX 285, I'm guessing I'll probably need to go SLI (or go in for a major upgrade?) in order to get decent framerates on newer games. (Most) people who have been playing 3D say its an entirely new and kick ass experience though. Maybe I can talk my microcenter into setting up a demo station..

Depends very much on the game, the problem is the games that you really want to play in 3D are the very new ones that support 3D 100% (batman AA, resident evil, metro 2033, etc). Most of those games are pretty taxing without 3D and/or can also be run with physx.

Older games obviously are less taxing but often less worth playing in 3D.

I say this owning a GTX 260, LG 120hz 23 inch full hd screen and borrowing some nvidia glasses. With my current setup I mostly play in 2D (*love* the 120hz) but holding off playing a number of games till I get a new graphics card and can manage to play them in 3D in all their glory.