Best Gaming LCD as of Sept 2007?

[FireChicken]

I am not discounting the validity of the 75hz it just seems counterintuitive as we have video cards that can display much higher frame rates than LCD monitors can handle (depending on the resolution). I mean, why do we have video card that can display 100 FPS if all LCD do is toss out frames to get 60 FPS?

I actually went out and bought a used CRT and gaming on a CRT vs LCD is like night and day. At least to me. Color and contrast were not as good but the crispness and smoothness was unprecedented. If the thing didnt take up 3/4 of my desk space and the monitor wasn't 1 foot from my face I probably use it a lot more. I am just not happy with current LCD technology for gaming. But I am super picky.

I play a lot of quake 4 and there are many servers that force high frame rates on you 90, 100, and even 120 FPS. When i play on these servers, since my LCD can only do 75 FPS max, the images get all stuttered and jumpy. The 2 LCDs I have just cant seem to deal with that high of frame rates well.

I feel that LCDs need to evolve a little. For gaming its just not there yet. IMHO

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: CP5670

Originally posted by: Pain999
Yes I and most people can see the difference between 60Hz and higher on a CRT, but a LCD is different technology. Your just fooling yourself if you think you can see the difference between 60 and 75 Hz on a LCD.

It seems that there may actually be a few LCDs out there that do true 75hz without dropping frames. The VP930b is reportedly one of them and the 90GX2 may be as well, although I'm not at all sure about the latter. The higher refresh rate is certainly a plus in that case, as it can display 75fps instead of 60fps on many color transitions. Such monitors would only appear in the smaller sizes though since DVI doesn't support 75hz on anything higher than the 1280x1024/1400x900 level.

What about dual-link DVI ports? These ports are becoming more common on video cards due to the need to drive high resolution displays like 30" LCDs. I'm guessing the additional bandwidth would allow 1680x1050@75Hz at the least.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Arc337
That's news to me! I wonder why that is? Is it a DVI bandwidth limit? What is all this I hear about some 120Hz LCDs coming out (which I assume will be running at least 1366x768)? How will they counter this limit?

Yeah, single link DVI apparently can't go beyond that with the standard blanking interval.

The so-called 120hz LCDs are already out, but they're not 120hz at all. They are 60hz with black frames inserted between the regular frames, which improves the response time in some situations. Some people find them hard on the eyes though.

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
What about dual-link DVI ports? These ports are becoming more common on video cards due to the need to drive high resolution displays like 30" LCDs. I'm guessing the additional bandwidth would allow 1680x1050@75Hz at the least.

Dual link should support higher refresh rates just fine at those resolutions, but the display and its DSP need to support the interface, not just the video card. Those ports only seem to be supported by the 30" LCDs at the moment.

 

[Arc337]

Wow, that's pointless and dizzying - inserting black frames to remove image persistence? Hopefully these new 22" non-overdrive 2ms TN panels will decrease the need for this bad idea.

 

[conlan]

FP93GX+.....Have it, Love it, can't wait for the WSs to meet/exceed it's performance. Until then, i'm sticking with it.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Arc337
Wow, that's pointless and dizzying - inserting black frames to remove image persistence? Hopefully these new 22" non-overdrive 2ms TN panels will decrease the need for this bad idea.

I've never seen them in action personally, but I would imagine that the effect would be similar to seeing flickering on a 60hz CRT. It's a good thing that the feature can be disabled on most of those monitors.

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: FireChicken


I play a lot of quake 4 and there are many servers that force high frame rates on you 90, 100, and even 120 FPS. When i play on these servers, since my LCD can only do 75 FPS max, the images get all stuttered and jumpy. The 2 LCDs I have just cant seem to deal with that high of frame rates well.

I feel that LCDs need to evolve a little. For gaming its just not there yet. IMHO

Sorry but that doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[newschool]

I am gonna explain why we can see the differences between 60HZ and 85HZ on a CRT. Indeed, our eyes cant see that much frame/second BUT what we are seeing is the CRT "ghosting" from the phosphorus. A CRT is harder for the eyes at 60HZ because the
phosphorus pixels have the time to go partially black thats why we see the screen flicker. When you use a 85HZ refresh rate on a CRT, the pixels are displaying a "true" image more often. They dont have that much time to "loose" (in light) the energy the electrons have given to them.

 

[coldmeat]

Originally posted by: j0j081

Originally posted by: FireChicken


I play a lot of quake 4 and there are many servers that force high frame rates on you 90, 100, and even 120 FPS. When i play on these servers, since my LCD can only do 75 FPS max, the images get all stuttered and jumpy. The 2 LCDs I have just cant seem to deal with that high of frame rates well.

I feel that LCDs need to evolve a little. For gaming its just not there yet. IMHO

Sorry but that doesn't make much sense to me.

me neither

 

[Arc337]

Originally posted by: FireChicken
I play a lot of quake 4 and there are many servers that force high frame rates on you 90, 100, and even 120 FPS. When i play on these servers, since my LCD can only do 75 FPS max, the images get all stuttered and jumpy. The 2 LCDs I have just cant seem to deal with that high of frame rates well.

I feel that LCDs need to evolve a little. For gaming its just not there yet. IMHO

Lock your framerate at 120, and if your graphics card will handle it, you'll be double vsync and dropping every other frame, but it'll look great. Your eyes won't be able to catch it if you can keep 120 constant.

 

[jrosenzweig]

So did u get a monitor yet Arc? I'm looking too, will probably go with a Samsung 226BW and take my chances with the panel lottery. Can't seem to find the HP 2207 here in Australia.

 

[alkemyst]

how are the colors on the 22"er's compared to the top 19/20?

I am still on a 21" Sony G500 CRT.

 

[Arc337]

Originally posted by: jrosenzweig
So did u get a monitor yet Arc? I'm looking too, will probably go with a Samsung 226BW and take my chances with the panel lottery. Can't seem to find the HP 2207 here in Australia.

Not yet. I'm apparently waiting for an email from a UK retailer.

I did manage to find another review on the e2201w though: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/12...a-prolite-e2201wb.html

Does anyone know if there's anything new out there right now that could compete with the e2201w or the samsung 2x6bw series? So far, I've only really seen the HP as a contender.

 

[jrosenzweig]

No i think that is about it. I doubt very much that we'll see anything other than 22" TNs as companies will start to focus on 24" now. Most professionals would choose a large panel than a 22", or logically so i would have thought. I've narrowed my choice down to:

Samsung 19" 940BW (with h.a.s.) cheaper option
Samsung 22" 226BW

I'm not an enthusiast but i do enjoy my gaming and i shouldn't be spending up on anything larger although its tempting. I've got an 8800GTS 640Mb so hopefully that will run 1680x1050 ok. But of course Crysis isn't out yet so...

 

[j0j081]

you should go inbetween and get the Samsung 206BW. The extra inch makes a big difference vertically, I found the 226BW to be too large though so this was perfect for me.

 

[jrosenzweig]

Yes i did think about the 206BW but i did read that the pixel pitch made it harder to read text and i didn't want to play around with font sizes. I probably will go with the 226BW as i can afford it. The only thing i don't like about some lcd's is the fact they don't come with height adjustment, which the 940BW has. It would be good for a budget gaming system, mine is more medium.

Any buzzing from your panel?

 

[1ManArmY]

Just picked up a 216BW, no buzzing here. Nice monitor for the price.

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: jrosenzweig
Yes i did think about the 206BW but i did read that the pixel pitch made it harder to read text and i didn't want to play around with font sizes. I probably will go with the 226BW as i can afford it. The only thing i don't like about some lcd's is the fact they don't come with height adjustment, which the 940BW has. It would be good for a budget gaming system, mine is more medium.

Any buzzing from your panel?

well the text isn't that bad unless you are going to be using it for reading for long periods. it's a lot sharper making it easier on the eyes in some ways but it all depends on what you are reading. I've found that if you set the font to 104DPI it makes it almost identical to the size you get on a 19 or 22 inch ws lcd and in Windows Vista you can't even tell the dpi has been messed with because it scales everything so well.

 

[Arc337]

so I was unable to get the Iiyama I wanted... was going to cost me over a cool $650 to my house... now I have $400 burning a hole in my pocket... what should I get? Is there anything better than the 206BW yet?

 

[Arc337]

I saw Xtnight say that he didn't see any panel improvements in the near future, so I couldn't pass up the latest 206BW deal (after all, it also got zero input lag on DigitalVersus). I got it for $251.74 with free shipping, and there's a $20 rebate I have to fill out, bringing the total to $231.74. Hopefully I'll get an S-panel, but the panel won't affect the input lag

 

[jrosenzweig]

I did end up buying a 226BW after all. After a few weeks of use i really enjoy it. There is some backlight bleeding but you don't notice things like that actual games. I personally have never been one for eye candy either which may sound weird as I am running 4xAA 8xAF in most games.

"If your busy picking apart the graphics for flaws your not concentrating on the game."

Some of the best players have the worst systems Arc I take it from what i have read that a delay of 16ms equals one frame at 60HZ, so any of the 2ms panels with less RTC artifacts should be good. If anything is going to make me play bad during fps games its my 900dpi optical mouse anyway

 

[FireChicken]

Originally posted by: Arc337
I saw Xtnight say that he didn't see any panel improvements in the near future, so I couldn't pass up the latest 206BW deal (after all, it also got zero input lag on DigitalVersus). I got it for $251.74 with free shipping, and there's a $20 rebate I have to fill out, bringing the total to $231.74. Hopefully I'll get an S-panel, but the panel won't affect the input lag

Do the 206Bw suffer from a panel lottery as well?

If you have a crt please double check and see if the input lag is correct on your new 206BW

 

[alkemyst]

The 226BW is 254 shipped at amazon.

 

[j0j081]

There are different panels but none are the dreaded C panel.

 

[Hauk]

Man this was a baited thread. OP knew a LOT about panels before going in...