Gaming with Samsung 912T?

[ark42]

I just built a new system for a friend with a Athlon 64 3000+, 1024M DDR400, GeForce 6800, etc.. and put a Samsung 912T on it. Why? Basically, no 17" Samsungs (at newegg at least) had DVI input, so I only looked at 19" Samsungs with DVI (6 choices at newegg). The 912T was the cheapest, had 16.7M colors instead of 16.2M so I figured it was 8bit, and it seemed to have a decent enough contrast ratio.

Well, I don't think the blacks on that thing will ever be as black as a CRT, but I fired up WolfET to see how it played with 25ms response times, and I really couldn't notice any ghosting or trailing of the image at all. Are those 8ms and lower LCDs really any better? I was getting a maxed out 90fps at 1280x1024 with that system, and it seemed just as smooth as my own system on my CRT.

I thought the color was pretty bad in desktop applications, due to the black levels and strange contrast setups. I put it in "Gamma Mode 3" which made things a lot better then mode 1 or 2 did, but the colors generally don't compare to a CRT still. This is on a 8bit panel too, so I can't imagine if it's a lot worse on 6bit panels.

The Samsung 193P+ claims 8ms (G to G) response times, and is still listed as "a-si TFT/PVA LCD" with 16.7M colors. The 930BF is the only 19" listed with "a-si TFT/TN" and 6.2M colors, and it has 4ms (G to G) response times listed. Does anybody own either of those two monitors? They are a bit expensive at $590 and $440 compared to the $340 my friend just paid for the 912T, but I'm considering buying my first LCD for myself, and want to know if its worth paying extra for lower response times or if 6bit has any real upside?

 

[Crescent13]

I have the samsung 730B with 8ms response time. My mom has a envision 25ms response time monitor. I can notice LOTS of ghosting when I look for it on the 25ms monitor, and some when i'm not looking for it. On my 730B, I notice just a tiny bit of ghosting when I look for it, and if i'm not making a consious effort to find ghosting, I can't see any at all. You DO NOT want 6bit color, go 8 bit. I find the clarity MUCH better on DVI panels. The clolor is AMAZING!!! If you are getting a LCD, don't get vga, DVI is the way to go. Contrast wise, well, it's not bad. If you are in a really dark room, and you put on a black screen (nothing else, just black), then you will see some light. If you are just gaming, you won't really notice until you put a CRT right beside it. here is importance of specs from greatest to least imo.

DVI>8bit>response time>contrast

 

[Unkno]

if you want the best lcd that you listed, it's the 193P+. It's 8-bit with 1000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms G to G. You would want a monitor to have at least 12ms or slower and DVI is a MUST.

 

[ark42]

The 730B is a 6-bit TN panel.
The 193P+ is pretty expensive at nearly $600 though. Is that the only way to get both 8-bit and a low response time?
It seems that almost all of the PVA panels are 8-bit and 20ms+ while all of the TN panels are 6-bit and 12ms or less. How is it that the 193P+ gets such low response times from the same type of panel that is so much slower on all of the other models?