My 7770 Experience

[kalrith]

With TVs in general, it's hard to know which looks best by looking at the store. For one, you have the incredibly bright lights (unless you can view in something like Best Buy's Magnolia Theater). Then you have a wall of TVs instead of just one. Studies have shown that when looking at several TVs side-by-side, the majority of people will say that the brightest one has the best picture. Most TVs in the store are in "torch" mode, which means max brightness and contrast. If you leave it on that same setting at home (like my FIL does), then it's going to look messed up. For example, the goal posts on a football field look green, and what should be black (like space) looks gray and cloudy.

So, the TV that looks best in the store will rarely look best in your livingroom. Even if you have a lot of windows, it's doubtful that it'll be as bright as Sam's Club. Honestly, unless you go view a TV at a real HT store that calibrates their TVs and has a dim setting for viewing one TV, it's almost impossible to choose the best-looking TV on your own. I recommend comparing professional reviews for this.

Looking at TVs in the store can be very beneficial. If someone is interested in a DLP, then previewing some will tell them whether they see the color wheel or not. If one's not sure on the size, he can measure his distance from the couch to the TV and then view TVs in the store at that same distance.

As far as plasmas only being good for dim rooms, I disagree. IMO, unless you have glare directly on the screen (like sun shining on the TV screen), then it handles light just fine. For me personally, I wouldn't want sunlight on my screen regardless of what kind of TV it is.

But, as Adam already said, let's not turn this into a plasma vs. LCD thread. There are valid reasons that people buy each technology.

 

[Blitzvogel]

I've been using my 32" LG 1080p LCD as a computer monitor for three years, and it still looks great. Since I hardly use it as a TV I rely on the computer and graphics software and hardware to manage and tweak color settings.

Only complaint about the set is the amount of heat it generates, so I need decent airflow through my bedroom to manage that though it's a nice feature when the weather is cold :thumbsup:

 

[HydroSqueegee]

welp... got my gigabyte 7770 on friday. hooked it up and played some Mechwarrior Online. at 1024x768 on low it works quite nicely. 1280x1024 on low starts to jutter and skip a fair bit.

I need to try it out on skyrim and see how it is since a game thats in Beta isnt a great benchmark to use. But mechwarrior will be my primary game for a while.

I am impressed with how quiet it is. system db went from 20 to 27 at idle. cant say how loud it gets since i have my headphones on when im gaming.

 

[ryanl2299]

Even more so, I'd like to build a mini-ITX or slim-ITX/mATX system, as HIS and Sapphire have low profile 7750s on the way, but I really wish for a low profile 7770 (though tough luck since it needs external power). Also there are hardly any laptops out their with medium end Cape Verde, and they are pricey.

There are two mATX slim cases that I can think of right off the top of my head that allow for full sized ATX PSUs: nMedia 1080P and Silverstone's ML03B. I have them both and one has an OCZ modular and the other an Earthwatts. I don't think that you would be so lucky with slim ITX cases though; most have cheap little PSUs (many are even external laptop style PSUs) but there are a few with 250/300 Watt PSUs (might be able to run a 7750 with one of those). I am also looking to see if AMD puts out a low profile 7770 or better yet a 7850. Actually there is a brand named AFOX which makes a LP 7850. It isn't available in America or Europe so if you want one, you have to import it from Japan (a little too rich for my pockets). I'm sporting an OCed low profile Palit GTS450 (was the best LP card a couple of years ago) and even though it probably stacks up to the same as what I have right now, I am half temped to get one of those because the GTS450 screams like a little bitch when gaming.

I also wanted to chime in on the LCD vs Plasma discussion a little. Sure the picture quality usually is better with plasmas, but not everybody has a dungeon to watch their TVs/play games in. For example, my living room is on the south side of my house (gets loads of light) so a plasma would be out of the question for my needs. They often have white crush issues when you push the brightness. There's also other considerations when purchasing a TV. I was also a little paranoid about having burn-in issues because of gaming or whatever. They also use more power and generate more heat, etc. etc. Plasma TVs can often be had for cheaper so you have to factor that in too. Now I also wanted to mention something about dimming with LCD displays. I can say that they do dim over the course of their life because I was using a conventional LCD TV for movies and games for almost 4 years and I could clearly notice it over it's life. I still have the TV but it's retired to bedroom duty now. This kind of characteristic is normal for fluorescent lamps. For almost that reason alone, I purchased a LED backlit LCD about 1.5 years ago. LEDs aren't supposed to dim over their life so I'm hoping that is history. Sorry for such a long rant.