Please take me back to monitor school

[Joeydubbs]

I am currently using a fairly old (6-7years) 22 inch viewsonic LCD 1680:1050. This will be retired (given to the kids) with my rig when I do a full haswell rebuild. Needless to say, monitor tech has changed since I bought this one...

My plan was to get a new 24 inch 1080p with either a gtx660ti or 670. I will use it for moderate gaming (BF, WoW etc..) and typical mundane computer usage. No fancy photoshop or the like...

My confusion is TN vs IPS. Supposedly TN have better response time (important for FPS I suppose) while IPS are slower but have better picture quality. What gives? Does it matter at this size/res? I'm guessing lag would ruin a gaming experience no matter how nice the picture. Pricing is quite broad between the two it seems...

Also, will opinions change at 27 or 30 inch if I decide to go large?

Thanks in advance AT

 

[videogames101]

Most people couldn't tell the difference in response time between TN and IPS, and IPS does really look better.

That being said, I don't care about how my games look, so I buy cheaper TN panels, because they're cheaper, and I'm in school.

I don't see going to 27" at 1080p, but a 27" or 30" 2560x1xxx is worthwhile if you have the budget. Keep in mind at 2560x1xxx you'll need significantly more GPU power for the same settings.

 

[lakedude]

Couple of things...

I run all 27 inch monitors now. At first they seemed HUGE but after using them for a few years they seem normal and smaller monitors seem small. I would never want to go back to a smaller monitor.

MY IPS panel tests out much better than the older TN but in practice I really don't notice the difference. The IPS looks much better from a low viewing angle but this is not at all important because one must dip their head below the desk to really see the difference. Assuming a normal desk/seating arrangement a TN looks fine to my eye.

I had a decent TN on the home system.

OTOH the TN screen on my old laptop was terrible! The vertical viewing angle was just critical. Move your head and inch and everything looks different.

Moral of the story not all TN panels are created equal (or IPS either for that matter)...

 

[lkailburn]

In line with the OPs request do you guys have a 24" IPS you'd recommend? I'm in the market as well. I need to order two identical ones, one for home and one for my office for my surface pro.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I just got the Dell u2412m, I'd highly recommend it, and I will have to be dragged kicking and screaming back to TN panels.

It's about 300 USD on amazon right now, 1920x1200, 24', and really quite beautiful. I don't notice any input lag, but I don't play very many uber-twitchy games either. It's not wide gamut, so I'd refer you to the 2410 or 2413 if you need wide gamut, for graphics work.

It's a little bright out of the box. I find the gaming preset to look great for gaming, but I turn the brightness down to around 6-10 when I'm doing actual work.

 

[gipper53]

24" monitors are the sweetspot for price/performance right now. You don't save much going smaller and to go bigger gets expensive quickly.

Personally I would lean towards the 1920x1200 IPS monitors vs. the 1080p TN variants. 1080p TN monitors are cheaper and there are numerous models between the $175-200 range with great quality.

I do photoshop work, so to me IPS is essential. But even if you are not a photo editor you'll appreciate the image quality and viewing angle difference when watching movies and viewing pictures. Most people who try IPS are quickly convinced of the difference and don't want to go back to TN. The lag between IPS and TN has diminished alot, and is probably not an issue for anyone but the hard core gamers.

Dell and HP both build IPS models that are very popular and reasonably priced. Dell is famous for its sales if you are patient. A good 24" IPS will typically be in the $350-400 range. If this is over budget the 1080p 22" IPS models are over $100 cheaper.

These are both very good 24" IPS monitors:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824260020

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824176221

 

[Joeydubbs]

Thanks for the replies folks.
I'm guessing if a get a 660ti or 670 it will handle just about anything on a 24inch at 1080p (or 1200p for that matter)?

I will go to the local amazon showroom to look at IPS vs TN displays but leaning towards IPS based on research and feedback...fun stuff thanks again!

 

[lakedude]

Just one man's opinion.

I'd rather have a 27" TN (a decent TN, not like the kind on my old laptop) than a 24" IPS...

Of course I have a 27" IPS so that is not an issue.

Going back to the 27 " TN would not kill me, in fact the TN is wall mountable while my IPS panel has no mounting ability so I might in fact go back to the TN panel to clear up some desk space.

Nothing against the IPS panel, it just is not that big of a deal to me if the colors are off a hair or if the display looks funny at extreme viewing angles. What matters is how the display looks from whatever angle you are viewing from. Do you intentionally miss-adjust your display to make a point about viewing angle?

Speed and size are more important to me. I hate it when the picture smears because a display is too slow.

Best of luck regardless of what you decide to purchase.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I have dell va and ips panels and you wouldn't be able to make me buy a tn panel. My first panel was an ips from planar and it was expensive, the most expensive monitor I've ever purchased and it served me well for many years. It was slow and would ghost but it was the best at that time. Now tn's are a dime a dozen yet I choose quality over price every time. It's all in what you want and how much you are willing to pay for it.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Will you get ghosting on a 24 ips with say 6 or 8ms response time?

 

[lakedude]

Will you get ghosting on a 24 ips with say 6 or 8ms response time?

Back in the day when they measured response time from black to white those numbers had more meaning IMO.

Now those numbers measure G2G which is all but meaningless.

Also sometimes faster transitions are achieved by cheating with overdrive which has issues as well.

Best thing to do is go to a brick and mortar store and test em out yourself.

The game F.E.A.R. looked terrible on an old, expensive "high quality" display because of slow LCD response time. The most expensive monitor I ever purchased was my least favorite because it was slow.

Now I'm not bashing IPS, I'm just saying different strokes. That expensive slow monitor looked great while displaying a static image, motion was the issue.

Certainly you will be able to find a fast enough IPS if you so desire.

This page is an awesome resource:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

 

[gipper53]

Just one man's opinion.

What matters is how the display looks from whatever angle you are viewing from. Do you intentionally miss-adjust your display to make a point about viewing angle?

It's not extreme angles, it's the variation straight on. TN will vary in brightness and color just from the center to the edges when you sit in front of it. Move your head from one side of the monitor to the other and watch the brightness fade in and out, it's even worse in the vertical direction. When you go 24"+ this is exacerbated even more. For judging accurate color and exposure in graphics/video this can be a problem.

Lots of people could care less about this, and that's fine. But there is a reason IPS is the industry standard for monitors where image quality and accuracy matter.

 

[lakedude]

It's not extreme angles, it's the variation straight on. TN will vary in brightness and color just from the center to the edges when you sit in front of it. Move your head from one side of the monitor to the other and watch the brightness fade in and out, it's even worse in the vertical direction. When you go 24"+ this is exacerbated even more. For judging accurate color and exposure in graphics/video this can be a problem.

Lots of people could care less about this, and that's fine. But there is a reason IPS is the industry standard for monitors where image quality and accuracy matter.

Yeah, I get that. My old laptop is as you say. The vertical viewing angle is so limited that the screen changes colors noticeably from top to bottom.

OTOH my home monitor and new laptop also have TN panels but they are much better. All TN panels are not the same.

Sure the IPS panel is better in this regard, especially at low viewing angles but the TN panel has advantages as well (size, cost, speed). It really depends on which things the OP is picky about. In many ways the CRT was actually better but I still love my 27" LCDs, TN and IPS both.