So im thinking of spending cash on monitors instead of inside of my pc... currently running 23" 720p screen with a 19" 4:3 screen, both from Medion. now the big question is, seeing as i intend to game on them, eyefinity with 3 smaller screens or 1 27" or bigger (maybe 2 if the price is right). if im going for eyefinity ill have to get a new GPU as well, currently have 1 gtx460, will need a 2nd one, and see mixed reviews on it. getting 2 big screens isnt really necessary since i can also keep one of my current screens as 2nd screen (which will not look awesome but thats something i can deal with). i would like 1080p, or higher resolution. 27" screen between 250-400 euro, dont care about brands. would like slim edges, color doesnt really matter. how important is high contrast ratio's? i see lots of screen with 1000:1 and then some with 20mil:1, dunno what i should be looking at. Same goes for response time, guess the lower the better, but will you notice going from 8ms to 2ms? if im making this to difficult, i mainly care for the resolution, id also like to watch Blu-Ray movies on them and then i dont want crappy ass image quality, hence im upgrading from my 720p. took a look at this site (in dutch sorry) and saw these 4 screens: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/293299/terra-lcd-led-2760w.html#tab:prices http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/286651/aoc-e2795vh.html#tab:prices http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/289947/ag-neovo-l-w27.html#tab:prices http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/280678/samsung-syncmaster-s27a350h.html#tab:prices
1000:1 is usually older models. 20,000,000:1 etc are newer ones and they list dyanamic contrast not static. Static rating is still 1000:1 contrast and it hasnt changed in a long time. Static rating is SUPPOSED to be when the backlight is at the same level, the greratest contract from brightest pixel to darkest. Dynamic is usually rated now days as backlight completely off (no image on screen) to solid white with backlight at highest measured on the pixel as closest to the light source as possible. Software has gotten better and dynamic settings work better, but it isnt a true representation of the contrast ratio. Very little is and there is no way to judge between companies since there is no standard. But as for importance of contrast ratio? It is VERY important, one of the greatest factors of image quality. That, second would be resolution, and third would be color. You should go for an IPS panel as those are best in monitors. TN panel monitors suck
Dell UltraSharp U2412M looks nice about 280 euros...24" though...so only gaining 1 inch...but massive improvement in image quality... id have to go check stores to "feel" the difference between 24" and 23"...
lol. I hope that is a typo on the website. 82% is actually much lower than normal color gamut, I hope they meant 92% as that is normal wide color gamut range. Best check on that before you buy as I see it listed as 82% in multiple places, which would be a very bad thing... If you can afford it, you cant do much better than this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260038
A lot of feed back complains about the poor response time and the anti glare coating due to the pixel pitch on the U2711. Ultrasharps are great screens otherwise. IPS panel color reproduction is awesome in general if you can deal with the ghosting which to me, i'd never know is there. If you are springing for $1000 USD, the U3011 can be had for that price, i'd never pay that for the U2711 (which can be had for $650). Dell likes to deep discount it's LCD's on a regular basis. I wouldn't say TN is terrible, it has its advantages (120hz, no ghosting, low input lage) and disadvantages (poor viewing angles, flat colors), just like IPS has pros (color and viewing angle) and cons (60hz, response times, ghosting). It's a matter of picking what is most important to you, what imperfections can live with and/or even detect. Best piece of info I can give is head over here and do some reading and figure out what you want. http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78 For me I couldn't handle the idea of frames breaking up my picture when using an eyefinity triple 24" setup, so I went with the largest single LCD I could. It was then a decision of 27" at 120hz or 30" with better color - I went with IPS in the end, as I figured I don't want to have to buy the hardware (I will only run GPU) to support 120fps to really take advantage of 120hz, and I love deep rich colors. Mind you 2560x1600 isn't the easiest resolution to power good FPS with a single card either.
TN panels are all 6-bit color. Which cant even properly display the standard 24-bit color we have been using for many years now. Newer IPS panels on the other hand have 5-8ms response time which is good enough for gaming on and also are 10-bit color panels, allowing you to see the full spectrum of colors in images and supporting wide color gamut images as well. The only real advantage a TN panel has anymore is its cost, but all of the con's of TN technology cant justify the cost IMO and IPS monitors have come down in cost to much more affordable levels so the price difference between them and a TN panel isnt too drastic. What does pixel pitch have to do with response time and anti-glare coating? I thought pixel pitch was how close together each pixel is. Which is directly proportional to the resolution / screen size?
Nothing with response time, but people saying that the AG coating creates a weird effect with the super low pixel pitch on the U2711 that seems to be like a 'sparkle' and hard on the eyes when looking at whites with blacks such as typing etc. I notice it a bit on the U3011 which has a slighter larger pitch, but isn't enough to cause any eye strain.
ok did some more digging, and browsing various webshops... Samsung-27-S27A550H-LED not IPS worried bout price/quality on this one...seems cheap for a 27" Samsung-27-Central-Station-LED still not IPS but still i think pretty cheap, same for this one really, only difference i can find is the USB3.0 port on this one cvompared to the one above... also ordered one of them Gunnar Optiks glasses, hopefully that will take care of my "tired eyes"... *IPS panels might be very nice but i think ill have to pass on that, im not even sure i would see the difference, also will have to skip on 3d function till those prices drop*
Those are still only 60Hz monitors and not 3D so I dont understand what you mean on missing out of those features if you go IPS panel, you dont get them with those TN panel monitors either. That "Central Station" monitor seems rated VERY poorly too. You might consider the S27A350H, which is very similar to the S27A550H you are looking at. The lower end model would save you 30-40 Euros Also HP makes some really good monitors. I really like the HP 2710m (thats my office monitor). As with all TN panel monitors, you should calibrate the color with a program like Monitor Calibration Wizard to achieve the best results. The HP I use is able to get quite balanced and good color compared to any other monitor I have used before that was a TN panel. Out of the box though the colors are a bit off as with all monitors and the gamma falloff is especially bad in the low range areas.
didnt mean i would miss out on 3d, meant i will get that later when prices drop, and that S27A350H looks very nice indeed for only 255 euro... i guess i found what i was looking for thank you once again Enigma