best gaming LCD monitor

[JimTram]

In addition to the concern of "lag", I think the degree of "Blackness" should be researched. FWIW my cheapo Samsung 940BX has a response of 5ms. I have not noticed any lag manifested with ghosting. I wish the black was a bit blacker!

Originally Posted by polonyc2

I was looking at Newegg's LCD Customer Choice Awards and most of them seem to be either Acer or ASUS...I'm sure those are decent enough but I'm looking for premium quality not just average or 'good enough'...most people with LCD's seem to be content with 'good enough'...I paid $1400 for my current Sony GDM-F520 CRT back in 2000 as it was considered the best of the best back then...I didn't mind paying a premium because of the quality and durability...going on 10 years I'm milking every last drop out of this CRT

I want my next monitor to be just as good so I'm willing to pay another premium...that's why I'm looking at the NEC LCD2490WUXi which is pretty much universally regarded as the best LCD...but I'm worried about the response rate of 6ms (GTG) and 18ms (normal)...is that even noticable when playing fast moving FPS games?

the new Dell U2410 seems to fall a step below the NEC but has been getting some good word of mouth...plus the price is much lower as well...tough call...this LCD technology really is crap when you can't get all the best features in one monitor

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by JimTram

In addition to the concern of "lag", I think the degree of "Blackness" should be researched. FWIW my cheapo Samsung 940BX has a response of 5ms. I have not noticed any lag manifested with ghosting. I wish the black was a bit blacker!

yup I agree...that's another reason the NEC LCD2490WUXi is so highly regarded...it's black levels are excellent (not CRT level black but as good as LCD's can do at the moment)...in terms of color reproduction and overall image quality nothing beats the NEC (except maybe some of those 30" Apple displays)...but the only issue with the NEC is that it's mainly meant for graphic design work etc and not gaming therefore it's response times are not as low as they could be

[traveler]

And the DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP is not being considered? It's on sale today. The $100 off sale happens maybe twice a year. Dell 24" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

If you get the NEC, please tell us why everyone says it's worth the price. Especially when it's listed as 8ms GTG with a contrast ratio of only 800:1. Were those customer reviews at Newegg written by employees of the NEC advertising department?

Standards for me ... 178° viewing, 6ms GTG, 16:10 screen, 4 way adjustable stand (height, tilt, swivel, pivot), excellent input connectivity (all the inputs), and great color.

Don't forget to read the Ultrasharp 2408WFP thread here at ABX.





__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 /
Asus Radeon HD4870X2 Tri-Fan 2GB graphics card / 24" DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP monitor /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition /
IOGEAR GCS1782 GCS1782 Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch with 7.1 audio

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by traveler

And the DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP is not being considered? It's on sale today. The $100 off sale happens maybe twice a year. Dell 24" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

If you get the NEC, please tell us why everyone says it's worth the price. Especially when it's listed as 8ms GTG with a contrast ratio of only 800:1. Were those customer reviews at Newegg written by employees of the NEC advertising department?

Standards for me ... 178° viewing, 6ms GTG, 16:10 screen, 4 way adjustable stand (height, tilt, swivel, pivot), excellent input connectivity (all the inputs), and great color.

Don't forget to read the Ultrasharp 2408WFP thread here at ABX.

the Dell 2408WFP is not being considered because it is not a premium gaming LCD...it's a fine monitor but it has very high input lag...I mentioned a few posts back that the new Dell U2410 is being considered because it's a better monitor, is the successor to the 2408WFP and uses the better H-IPS panel...the 2408WFP is also not being considered because it is wide gamut which makes colors look oversaturated and not good for movies, internet browsing and gaming

the reason I like the new Dell U2410 (even though it also is wide gamut) is because it seems to have an effective sRGB mode to reduce the over saturation from what I've read...a number of other wide gamut displays like the Dell 2408WFP, 2709W, and the HP LP2475W have sRGB modes, but they are not very accurate and overly under saturate colors

all of the things you listed in your standards list are a part of the NEC LCD2490WUXi...I believe it is 6ms (GTG) as well...it beats all other LCD's in every way except price

I wouldn't base my purchasing decision solely on Newegg reviews...in fact I rarely read them when making a buying decision...there are much better reviews online along with customer feedback at different forums

traveler you out of all people here should understand my decision in keeping my awesome CRT and not settling for an inferior LCD...you are the guy who still uses Windows 98 SE...you are the guy who still uses Firefox 1.3...you don't just 'upgrade' just for the sake of upgrading when the 'newer' product is inferior to the older product...if so why havn't you upgraded to Vista?...why havn't you updated to IE8 or Firefox 3?...simple, because there are aspects of those 'newer' products that you do not like...same way I feel about LCD's

whether or not the LCD2490WUXi is worth the price is the question I am debating at the moment...it's in no way a slam dunk otherwise I would have already bought it...the biggest things that bug me about it are the slower response times/input lag compared to TN panels

the Dell U2410 seems like a very good LCD as well with very similar specs to the NEC but the one major drawback is that it is a wide gamut LCD not the standard sRGB one

[preyingrazor]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

I was looking at Newegg's LCD Customer Choice Awards and most of them seem to be either Acer or ASUS...I'm sure those are decent enough but I'm looking for premium quality not just average or 'good enough'...most people with LCD's seem to be content with 'good enough'...I paid $1400 for my current Sony GDM-F520 CRT back in 2000 as it was considered the best of the best back then...I didn't mind paying a premium because of the quality and durability...going on 10 years I'm milking every last drop out of this CRT

I want my next monitor to be just as good so I'm willing to pay another premium...that's why I'm looking at the NEC LCD2490WUXi which is pretty much universally regarded as the best LCD...but I'm worried about the response rate of 6ms (GTG) and 18ms (normal)...is that even noticable when playing fast moving FPS games?

the new Dell U2410 seems to fall a step below the NEC but has been getting some good word of mouth...plus the price is much lower as well...tough call...this LCD technology really is crap when you can't get all the best features in one monitor

hmmm 8ms G2G and 16ms ISO might be a bit too much for gaming. Plus this LCD has quite a high input lag. 30-60ms.

NEC LCD2490WUXi Review

I find a lag of 30-60ms unacceptable on a LAN game. Usually 0-5ms is good. So if the LCD itself introduces so much input lag, I'm highly sceptical of it's efficacy as a gaming monitor. Aren't these colour accurate LCD's made for graphics professionals who're interested in REAL colours? I wouldn't sacrifice speed over what I suspect are average improvements to colour.

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by preyingrazor

hmmm 8ms G2G and 16ms ISO might be a bit too much for gaming. Plus this LCD has quite a high input lag. 30-60ms.

NEC LCD2490WUXi Review

I find a lag of 30-60ms unacceptable on a LAN game. Usually 0-5ms is good. So if the LCD itself introduces so much input lag, I'm highly sceptical of it's efficacy as a gaming monitor. Aren't these colour accurate LCD's made for graphics professionals who're interested in REAL colours? I wouldn't sacrifice speed over what I suspect are average improvements to colour.

input lag and response time are 2 different things but you're right about the LCD2490WUXi maybe not being ideal for gaming...but I also wonder how noticable it is for gamers who are not paid professionals like that Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel guy...to get response times under 5ms you have to go with a TN panel...and those panels bring up a whole different set of issues

the Dell U2410 and the HP LP2475w seem like the 2 best in terms of balancing a nice gaming monitor and a nice overall image quality monitor

[traveler]

"traveler you out of all people here should understand my decision in keeping my awesome CRT"

Absolutely! It was a sad day when I heard no more CRT monitors at SONY.

It is a tough desicion: choosing an LCD display.

"all of the things you listed in your standards list are a part of the NEC LCD2490WUXi...I believe it is 6ms (GTG) as well...it beats all other LCD's in every way except price"

Look again! Look at the specs at both Newegg and NEC.





__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 /
Asus Radeon HD4870X2 Tri-Fan 2GB graphics card / 24" DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP monitor /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition /
IOGEAR GCS1782 GCS1782 Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch with 7.1 audio

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by traveler

Look again! Look at the specs at both Newegg and NEC.

yup you're right it's 8ms...but the real question becomes what is noticable to the human eye and what is just there for benchmarking purposes...that is why I've been trying to figure out what is perceptible to the naked eye while gaming and not some artificial number that might not mean anything in real world situations

closest I've come to finding an answer was anything under 25ms would not be noticable unless you are really trying to look for it...16ms is 1 frame so it might be best to aim for >16ms

this LCD research has been giving me headaches...just when I think I have the answer someone comes along and provides new info which makes me re-think my stance...I have definitely narrowed my LCD choices down to 3 but the fact that none of them has everything I want makes the decision difficult...either way I will finalaize my decision this week, make a purchase and live with it

[traveler]

Go for 6ms.

I have seen ghosting. There is absolutely no ghosting on a CRT.

You can check out the ghosting yourself. Go to BestBuy or CompUSA or a place similar and fire up Need For Speed or another racing game. Then speed down a straight street with telephone poles at 100mph. If there seems to be too many telephone poles as you zoom by, some of them are ghosts.





__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 /
Asus Radeon HD4870X2 Tri-Fan 2GB graphics card / 24" DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP monitor /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition /
IOGEAR GCS1782 GCS1782 Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch with 7.1 audio

[XJ.]

Originally Posted by traveler

And the DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP is not being considered? It's on sale today. The $100 off sale happens maybe twice a year. Dell 24" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

If I ever get a job programming again - I'll bug my boss for one of these. It's getting harder to find 1920x1200 24" monitors.

[Bampson]

Does anyone know how the Dell 22-incher 2209WA with an IPS panel compares?

I wonder if a U2210 is in the works...

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by XJ.

If I ever get a job programming again - I'll bug my boss for one of these. It's getting harder to find 1920x1200 24" monitors.

there are still plenty of 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD's...but they are eventually going to disappear being replaced with 16:9 ones...even the recently released Dell U2410 is 16:10, 1920 x 1200

Originally Posted by Bampson

Does anyone know how the Dell 22-incher 2209WA with an IPS panel compares?

I wonder if a U2210 is in the works...

excellent overall monitor...if I were not set on 24", that would be my choice...the Dell 2209WA is the best performing IPS monitor on the market, which has zero lag, low response times, well-tuned overdrive, and it can do 76 Hz properly...the problem is LG IPS panels have had problems lately with color uniformity, where one side would be slightly redder or yellower

there are a couple of new IPS monitors out (or will be out soon): the NEC EA231WMi and the ViewSonic VP2365wb, both of which have the same 23" IPS panel...there's a good chance those will have low lag as well