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i really don't know what to look for in a monitor. any suggestions or hints?
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Comments
Native resolution.
You want to play in it, so your GPU needs to be strong enough to support adequate graphic setting in this resolution.
If you buy a 27° Monitor you need to play in 2560 x1440 resolution, unless you want to play your game with everything set to low, make sure you got a decent GPU around to support that resolution with good graphic settings.
For everything else which is important, there is an great Monitor review and testing page:
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/index2.html
They even have a buyers Guide:
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/buyers-guide/start.html
ive been comparing LCD with backlight LED monitors and im thinking the LED is the way to go. if anyone has any recc's leme see'em here!
thanks.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Everything factors in. Backlit-LED, Refresh Rate, Contrast Ratio, Size, Resolution, and if it has DisplayPort. Right now I would say ASUS has the best monitors just because they have a good balance of all of these.
There is also Panel Type. Pretty much anything under $400 will be a TN panel. The problem with TN Panels is you lose the image when looking at them from an angle. There is a VA panel, but I have not seen many of these in a while. Then there are IPS panels which give the best image quality, you can see it from an angle, but they are expensive and typically have a worse refresh rate.
Soon we will have oLED monitors which will turn the monitor world upside down until larger resolution monitors. However like UberHD monitors they are expensive.
I would say to first shop by resolution, but if you look at any resolution the next step up from 1920x1080, you are instantly looking into IPS panels costing around $800.
I would say if you want a monitor now for gaming then, I would say search in this order.
thanks all!
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Nothing against Cleffy - he has it right in principle, just something to be aware of:
Most of that stuff is pure marketing fluff, especially the "specs" like refresh rate. I highly recommend you just go in someplace and look at monitors. Whatever looks good to you - that's all that matters.
By no means the end all be all but certainly informative for someone such as yourself:
http://www.squidoo.com/gaming-monitors
Yea, its always good to window shop at BestBuy before buying then searching if its cheaper online.
But there are some things you cannot be certain of without some research. Refresh Rate is not marketing BS, Contrast Ratio is mostly marketing BS. For a gaming purposes anything over a 5ms Refresh Rate will cause ghosting. Having a 2~3ms Refresh Rate is preferable because most are measured gray to gray. You will not know how a monitor affects refresh rate unless you play a fast action game. Thats something you have to be aware of when buying.
On backlit LED. There are 2 different lamps for LCD monitors. CFL or Backlit LED. Backlit LED will produce better images and reduce power consumption. However when it starts to go, the screen turns bluish instead of the entire screen going blank. They are also harder to replace. The bulbs on both last about the same length of time, and you should not expect either to last more then 10 years.
The big problem with going to a Retail store and looking at monitors is you cannot tell when they are made unless you have prior knowledge. Most people don't memorize model numbers to have a good reference. I would see 5 or 6 year old monitors being shown for the same prices or more expensive then brand new monitors. You definetly want to bring a smart phone when shopping at a retail store to know when a display was made. I recommended ASUS before. Current ASUS monitors are good, but older generation ASUS monitors kind of suck.
Finally, on DisplayPort. DisplayPort is like HDMI. Its a digital input. Unlike HDMI it does not have any royalty fees attached to it which is why both AMD and nVidia use DisplayPort. DisplayPort is also capable of higher bandwidth Chances are over the next 5 years which will most likely be the life of your monitor, there will be a greater push to DisplayPort. Right now AMD makes some cards that only use DisplayPort. So getting a monitor with the option for a DisplayPort input would help over the lifetime of that monitor. note: there are some issues with DisplayPort currently. Getting a good DisplayPort cable is tough, and when you buy them get around 3 cables from different makers. This helps get atleast 1 cable that is good.
Also I forgot to mention for good monitors, also look at Dell and Apple. Even though I would never buy a computer from them, they have good quality monitors.
orly
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/home-cinema/high-definition/lcd-tv-refresh-rates-are-marketing-gimmicks-646907
Even assuming you meant pixel response time (which I'm guessing your confusing with Refresh Rate):
http://reviews.cnet.com/1990-3118_7-6358806-1.html
Excellent advice!
What? LED monitors haven't even been on the market for 10 years (largely because the color hasn't been "white" enough for use until recently). LED's have a much, much higher expected lifespan than fluorescent.
Whenever any backlight goes in a monitor, be it LED or CFL, they are fairly difficult for end-users to replace (and not recommended, especially monitors that have built-in power supplies).
I haven't seen a LED backlight go out yet, but the oldest LED display that I've seen is only about 4 years old now, and all that we have still work fine (no bluish tinge, nothing unusual of the sort). I have seen most CFL displays last on the order of 5-7 years - if they stay on continuously the backlight usually goes after about 5 years, and if not, the power supply circuitry a bit after that.
Some would say an IPS panel isnt really for gaming, or a waste of money if your not going to be doing editing...blah blah...but if you can afford a good IPS panel, get one! I grabbed a Dell u2410 a few months ago, and the color is just amazing compared to my previous TN. Once you use an IPS for a while, I think it would be hard to go back to a TN. Colors, Viewing Angles, Contrasts....just amazing!
Posting Gray 2 Gray Refresh Rate is pretty common. Would you want to buy an 8ms Refresh Rate monitor? Or a 2-3ms gray to gray Refresh Rate monitor. Most TN panel monitors will have a refresh rate below 5ms, but some IPS panel monitors will have a refresh rate above 8ms which can cause ghosting.
If you are looking at 3D monitors, then Refresh Rate is also important as the monitor rapidly changes state.
Quoting TV review sources will not be helpful for a person looking to get a gaming system. TV broadcast is usually not done at a rate high enough to warrant something below a 15 ms refresh rate on the TV. In a FPS a 15ms refresh rate will look off.
Posting Gray 2 Gray Refresh Rate is pretty common. Would you want to buy an 8ms Refresh Rate monitor? Or a 2-3ms gray to gray Refresh Rate monitor. Most TN panel monitors will have a refresh rate below 5ms, but some IPS panel monitors will have a refresh rate above 8ms which can cause ghosting.
If you are looking at 3D monitors, then Refresh Rate is also important as the monitor rapidly changes state.
Quoting TV review sources will not be helpful for a person looking to get a gaming system. TV broadcast is usually not done at a rate high enough to warrant something below a 15 ms refresh rate on the TV. In a FPS a 15ms refresh rate will look off.
Refresh rate, for nearly every monitor, is 60Hz. Not 8ms, not 3ms. It's measured in Hz. Some 3D monitors can do 120Hz, but for the most part, it doesn't help much. And regardless of if it's a monitor or TV - refresh rate is the same thing, and does the same thing (and many times, they use the exact same LCD panels).
Pixel Response Time is measured in ms. And the reason it's bunk is precisely because it uses gray to gray. There are only about 32,000 different shades of gray in a typical panel (assuming it's a real 24-bit panel, some of the cheaper ones are only 18 bit). No one says which shades you have to use, or that you even have to start and stop on the same shade, it's a big marketing number that is more or less meaningless, and will be totally different than a Black-to-Black or White-to-White number (which may not even be the same between each other). Manufacturers use no standard to measure Pixel Response Time against - as such, the number is pure marketing and total BS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_time_(technology)
Not that Wikipedia is an authoritative source, but I think in this case it illustrates my point fairly well. In my opinion, in all save the worst panels, pixel response time is good enough across the market to not be a large consideration when buying a new monitor. And in those under which it is still poor enough to be worthy of consideration, no amount of specification you could find online would alert you to this - you would only know via reviews from other people or by seeing it yourself.
Here is one more directly computer related:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/121906/article.html
Older article, still 100% relevant.
Personally, I would totally rather have an IPS monitor (even if it's advertised 12ms) than a 2ms TN monitor - because I've went and looked at them and I like what I see. Ghosting, for me, is not a big issue, and to be honest, I haven't seen a ghosting problem in any LCD for some years now (but I'm less attuned to it that some that play twitch FPSes and the like). For some people it is a very big deal, but looking at a pixel response time won't tell them very much about it.
Whoa o.o Ridelynn bringying the TROOF!
Methinks you should folloe and and umm...
Just lookie at the stuff in the stoooore ^__^ thats what I did! I brought my lappietop wif meeee and plugged in Champions Online and founded the monitor I liked most! Its an Asus! :O
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**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**