30" for gaming

I

IRtechnoob

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Nov 23, 2011
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Happy thanksgiving all!

In the market for a 30" monitor ...from reading here over the past few days I have it narrowed to the Dell or the HP.

I mostly game everything from RTS to COD, BF3..etc..So with that in mind recommendations from the more knowledgeable members here is appreciated. I don't do any photo or web work and currently use a Benq 24" which I'm happy with I just want bigger!

Upon reading the review of the MSI lightning extreme gtx 580 I got one and love it over the gtx 295 space heater it replaced. Is there a need to sli this with a 30" ? and is a single DVI input going to effect sli? I love being able to run BF3 @ ultra settings and not having video lag!

As the name obviously states I'm playing catchup here on what is current.

Thanks,
Noob.
 
I don't know about games on "Ultra" settings, but we all have the Dell 30" in the office, some dual screen ones too and we all run only a 8600 GT and play games quite a lot.

Granted, not on the highest setting, but some games do run perfectly somI just doubt you need SLI.

Best option is to start with one card, test, and upgrade to a second card if you aren't satisfied.
 
my big concern is that if there are any new 30 inchers on the horizon...i am about to buy as well and worried a newer model will come out soon!
 
I doubt newer or better 30" models are going to come out soon. most of the talk is that 4k resolution will be the next big resolution jump and the rest of the market is into cheaper 25" or 27" models.

Still I'd wait for CES to see what the buzz is
 
Computurd said:
my big concern is that if there are any new 30 inchers on the horizon...i am about to buy as well and worried a newer model will come out soon!
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There will always be new models. If you want to wait then you might end up waiting forever. Also, just because there are newer models it doesn't necessarily mean they are better. When they upgraded the Dell range once, all the new model had was HDMI and Displayport in addition to the DVI but the actuall screen was the same.
 
Depending on your disposable income you might even look into the older dell or HP models that don't have scalers. For games it's probably 50/50 since the older monitors lack input lag while the newer panels respond slightly faster, but second hand screens can go for less than half of their original MSRP.

If you want to run the latest games at 2560x1600 with 'ultra' settings then yes, you will need sli/crossfire. If you want a return on your dollar and can live with modest settings you might consider a single 2GB 6950 with unlockable shaders.
 
You will need atleast Dual 580's for 2560x1600 BF3 Ultra gaming. I get about 50-70fps on Ultra 2560x1600 with 2xMSAA. You could do it on high with one probably, but not without around 40fps.
 
If someone wants a quality 30 without really breaking the bank it seems like it's Dell, HP, and then...well that's about it, right? I know NEC is out there but $2500 for a PA30 just isn't remotely viable for me.

So if I really wanted "the best" 30 inch monitor I can buy and gaming is priority one what's it boil down to: The Dell and the HP? If so, I'll have to look up comparisons, pros, and cons and all that..

I'm on a single GTX 480 SC for whatever that's worth.
 
27 inch is the sweet spot.

The 30 inch monitors available have strange proportions as well. I have tried them and it feels really weird to play on them.
 
Oled said:
27 inch is the sweet spot.

The 30 inch monitors available have strange proportions as well. I have tried them and it feels really weird to play on them.
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It's worth considering but is 27 really an appreciable upgrade from 24.

Ideally, I'd like to stick with 16:10 if I even did this thing so obviously that shrinks the playing field for me considerably.
 
A single 580 can handle all titles at 2560x1600 but to max all the settings with ~60fps min in the latest releases (BF3, Skyrim) you want SLI.

Having said that, I would wait to purchase a new vid card unless it's an absolute must as the next gen cards from team Red/Green are only a few months off.

Enjoy gaming at 30". Once you try it, you wont go back. :)
 
Thanks for the replies...

Crest, you have the HP monitor...you ever wish you had gotten the Dell ? and are you able to run rez of 1920x1200 even though it's not native?

I had already planned on getting a 2nd 580 GTX E if I go larger. As it is I can run BF3 on ultra and keep frames around 35-60 ...and I have not ruled out getting a 27" instead of the 30"
 
The HP ZR30w, which I have, has almost no input lag due to having no scaler/OSD; however it will also only run 1920x1200 (or anything other than 1280x800) when it's being resized by the GPU. That means no 1080p input from Blu-ray/PS3/360 etc.

I run dual HD6950 2GB cards, currently at stock, and keep everything at 2560x1600. I just reduce settings to keep stuff playable, and it seems to work fairly well.

I run BF3 on High with Ultra textures and Medium FXAA only and stay above 60FPS; I run Skyrim on just one GPU on highest in-game settings with FXAA only and stay above 40FPS at worst, which is more than fine for that game.

Also note that the Dell's have around twice the input lag of the HP due to their scalers and OSDs. They do have tremendously more input options though.
 
Q-BZ said:
So if I really wanted "the best" 30 inch monitor I can buy and gaming is priority one what's it boil down to: The Dell and the HP? If so, I'll have to look up comparisons, pros, and cons and all that..
Click to expand...

The HP ZR30w is a better gaming monitor than the Dell U3011. No internal scalar = less input lag. Anandtech review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3754/a-new-30-contender-hp-zr30w-review

"I played a number of FPS titles and RTS games on the display, and never noticed any display processing lag or ghosting to speak of. If you’re going to use a 30” panel for gaming, the ZR30w seems to be just as good as any."

"In the ghosting images I snapped, I usually only saw two frames. The dominant frame, and the preceding frame. This is very surprising, since we’re used to seeing three. But all throughout the images I snapped, only two frames are visible. This is very impressive panel response."

Personally, I feel that purchasing the ZR30w last year was the best investment in my PC gaming experience that I had made in a long time. The monitor is beautiful. Picture quality is superb. Ghosting, input lag, response time are minimal. I can even play Quake 3 Arena quite comfortably, and that is the fastest FPS there is. Battlefield 3 and Skyrim are FANTASTIC on this baby, it really is on a different level than anything else out there, you will notice details in the textures and overall picture that you miss in smaller panels/resolutions.

It does require beefy GPU power. For fluid 60fps gaming in most titles and high settings I recommend dual 6950's or more. 2GB VRAM cards help a lot at this res. Going from 6950 dual CFX to 6990 + 6950 Triple CFX enables me to use slightly higher in game settings but I didn't notice a huge difference.

Anyways, good luck in your hunt. I have to strongly recommend the HP ZR30w for your gaming needs.
 
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NukeDukem said:
<snip>

Anyways, good luck in your hunt. I have to strongly recommend the HP ZR30w for your gaming needs.
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Thanks for the tips. :)


From the post right above yours can you and some other comment and elaborate on this for me?


IdiotInCharge said:
The HP ZR30w, which I have, has almost no input lag due to having no scaler/OSD; however it will also only run 1920x1200 (or anything other than 1280x800) when it's being resized by the GPU. That means no 1080p input from Blu-ray/PS3/360 etc.
Click to expand...

So basically what happens and what am I looking at if I do try and connect a BD player, a PS3, or some such to this monitor?
 
IRtechnoob said:
Thanks for the replies...

Crest, you have the HP monitor...you ever wish you had gotten the Dell ? and are you able to run rez of 1920x1200 even though it's not native?

I had already planned on getting a 2nd 580 GTX E if I go larger. As it is I can run BF3 on ultra and keep frames around 35-60 ...and I have not ruled out getting a 27" instead of the 30"
Click to expand...

I originally bought the Dell. I got 2 replacements and returned it. I couldn't handle the input lag, and every panel had about 3 stuck pixels. My First ZR30w had a green stuck pixel. I RMA'd it and got a panel with no issues. I love my ZR30w.

I actually play plenty of games at 1920x1200, not for performance reasons but I produce loads of game content for youtube and simply record 1920x1200 and resize to 1080p to keep things simple. I'd play at 1080p, but the Nvidia scaler doesn't like aspect ratio for some reason. As far as inputs, It only has a USB upstream, dual link DVI, and a full size display port. And only accepts 1280x800 and 2560x1600. The nice thing is that your GPU has scaling built in and the GPU scaling will simply kick in if it doesn't detect an onboard scaler, so you don't have to change anything if you set a different resolution. No added lag, or atleast no perceivable lag when doing GPU scaling.

If you're not sensetive to input lag, the U3011 might be fine, but I took advice from people telling me that "The input lag thing is just made up by noob gamers" or a iteration of that idea. I took their advice and hated my choice. I could feel it while merely browsing the web and moving the mouse. The ZR30w is night and day in relation to it's feedback and general gaming behavior. The whole Wide Gamut panel is another problem where the Dell has sRGB emulation so it looks proper while the ZR30w does not, so everything will look overly saturated. To be honest, it was a major change at first... now... everything else looks so dull to me. I now really like the super saturated colors. But that's just me.
 
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