Good 22" For Gaming?

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Bisectors Fore

Limp Gawd
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Aug 24, 2008
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I am looking for a 22" widescreen (1680x1050) LCD. I would be using it mainly for gaming. I don't want to spend more than $300. I know I can't get the best possible monitor on that budget, but I just want something that will be good quality for gaming. I don't really know much about LCDs, so any input would be appreciated. I would like to be able to have the monitor by Christmas. Thanks.

Edit: This is one that I was looking at. Let me know if there are better for a similar price.
 
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Ok, cool. Here are a couple others I was looking at. I guess these are not TN because of the 16.7 million colors, is that correct? Also, how do you tell if the finish on a display is glossy or matte?
 
Bisectors Fore said:
Ok, cool. Here are a couple others I was looking at. I guess these are not TN because of the 16.7 million colors, is that correct? Also, how do you tell if the finish on a display is glossy or matte?
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The Samsung T220 and the Acer Ferrari F-22 are both TN panels and have matte finishes. The usually reliable method to tell if a panel is TN or not (off of website specs) is to look @ the viewing angle data: if it's lower than 178/178 degrees, it's TN. As for telling matte off of a specs list, you can't: that's something you have to do research for.
 
you can tell if it is a TN panel by checking out the viewing angles, NON TN panels(*VA, IPS) are 178/178 viewing angles.

I have the LG L227WTG-PF, its has 170/170 viewing angles which is great for a TN panel. I got it at bestbuy for $259, it has a glossy screen which I love, I am a competitive gamer, this monitor has zero input lag. Highly recommended.
 
Thanks for the info. I am on the fence as to whether I want matte or glossy. I have read that TN panels have less vivid colors than others, and that matte panels also have less vivid color, so combining both of those might not be a good idea. However, I currently have a glossy screen on a laptop, and it is a bit more reflective than I would like to have. My mother has what I think is a matte LCD, and the colors look fine to me on it. I don't know if it is TN or not though. It is a Hanns-G 19" 1280x1024, if anyone knows about it.
 
Best Buy has the L227WTG-PF on sale for $249.99 this week!

I do not have this monitor, but from what I hear, that is probably a killer deal. I was looking at 24's, but I might go grab one of these at this price.
 
Arklight-You should list this in the killer deals section. I bought it two weeks ago (l227wtg), and it is a great monitor. It doesn't come with a dvi cable... I added one after about a week. I thought it was good with the vga, the dvi cable really brought it to life. It is good in gaming (crysis), has great color for movies, and text is sharp as a tack (probably due to the gloss screen). Get it while the price is down.
 
McDork said:
Arklight-You should list this in the killer deals section. I bought it two weeks ago (l227wtg), and it is a great monitor. It doesn't come with a dvi cable... I added one after about a week. I thought it was good with the vga, the dvi cable really brought it to life. It is good in gaming (crysis), has great color for movies, and text is sharp as a tack (probably due to the gloss screen). Get it while the price is down.
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I just put it in there. :)

This would be for my new gaming rig I built. The 24's look really nice, but coming from a 21 inch CRT (19.1 inch viewable) this monitor might fit the bill nicely.
 
I am going to pick one up this week. I saw one last week when I was BB for something else and thought is looked the best of the 22" monitors they had. I could see every light on the ceiling of the store behind me but don't think that will be a problem at home.

All the posts I have seen here say the colors are great. DigitalVersus reviewed a L227WT and said the color fidelity sucked.

Does anybody know what the difference is between the one they reviewed and the L227WTG-PF beside the contrast ratio?
 
Please try to stay on topic people. I would really like to order a monitor within the next few days. I have narrowed it down to these using newegg search, so let me know if there are any I should add to or drop from that list. Of the ones on that list, does it make sense to just get the one with the highest contrast ration and lowest response time, or are there other factors to consider? I know that dynamic contrast isn't as good, but should I also disregard response times listed as GTG? Thanks.
 
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Most of the specs that are listed for monitors by the manufacturers are faked, cheated, fudged and lied. Sounds harsh, but that's the way their marketing departments work.

Contrast ratio means nothing, because it's the ratio between the blackest black and the whitest white. It's easy to make the screen whiter, and very hard to make the screen blacker. Made a monitor and the black levels suck? Boost the white level until you have the ratio you want. Most people run LCD monitors somewhere around 25 to 33 percent brightness because the manufacturers boost the white levels so high to make the contrast ratios look good. A monitor with a lower contrast level can have better blacks than a monitor with a higher contrast ratio, so really the contrast ratio is not going to tell you anything.

Viewing angles tell you nothing, because they lie sometimes. Some TN panels are advertised to have 178 degree viewing angles.

To answer the question of "Is this 22 inch LCD a TN or not?" goes, the easy way to tell is, if it's a Lenovo ThinkVision L220X, Eizo S2231W, Samsung 2263PW or HP LP2275w, it's a VA panel. ALL other 22" LCDs are TN. There are no 22" IPS monitors and there never will be. Why don't they just tell the user what kind of panel the monitor has? Because then they couldn't switch in different panel types at will. Yes, we have seen monitors switched from good IPS to terrible VA panels with no indication or warning to the buyer.

Response time is also meaningless, because they don't even acknowledge the existence of input lag. You need to add input lag to response time to know how fast the monitor actually is. The one good feature of TN panels is that they tend to be very fast, largely due to the fact that they display only 6-bit color instead of 8-bit color.

Of the ones you are considering, the LG L227WTG-PF is possibly the best 22" gaming monitor at this time. It has a glossy screen, zero input lag, zero response time, and vibrant colors. It's still a TN but it's a good one.

The Anandtech LCD thread has a lot of very helpful info in one very large post:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2049206
 
Thanks for all the info evilsofa. I will definetly check out that Anandtech link. Just out of curiousity, where did you get the info on LG L227, if the manufacturer's specs are useless?
 
I have recently purchased 22" Samsung 2253BW, and the color's are very vivid, even though the screen is not glossy, which is actually good, because there would be no glare reflecting into your eyes. The 2ms response time is outstanding. This monitor is also the best rated 22" LCD on Newegg, so obviously this has to be a good monitor.
 
Bisectors Fore said:
Thanks for all the info evilsofa. I will definetly check out that Anandtech link. Just out of curiousity, where did you get the info on LG L227, if the manufacturer's specs are useless?
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The anandtech thread, this forum for user reviews about specific monitors and their problems, reliable review sites like xbitlabs, prad.de, and the side-by-side comparisons at digitalversus.
 
Absolut Ballin' said:
I have recently purchased 22" Samsung 2253BW, and the color's are very vivid, even though the screen is not glossy, which is actually good, because there would be no glare reflecting into your eyes. The 2ms response time is outstanding. This monitor is also the best rated 22" LCD on Newegg, so obviously this has to be a good monitor.
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Dude, you know those Newegg revies aren't reliable, right? I'm not saying the Samsung 2253BW isn't good, I'm sure it is. But people who write reviews on Newegg tend to have their heads firmly inplanted in their... you get the idea. ;)

evilsofa said:
The anandtech thread, this forum for user reviews about specific monitors and their problems, reliable review sites like xbitlabs, prad.de, and the side-by-side comparisons at digitalversus.
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Yeah, that Anandtech page is super informative, thanks for the link. :D
 
icehole said:
I am going to pick one up this week. I saw one last week when I was BB for something else and thought is looked the best of the 22" monitors they had. I could see every light on the ceiling of the store behind me but don't think that will be a problem at home.

All the posts I have seen here say the colors are great. DigitalVersus reviewed a L227WT and said the color fidelity sucked.

Does anybody know what the difference is between the one they reviewed and the L227WTG-PF beside the contrast ratio?
Click to expand...

That is troubling. According to The Anandtech LCD Thread, the difference is the glossy finish, but they also say in that thread that the colors are vibrant.
 
The thing about going up to 1920x1080 is gonna be the performance hit you will take.

I am in the same situation right now wondering if I should just get a 16x10 monitor or if I can actually play games at 19x10 with my rig.

Now if you get a 19x10 and want to lower the res then what is the next res down from
19x10 in the monitor settings?
 
Bman123 said:
The thing about going up to 1920x1080 is gonna be the performance hit you will take.

I am in the same situation right now wondering if I should just get a 16x10 monitor or if I can actually play games at 19x10 with my rig.

Now if you get a 19x10 and want to lower the res then what is the next res down from
19x10 in the monitor settings?
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Yeah, that is why I want to go with 22". I will be happy with running games at 1680x1050, and that way my system will be able to handle it better. I won't have to end up spending more money on a display and then have to spend more money again to upgrade my GPU. I feel like 22"/1680x1050 is the sweet spot for me right now.
 
You don't have to use on the full display resolution. You let your videocard or monitor upscale it or game with black bars. It works perfect. A big screen for the older games and anything else and black bars for the games that your gfx card can't run on full.
 
Running games or watching movies on a non native (lower) resolution is a completely different scenario; don’t compare that to running your desktop on a non native resolution. Difference is prominent for desktop applications because of text. You won't notice it with games or movies, therefore don’t make your decision based on the native resolution.
 
what are your rig specs?
Just wondering how yours compares to mine?I am wanting to get a new monitor and I am thinking of going 1680x1050 now also.I mean it would be nice to play @1920x1080 but if it is gonna really hinder my performance then I can easily go down to 1680x1050
 
I'm going to be getting a LG w2252tq-tf for Christmas (the L227 went on sale for $249.99 the day after my parents bought the w2252 at Circuit City for $239.99, haha), but I'm still really excited for it. I am slightly worried about the matte though, since I am used to my fw900 (decided to switch to an LCD since I really don't want to carry this 200 pound monster to any more lans.) So yeah, I guess I'll give my thoughts on it after Christmas...
 
Anyone notice halo ghosting with the LG 227's? The test on paint with gray background and red circle, seems to have some ghosting.
 
tungt88 said:
Grats! And enjoy your new monitor (kill a gnome or sniper for me) :D
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Will do. :D

Bman123 said:
what are your rig specs?
Just wondering how yours compares to mine?I am wanting to get a new monitor and I am thinking of going 1680x1050 now also.I mean it would be nice to play @1920x1080 but if it is gonna really hinder my performance then I can easily go down to 1680x1050
Click to expand...

My rig specs:

i7 920
P6T Deluxe
6GB DDR3
GTX 280
2x WD 640 Black
TRUE 1366
Antec 1200

I could probably run most games at 1920x1200 with that rig, but I am happy with gaming @ 1680x1050 and and also this way I can get a good quality display for less money. :) I figure this way my rig will be able to keep up with modern games for a longer time into the future, than if I was playing at 1920x1200.

Nothing is Real said:
I'm going to be getting a LG w2252tq-tf for Christmas (the L227 went on sale for $249.99 the day after my parents bought the w2252 at Circuit City for $239.99, haha), but I'm still really excited for it. I am slightly worried about the matte though, since I am used to my fw900 (decided to switch to an LCD since I really don't want to carry this 200 pound monster to any more lans.) So yeah, I guess I'll give my thoughts on it after Christmas...
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Mine is for Christmas also. :D It's back-ordered at Best Buy though, so I won't get it for a week or two.

waseem said:
I have the SAMSUNG 2253BW and its awsome Monitor
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Yeah, that is one of the ones I looked at also, and it looked good. I've heard that Samsung is a good brand.

iplayCS said:
Anyone notice halo ghosting with the LG 227's? The test on paint with gray background and red circle, seems to have some ghosting.
Click to expand...

I don't have mine yet so I couldn't say. Could just be an optical illusion. The screen is said to have no input lag, so it should be fine.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176091&Tpk=hp w2207h

HP w2207h - I got this on sale for $249 at bestbuy right now, which is an amazing price for this monitor. Everyone who owns one loves one. I had an lg227wtg-pf and I hated it because it make a lot of noise when the dynamic contrast kicks into gear. And after gaming and using this one for a bit, I like it even more. It looks a lot better than the LG, costs less, and has great build quality.
 
Update: Well, my monitor is still back-ordered at Best Buy. I called them about it and they said I would still get the sale price but they didn't know when they would be getting more in stock. In the mean time, I have heard that this monitor does not come with a DVI cable so I guess I ought to buy one. In doing a little shopping around, I noticed that prices on DVI cables range form $5-$50. I was hoping to get one for around $10, but I'm not sure what the difference is between the cheap and expensive ones, so I'm not sure what I need. Any input on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Bisectors Fore said:
Update: Well, my monitor is still back-ordered at Best Buy. I called them about it and they said I would still get the sale price but they didn't know when they would be getting more in stock. In the mean time, I have heard that this monitor does not come with a DVI cable so I guess I ought to buy one. In doing a little shopping around, I noticed that prices on DVI cables range form $5-$50. I was hoping to get one for around $10, but I'm not sure what the difference is between the cheap and expensive ones, so I'm not sure what I need. Any input on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10209

Nuff said.
 
Well, I got my monitor yesterday and I am impressed. It is much bigger than the one I had been using and it looks great.

InnocentNoobie, I don't seem to have the problem you described. I went into "paint" and fullscreened it with various shades of gray - no noise. Maybe you just had bad luck and got multiple bad ones in a row.

The monitor came with a driver on a disc but I wasn't sure if I should install it or not. It seems to work without the driver, but there where a few oddities that I noticed. That could be the sucky VGA cable I'm using I guess, or maybe I should install the driver. Any Ideas on whether or not to install it? My experience with these type of things is that they install a bunch of other unnecessary crap also and so that is why I didn't just install the driver right away. Input appreciated. Thanks.
 
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