TN vs. TFT-Active Matrix for Eyefinity?

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octoberasian

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I keep reading about TN sucks for LCD displays, so going to sound like a noob here, but in your experience with Eyefinity, which would be better to use? TN or TFT-Active Matrix?

I am planning on taking the cheap route: 3x 1600x900 or 3x 1680x1050 monitors in Portrait mode with a 5850 or 5870. Then, I'll upgrade to a second card in the future.

They also seem to be relatively cheaper than 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 displays. First off, I want to be sure I am getting the right monitor. So, if anyone has better recommendations, that'll be great.
 
You should probably post this in the Display section, not the AMD subsection of the video card section.

That said, TFT-Active Matrix isn't a panel type afaik. There is TN, PVA, and IPS, with IPS being the best, followed by PVA, followed by TN. I'm looking for a 24" 1920x1200 IPS display for Eyefinity, and the advice I got was to wait for a couple of months as there aren't any good ones at the moment whereas NEC has a new launch coming up.

Also, you can't really run a TN panel in Portrait mode from what I've been told.

Budget would be good to know, btw.
 
I believe TFT Active Matrix is display type as kllrnohj says, TN, PVA and IPS are all different technologies used to drive that display type.

TN is by far the worst, almost all cheap panels are TN. The problem is the viewing angles, as you angle the monitor to your vision the brightness will shift and the colours will change, leaving you with a pretty terrible image.

Best place to see this is in comparison shots, I like to use Digital Versus for this, for example this is the default TN monitor which is shown when you load the page, with the right hand monitor switched to a good S-IPS monitor which I'm currently running.

http://www.digitalversus.com/duels.php?ty=6&ma1=35&mo1=623&p1=7252&ma2=88&mo2=237&p2=2302&ph=8

You can see not only does the TN panel have washed out colours but the viewing angles are terrible especially the vertical ones. With an ultra wide display the far edges are at really shallow angles to you and so would look pretty terrible.
 
I would put the money towards a good IPS or PVA panel. Once you get off TN there really is no going back.
 
Wow, thank you for that website!

That's going to help a lot when I choose displays for an Eyefinity setup. Too bad it doesn't have a lot of monitors but it'll give me a good idea what to buy.

And, holy hell, ASUS is just plain bad on viewing angles. Yet, they're so affordable on NewEgg.com. And, obviously the Apple Cinema Displays are good but costly. >.>;

But, LG is pretty good too on many models. Wall, definitely going to look through them.

At the moment, my budget is $700 max for 3 monitors not including the graphics card. As much as I want the 2560x1600 display (for both work and play) from DELL, it's still beyond my budget. I'll probably get the 5850 or 5870 first then the monitors.
 
octoberasian said:
I keep reading about TN sucks for LCD displays, so going to sound like a noob here, but in your experience with Eyefinity, which would be better to use? TN or TFT-Active Matrix?

I am planning on taking the cheap route: 3x 1600x900 or 3x 1680x1050 monitors in Portrait mode with a 5850 or 5870. Then, I'll upgrade to a second card in the future.

They also seem to be relatively cheaper than 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 displays. First off, I want to be sure I am getting the right monitor. So, if anyone has better recommendations, that'll be great.
Click to expand...

TN's fine as long as you keep them in landscape mode. In fact, TN's have the better response times of the various LCD techs. But forget about using TN panels for portrait. The limited viewing angle in that orientation will drive you nuts.
 
octoberasian said:
Wow, thank you for that website!

That's going to help a lot when I choose displays for an Eyefinity setup. Too bad it doesn't have a lot of monitors but it'll give me a good idea what to buy.

And, holy hell, ASUS is just plain bad on viewing angles. Yet, they're so affordable on NewEgg.com. And, obviously the Apple Cinema Displays are good but costly. >.>;

But, LG is pretty good too on many models. Wall, definitely going to look through them.

At the moment, my budget is $700 max for 3 monitors not including the graphics card. As much as I want the 2560x1600 display (for both work and play) from DELL, it's still beyond my budget. I'll probably get the 5850 or 5870 first then the monitors.
Click to expand...

No problem. You'll notice at the bottom under "type" you'll see the type of panel it is, TN, PVA or IPS. You'll also notice as you look through monitors that the ones with terrible viewing angles are basically all the TN panels.

I would personally not go back to TN panels like SixtyWattMan says. For image quality and viewing angles you really want to stick to at least PVA or better yet IPS. I would personally avoid a cheap eyefinity setup because it forces to use TN due to price and the end result will be pretty poor.

The only problem is that these panel types are expensive, they're also usually limited to the higher resolution panels, you usually need to go 24"+ and 1920x1080+ to get a PVA or IPS panel.
 
The NEC EA231WMi would probably be the best bet for your budget. Its an IPS 23" 16:9 display (1920x1080) that goes for around $350 (maybe cheaper), so a bit out of your budget but its supposed to be an excellent display. The guys down in the display section frequently recommend it, and there is a huge thread on the monitor here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1436160

I know you said $700 max, but for that you will probably be stuck with either TN (no portrait, poor colors, etc..) or some used displays (good luck getting 3 matching ones)
 
For portrait you have three options: Dell 2209WA, Samsung F2380, NEC EA231WMi (there is a Viewsonic monitor that is equal in specs to the NEC.) The latter two are out of your budget, but they are pretty close and 1920 horizontal versus the 2209WA's 1680. The 2209WA's stand will rotate to portrait, not sure about the others. Lastly, the NEC is the only one of the three with a displayport input. You will need at least one displayport monitor or one DP-DVI/VGA adapter, and pretty much every report indicates that adapters are janky and don't work without issues.
 
kllrnohj said:
The NEC EA231WMi would probably be the best bet for your budget. Its an IPS 23" 16:9 display (1920x1080) that goes for around $350 (maybe cheaper), so a bit out of your budget but its supposed to be an excellent display. The guys down in the display section frequently recommend it, and there is a huge thread on the monitor here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1436160

I know you said $700 max, but for that you will probably be stuck with either TN (no portrait, poor colors, etc..) or some used displays (good luck getting 3 matching ones)
Click to expand...

I am currently using a NEC EA231WMi and played CODMW2 on it, and it looks great! Go it for $380 through Dell.com.
 
Despite the trashing TN panels get, average users will probably not notice the slight change in viewing angles. Stick with landscape and TN panels are just fine. You'll also save anywhere from $300 - $600 for your setup.

Having owned and used all three types (PVA, IPS, and TN), TN's have the benefit of experiencing noticeably less smearing and ghosting than either PVA or IPS. Side by side, the difference is quite noticable. So you're making a tradeoff of poorer viewing angle for better movement quality.
 
TN is good for gaming.
using a s-pva next to one and getting color calibration is a bitch as the TN simply cant do the overall colors as well.
However, gaming using eyefinity, I dont notice any colors, view etc..that bothers me.
And I got good eyes.

If I look for it, I see the color shifting, and that the depth of colors dosnt work as well, but the color and screen price are a fourth of what I paid for my s-pva and basically, this TN today is good enough.
One s-pva for the price of 3 TN panel screens, I guess that is kinda obvious what to get.

TN panel also is the nr1 choice for fps gaming, as my s-pva dont cut it there.
I wouldnt hesitate to recomend TN today unless your doing photoshop etc..where color re-production is crucial.
for gaming and surfing and light work, TN works really well.
 
The main issue with TN is vertical viewing angles. That's why they don't usually come with stands that can rotate 90 degrees. The horizontal viewing angle isn't as bad so as long as your keeping the monitors landscape the view angles shouldn't be too bad in a 3 monitor setup with 2 tilted inward.

I personally would go for cheap eIPS or MVA/PVA if I could though.
 
Well the OP specifically says he will use them in portrait. There's actually a surprising number of TNs that come with stands that can pivot, but I don't see how they are relevant for gaming.
 
A CRT will kick a TN panel in the teeth for serious gaming. Ditto with other 60 Hz panels. LCDs <$700 are only 'good enough'. Colour accuracy, viewing angles, backlight equality and lots of other factors will always be less on sub $1k LCDs.

TFT is a technology name, Active Matrix is a panel driver method, contrasted with Passive Matrix, which is what old LCDs used. OLED and SED/FED also uses TFT Active Matrix to drive individual pixels.
 
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