What monitor am I looking for here?

J

John Stamos

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Sep 14, 2009
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So I'm going to upgrade from my HP 2509m to something...I haven't decided yet. My specs are in my sig, but I'm going to upgrade from 2 HD 6870's to 1 GTX 670 2GB. I've been running SLI/Xfire since 2005 and I'm just tired of all the problems with drivers and application support so I'm finally just going to stick with one card.

Being that said, my problem lies in which monitor I want next. I currently have an HP 2509m which I've grown tired of. My primary use of the monitor will be for gaming, but I do graphic design on the side so no matter what the circumstances I will be looking for some form of an IPS panel. Besides, I like the rich colors and excellent viewing angles, I don't think I can go back to anything else.


What I'm looking for:

IPS (Alpha?) - New to me, I try to read the Display threads when I can. Is Alpha just a better contrast/color set up than a standard IPS panel? If so, that would be preferred.

120hz - This is the tough one. I don't know if any Alpha-IPS 120hz monitors exist? I never gamed on a 120hz monitor but the consensus is that once you go 120hz you never go back.

Size - I originally was going to buy a 40 inch TV and slap it right in front of my face for gaming. I know the problems when it comes to TV's and gaming, but I was going to see if it was worth it. I'm not sure how I feel about this anymore, as much as I like the immersion of a big monitor I may be giving too much up, especially my design work.

Price Range - I can probably shoot upwards of 400 dollars, not that I WANT to spend 400 dollars, but if that's what it takes to find what I want.


This lead me to the oh so popular 27 inch korean monitors that have been coming about. What worries me though is trying to run a high resolution like that while gobbling up all 120 frames. I tend to run my games on the highest settings EXCLUDING anti-aliasing and I usually keep SSAO to a minimum. Would a single GTX 670 2GB be strong enough to power a game like Battlefield 3 or Planetside 2 at that resolution fulfilling all 120 frames? Also, going from 25 inches to 27 inches just doesn't seem like a huge upgrade, but I can certainly not afford a 30 inch monitor so that's why I was considered a television. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I can go from here?

I realize this thread is a bit of boggled information, if it's not clear I'll try to reword it.
 
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the Korean monitors are the only 120hz monitors that you can currently get and they dont all reach 120hz. On average most reach around 100hz from what I understand.

As for the GTX670 I seriously doubt you will achieve a steady 120fps in BF3 running at 2560X1440 unless you turn settings down. To me it sounds like a 120hz 1080p monitor would better suit your needs. The lower resolution will help with your fps and the monitors will obviously do 120hz and have nearly zero input lag which is ULTRA important in FPS games. The korean monitors are known to have some input lag.
 
I'm all for 1080p, I just had trouble finding a 27 inch monitor that had all the things I wanted. I'm not sure if I edited my post too late, but I came across the ASUS VG27AH. I can't seem to find whether or not it's 120hz though even though it advertises 3D.

Edit: Blah, I see that it's passive 3D. Which means it's also 60hz. My quest continues.

Edit 2: ASUS VG278HE. So this is 144hz, 27 inch 1080p TN Panel. Obviously being a TN panel it worried me about color gamut and the viewing angles. While I don't think the viewing angles will be better than my monitor, a review stated that the color gamut of that monitor is 95.5% while my IPS panel I currently use is only 92%. Does this sound correct?? If that's truly the case then I'd have NO issues upgrading to the VG278HE even though it's TN since I've done graphic design on this HP2509m and really had no issues with my color.
 
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If you need IPS, you only have 2 choices for 120hz, and they're both Korean.. You can either join the waiting list at 120hz.net for a Yamakasi Catleap 2B, or order a X270OC from Overlord Computer and wait however many months it's going to take them to get more produced.
Those are, unfortunately, the only 120hz IPS monitors that exist right now.
If you drop the 120hz restriction, you get a much larger variety of monitors. Dell U2711, U2713, HP ZR2740w, and Samsung S27A850D are some that come to mind.
 
Judging from how dated my current monitor is, I may not mind going TN if it's an all around upgrade from my current panel. If that's the case, I'm comparing the ASUS VG278HE and SAMSUNG S27A950D. Both TN panels, but reviews seem to claim that the color gamuts are pretty darn good.
 
After doing some extensive comparisons, I went with the Samsung S27A950D. I see that it doesn't natively support Nvidia 3dVision but with some hacks it will. As much as I'd like to take a shot at one of the Korean monitors, I'm not looking to run SLI/Crossfire anymore. That and I had tons of gift card points on Amazon, so I wanted to use them up. Couldn't find a Catleap 2B on there if I wanted to.

Full House!
 
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