Yet another 120Hz LCD: Alienware OptX AW2310 23" 16:9

very nice :) it's great to see more 120's hitting the market. Now they just need to make a 28-30" display and I'll be happier than a pig in *hit :D
 
Could you also comment on the stand? If it's woobly crap or it's fairly decent.

I should get mine middle of next week. It left today.
 
Looking forward to the review and comparison. I'm heavily addicted to WoW again lately and it looks great on the samsung but it just feels a little cramped compared to playing at 1920x1080 on my 47" w/o 3d. I'm wondering if it's the resolution difference I'm seeing most and not just the obvious size difference because what gets annoying is the amount of space the character takes up in relation to the UI on top and bottom more than anything else.

And if you happen to play WoW, can you let us know if it works with the latest patch required to get the AW2310 working? I had to use earlier drivers because the latest few updates just broke the menu system from working in 3d mode in WoW.

Also, what's everyone planning on doing with their old Samsungs? Keep for a backup? Sell it? I haven't decided. I know I read that 3d surround is going to require 3 of the same monitors or at least with the same resolutions.
 
In the AW2310 thread over at forums.nvidia.com someone has promised to upload a post-calibration display profile owners might want to try out.
 
ThunderGod66 said:
Looking forward to the review and comparison. I'm heavily addicted to WoW again lately and it looks great on the samsung but it just feels a little cramped compared to playing at 1920x1080 on my 47" w/o 3d. I'm wondering if it's the resolution difference I'm seeing most and not just the obvious size difference because what gets annoying is the amount of space the character takes up in relation to the UI on top and bottom more than anything else.

And if you happen to play WoW, can you let us know if it works with the latest patch required to get the AW2310 working? I had to use earlier drivers because the latest few updates just broke the menu system from working in 3d mode in WoW.

Also, what's everyone planning on doing with their old Samsungs? Keep for a backup? Sell it? I haven't decided. I know I read that 3d surround is going to require 3 of the same monitors or at least with the same resolutions.
Click to expand...

I just got my laptop yesterday, and unfortunately the WoW UI bug is still present. I'm curious though, what drivers did you revert to for the bug to go away? I've been wondering how to fix this for a while now, and the way you put it, the bug must exist in the 3D Vision drivers profile.
 
After reading that it sorta confirms my predictions that it isn't worthy that price premium. I'd rather go with the $100 cheaper Acer or wait for the ViewSonic LED 120Hz or LG with low input lag.
 
Thanks for the review.

I hope the 2D 120hz you mention isn't too bad. I don't want to have to send mine back. Should be in monday.
 
riKoCheT said:
I just got my laptop yesterday, and unfortunately the WoW UI bug is still present. I'm curious though, what drivers did you revert to for the bug to go away? I've been wondering how to fix this for a while now, and the way you put it, the bug must exist in the 3D Vision drivers profile.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if there are later drivers that work but someone mentioned that he went back to 190.62 and they work...so that's what I'm using and it's flawless.
 
DarkAngel_ZERO said:
I've posted a review over at the 3D Vision forums if you guys are interested.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=157365

Also, my ICC profile is posted in this thread here:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=157273&view=findpost&p=986830
Click to expand...

Thanks for the review. Really informative! Think I'll hold off till we see some Acer reviews and go from there.

The backlight bleeding and color deformation are just unacceptable for a $500 monitor. :(
 
This looks very tempting! I do like the Acer one as well. Has anyone found a fix for use with the ATI 5870? or do I have to buy a Nvida card to use this. I had the viewsonic fuhzion a day ago and took it back after having issues and seeing the Acer 23.6 inch 1920x1080 was coming out. I could not get the viewsonic to work with my card. I tried the hotfix, new drivers and ocing the card as well. Constant bluescreen when ATI drivers were present. Booted into safe mode no problem. As soon as the drivers are loaded, I get lines at the welcome screen and no mouse and then blue screen. :( I use to have a NEC 22" CRT for gaming and I really miss the fast refresh rate so I am getting this Acer when it comes out. I just hope there is a fix so I dont have to replace my 5870.....
 
I agree. If the price were $100 less I could see one of these sitting on my desk.
 
Exspre$$o,

Are you talking about 2D use? It seems unimaginable to me that Dell would ship a gaming monitor that does not work in 2D with the fastest single-gpu card out there... bizarre if true. It could be a driver issue that ATI will fix.
 
Got mine.

Just hooked it up (DVI), played some quakelive@120hz and everything is good enough for me.

120hz desktop works with no wonkiness (this is what I was afraid of after reading that it sucked).

Running ATI 5870 stock everything with no flickering issues.

I've only owned TN panels in my life so I'm ok with that too.

Stand feels solid, up down range is "ok" (about 3.5" travel up down).

Border is matte black, screen mate, just how I like it.

Edit: Just want to add that on forums/webpages I do get a bluish tint to the white text while using the scroll bar (does not seem to do it when using scroll wheel, probably because of how it skips instead of trying to be smooth and refresh all)
 
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nice :) how do you like it? pics?

for shits and giggles, once you get used to it, set the monitor to 60hz and try playing quake again :D It's amazing what those extra 60fps will do for your kill-death ratio
 
daaaang........

This monitor really looked like "the one" until I saw the color uniformity and backlight bleeding pictures... Those issues among the primary reasons I sold my 24" Gateway... Still i'd like to try it out somewhere to get a feel for the input lag and just to see the actual screen... If it really is super fast and responsive for fps games it might be worth putting up with the BLB and color uniformity issues. might
 
Here's monitor only.

I'll post some of the screen on later... I took some but the antiglare coating + my camera were doing some pretty crazy effects...

Druneau_AW2310-7.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-8.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-9.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-10.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-11.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-12.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-13.jpg

Druneau_AW2310-14.jpg
 
I didn't get this model I had the viewsonic Fuhzion. But yeah I can't even get passed the welcome screen when my ati drivers are loaded. I tried ocing my card, ati hot fix and no luck. So yes the 2d issue. I can't even get to a load a game before my comp blue screens with that monitor. It is driving me crazy. I use to be pretty hxc into gaming and for fps these monitors are SICK! Must have. I will buy a Nvidia card just so I can use one of these 120hz monitors. It makes that big of a difference. :(
 
espre$$0 said:
I didn't get this model I had the viewsonic Fuhzion. But yeah I can't even get passed the welcome screen when my ati drivers are loaded. I tried ocing my card, ati hot fix and no luck. So yes the 2d issue. I can't even get to a load a game before my comp blue screens with that monitor. It is driving me crazy. I use to be pretty hxc into gaming and for fps these monitors are SICK! Must have. I will buy a Nvidia card just so I can use one of these 120hz monitors. It makes that big of a difference. :(
Click to expand...

I guess I'm lucky?

I just plugged it in with supplied dual link dvi cable and 120hz desktop is running perfect with 5870. I was sure I would get flickering since it seems everybody gets it with ATI cards... (I'm not complaining lol)
 
I've used my AW2310 for a few hours now, for text, gaming, and TV viewing. I won't give a full review here, just some highlights. My frame of reference comes from my use of three other monitors: Mitsubishi's 2070SB CRT (20"); Gateway XHD300H - 30" S-PVA panel (bad visual anomalies started 2 weeks after warranty ran out); and an earlier 19" Eizo IPS display. The video card being used is an ATI 3850.

I have done nothing with the settings beyond going into custom mode, dropping brightness to 48% and pushing contrast up to 76% (manually adjusting the contrast turns off the dynamic contrast option) and killing the overdrive mode.

Text/browsing: The OOTB default mode is horrible, even scary. Once I switched to the above settings everything looked good, very good, and I breathed a big sigh of relief. Text may not be quite as razor sharp as on the Gateway, which may be due to panel type or the AW's slightly coarser resolution (about a 5% DPI difference). It's a good thing that this display is so adjustable, as slight changes in viewing angle can lead to image washout or conversely loss of dark highlights in a black muddy sea. I don't know how Asus will be able to build their upcoming 27" 120hz display with a TN panel, users will have to sit 3' away from it to get even color fields.

There is some noticeable bleeding at the edges when viewing dark screens, primarily at the top edge, but the width of the bleed is quite narrow (3 mm) and very straight and when properly positioned for optimal viewing I find the rest of the black screen remarkably even, better by far than the Gateway and as good as my CRT. I think most users would quickly get used to the edge bleed. Move your head 6 inches in any direction though, and of course as with any TN panel you get color shifting. Color balance in custom mode seems great, quite neutral with maybe a bit of bluish green (but then I am under incandescent lighting so the contrast with the yellowish room light heightens that color shift). On photos overall color balance looks very similar to my carefully adjusted CRT. No visible difference was noted in text or image characteristics at 120hz as compared to 60hz, which is nice. I am not noticing any bluish text on scrolling or the other browsing issues noted in the review linked to earlier in this thread .

Gaming: Wow. So far I have only looked at Halo (I was replaying that on the weekend). I ran Fraps and found using the display's 120hz mode that once the framerates were up above 80 there is an amazing solidity and 3d-like quality to the gameplay .(I have no interest in getting 3d glasses at present.) Once the framerate hits 100+ - well, the effect has to be experienced to understand it. I do wish the monitor was 16:10 rather than 16:9, but that is its only significant limitation for gaming (the minor issues: the viewing angle restrictions, and very occasionally, the edge bleeding on dark screens). I am not getting noticeable loss of detail in black areas, in fact generally black areas seem tor etain detail well. No input lag has been noticed at all (I may run a formal test later with the CRT cloned to it). Zero trails, ghosting, smearing, or blurring are found when the video card and cpu can keep up. Gaming on this thing will be a blast!

HD TV: I have the AW plugged in via HDMI to an HD cable box. Compared to the Gateway (when it was working) it's not quite as impressive as an HDTV- but then the Gateway was providing a 2650X1600 image upscale using one of the best scalers available. Generally though the AW is a competent TV display, and the HDMI imposes no noticeable lag on the image ( I was able to run audio directly from the cable box to the aux input on my powered speakers without this causing the sound to get ahead of lip movement onscreen, as happened with the Gateway.) Scaling works ok - no visual difference evident in 720p vs. 1080i. There does seem to be a 2-3% overscan of HD images though, and there is no menu option for 1:1 at 1080i. There is also a clear lack of smoothness in fast action sequences relative to the newer LCD and plasma TVs - ironic given the display's 120hz functionality - but the AW only operates at 60hz on the HDMI input. Running overdrive may help here. SD looks OK but by default gets stretched so you are always foced to go into the menu system when you jump from a widescreen HD channel to a 4:3 SD channel if you want to maintain proper aspect ratios - a pain, this thing needs a remote like the Gateway provided at the very least, if not the Gateway's automatically corrected aspecting. I miss the PIP found on the Gateway which gave you a small TV window onscreen without the need for a TV card.

To sum up, taking into consideration the $500 CDN cost to me for this display, I would give it a 9/10 for gaming, a 7.5 for web etc, and a 7 for TV viewing. I intend to use it almost exclusively as a gaming display and for that it seems, based on initial impressions, to be exceptional. I wonder if the earlier reviewer got a unit with a bad panel... (Another plus: the unit puts out little heat. I am NOT missing the heat output of the 30" Gateway, so I may go with a 27" monitor for non-gaming purposes this time.)
 
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You might find as I did that the 3d refresh rate override in the Catalyst control does not work for certain games and these games then play at 60 hz. The fix is to use ATI Tray Tools and set a custom refresh lock for 120hz and then enable it. Worked for me, and what a difference it made in the game (GTR2).
 
So any reviews around that compare this to the acer yet?
 
We need some actual input lag tests for this monitor. And no, your "feel" for input lag doesn't count ;)
 
Can you lend me a CRT that does 1920x1080 120hz? I'd take some pictures to test input lag if so.

And.... i don't "feel" any input lag at all on my AW2310. :D
 
DevonK where do you see the 3d refresh rate override in the Catalyst control ? I just ordered the AW monitor and and I play mostly css so I want to know if I ever have problems
 
The refresh rate override in the CCC does NOT work with this monitor - the one in ATI Tray Tools does but then you lose control of the detailed AA settings in the CCC as TT overrides them, and the TT AA settings do not seem to be applied in some games (at least in GTR2) so you are left with NO way of varying the AA for the game..
 
Further to the last post, I found with a little experimentation that you can get past this problem by de-installing the Dell driver that comes with the AW2310. The CCC will still recognize the monitor (although the Windows CP won't) and now the refresh rate override in display options works so you don't need to use the Tray Tools. Now you have full control over your AA and AF settings with 120 Hz gameplay. A big FAIL to Dell for screwing up their driver.
 
DevonK said:
Further to the last post...
Click to expand...

Just wanted to add that what worked for me is using ATI's driver scaling to output in 1:1 mode.

Basically the monitor is getting "1920x1080@120hz" all the time from the videocard. But only the pixels for the chosen resolution are "on".
 
stevenj said:
What is your settings for contrast, rgb and brightness ?
Click to expand...

Contrast - 60
Brightness - 0
R - 90
G - 93
B - 100

I don't have any hardware color calibration available to me.

I do play with brightness once in a while... but since I use the monitor mostly at night when it's darker-ish anything above 30 is too much for me.
 
This monitor is the best pc upgrade I've had since a launch X2 4400+ 5 years ago.

I'm glad I "settled" and stopped waiting for the perfect monitor. Every hyped one seems to end up with issues.
 
this is the beahviour of the Acer and its overdrive feature. As you can see the characters and icons edges look badly when overdrive is switched ON.
Can you perform the same test on your Alienware?

acergd245hqoverdrive1.jpg
 
Hey guys, I'm having issues with the refresh rate.
The only way the monitor runs @ 100/120hz is in its native resolution. Whenever I enter a game which I dont wanna play in 1920*1080 or when I change the desktop resolution the refresh rate drops to 60/75hz.

I tried to lock the refreshrate in the ATi CCC and also in Windows (see screenshot).
http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22748486/dom2.JPG

Fixing the refresh rate with Ati Tray Tools or deinstalling the alienware monitor driver as someone of you said also did not fix the problem.

I'm running the latest Catalyst Driver (10.5) and the changelog says this:
> ATI Catalyst™ now supports 120 Hz Displays for the ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 and ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series

But still I'm not able to get more than 75hz running any other resolution than 1920*1080.

Does anyone has the same problem or a fix?

Would be awesome :)

P.S. sorry for my english, not a native speaker ;)
 
Hi!

First post here!

Still no data on the input lag? From my "research", it seems that 22" 120hz monitors have aprox. 16 ms of input lag and Acer GD245 aprox. 32ms. What about the AW2310?
 
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