Hi folks,

I finally decided to change from my ancient 19'' Highscreen CRT to a Widescreen TFT.

Now there are two questions:
1. The size
2. The panel (and its importance according to my use)

I've taken several screens into account (ascending in price):

1. 22'' SAMSUNG SyncMaster 226 B or 226 CW
2. 22'' LG ELECTRONICS Flatron L 226 WA-WN
3. 24'' SAMSUNG SyncMaster 245 B
4. 22'' EIZO FlexScan S 2201 W
5. 24'' BENQ FP 241 W
6. 24'' EIZO FlexScan S 2431

I'd primarily use the screen for LFSing, further for graphical work and of course internet and office work, which shouldn't be an issue here. So my choice is dependent of the display's speed, but I'd also be glad about at least semi-realistic colour reproduction. In this case I think the Eizo screens should be best. I use a very professional one at work and from this point of view it's stunning, though I couldn't test its speed playing a racing simulation (we use Macs at work and, on the other hand, we work at work ).
So concerning the colours I think I'm right with choosing the Benq or the bigger Eizo. But is their speed also good enough?

My next concern could be the native resolution. I'm concerned that the 1900ish one of the bigger monitors could be to heavy for my PC. Maybe not primarily for LFS, but surely for any other of the newer games ... which I seriously play not too often btw. So my next question is: How much is the frame rate dependent of the resolution? How big is the jump from 1280x1024 to 1920x1200 pixels and is it THAT big?

I recently took a look at no. 3 from my list, the bigger Samsung one, in real life, playing NFS 376 Underpower Overrated S.E. part 11 (or something like this) and I must say, it quite didn't look bad, but the viewing angle was not tooo large, and there was this odd behaviour of the screen that I still have in mind about TFTs, which I blame to v-sync problems: The upper part of the screen was sometimes one or two frames ahead of the lower one, and the picture at all was somehow not "smove" enough for my feeling. So is this due to v-sync problems or bad graphics drivers? I think yes, because especially for displaying in a shop the dealers often don't seem to set up well-running systems. I even remember having seen several screens attached to one computer, which of course made every one of them look blurry and flooded with artefacts.

Furthermore it's rumoured that the 22'' league is Formula Ford compared to the Formula 1 24'' screens, considering the built-in panels. Is that true?

So ... long post, short question: What would you recommend me to do/not do/buy/not buy??? Maybe some of you even use one ore more of the monitors above and can talk about their experience with it/them.

I thank you VERY MUCH in advance!

Cheers

24" inch user here, and always have run high resolutions. 1920x1200 is fine, and a great size I might add. You'll be happy with such a screen... anything that is 22" or less is just too small... because I have yet to see such a screen use a very crisp 1920x1200 picture.

I have the Dell 2407-HC model, fairly new, a bit pricey... but I bought it because it has tons of other video inputs. It is essentially a Samsung screen in a very nicely designed package . I'd buy a Samsung screen no matter what. EIZO's are too expensive if I remember correctly, so I really don't bother with those.

Make sure you have a 1000:1 contrast ratio or higher, and 6ms or faster response time. Ghosting will always happen in small cases... it is really false for manufacturers to say "ghost free"... there is always ghosting on a TFT.

I do design work too, but don't buy into having an Eizo screen just because of color calibration. Nearly every 24" widescreen out there will have decent color reproduction, and if anything... be only slightly off hue after you calibrate it to the best possible colors... but it will never be terribly incorrect.

EDIT: FPS is really going to depend on what video card you have... so I can't give a good opinion on that. 8800 GTS 640mb here... and fps drops only a tiny bit at max res.

i have a dell 24" widescreen (2405 FPW) and also 2 samsung 21" screens (214T i think?) that are not widescreen. i'd say for a one monitor setup, i'd go with a widescreen version for sure, and if you have the means go for a 24", you won't be disappointed.

as far as the quality of those models you mentioned, the only experience i have with those brands is samsung(all 3 of mine are basically samsung panels). i'm very happy with the two newers ones especially, they are bright with good colors and a quick respsonse time so i don't see much ghosting. as tweaker said, there's almost always going to be some ghosting on a fast moving picture, but on newer monitors it is hardly noticeable in most cases and shouldn't stop you from going with one of those monitors.

i don't know what was going on with that monitor you saw in the shop with the odd behavior, but i'd say whoever set it up just didn't know what they were doing.

Never look at screens in a computer store either. They always have those screens setup witht heir VGA plug on a HUGE VGA "hub" that splits the display to all the screens. Everytime I goto any computer store and look at their screens, they always have a really bad blurry image (sometimes double image), and just very poorly set up. You need to search around online and read lots of reviews and customer comments.

Most good reviews are with Samsung and Dell screens. Viewsonic... some good, some bad.

If colours are important then don't get a 22". They all use TN panels which are inferior to IPS and PVA panels, which you'll find in the larger screens. What I do like about the 22" is that they are very fast for games and that at 1680 x 1050 they have less pixels per inch than the 24" screens which is better for font sizes/eye strain. That's why I would prefer 22" and 27" to 24".

I wouldn't worry about the performance problems you mention. Nowadays most screens use much better resizing techniques than they used to which means that for gaming there is no problem in using a non native res if necessary.

And don't bother looking at any screens at the store. The way they are hooked up makes it impossible to judge a screen there. Best order from an online shop that won't complain if you send it back in case you don't like it.

i am using a samsung le26r71 now for around 1 year and it still works great, its a television with pc input and monitor response time.

you also can call it a 26 inch monitor with television it 2 times hdtv ready so workt fast ,

i also play shooter game with it btw.

the tv cost me around 500 Euro so that isnt that expancive at all for a 26 inch

i am runing 1152 by 864

greets,

Reintjan

Quote from Tweaker :

You need to search around online and read lots of reviews and customer comments.

So this is exactly what I did the last weeks, and I think there are just too many different screens, reviews and - not at least - very different opinions. Nevertheless many thanks for your very quick replies!

Now I feel I slightly tend towards the 24'' corner ... As for my hardware, I use a GeForce 7900 GT with 256 MB on an AMD X64 Dual (or something like that) which virtually runs on 4.2 GHz if I remember correctly. The system's now approximately 15 months old ... not the newest one, but also not crappy I think.

Another question: Until now I set my AA and AF to 8x. Could it eventually be that it's enough to go with 4x or even less on an LCD? Or doesn't it matter at all? This could save some resources maybe ... But if it looks worse than on the CRT which means AA and AF are more important on an LCD than CRT I'll quickly forget that ...

Quote from J.B. :

And don't bother looking at any screens at the store. The way they are hooked up makes it impossible to judge a screen there. Best order from an online shop that won't complain if you send it back in case you don't like it.

I also thought about that .. or actually buying it at a shop to test it. So I could bring it back the next day if it doen't fit my needs. They'll HAVE to take it back since a screen is not a worn pair of socks. Yes, I think this is the best solution at all!

Quote from hotmail :

i am runing 1152 by 864

greets,

Reintjan

Sorry for the off topic but thats an odd resolution

no its not, i used to run that on my old CRT. its a balance between quality & fps especially for FPS games like BF2.

Heh, i just never heard of anyone wanting to run that res, but o well.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me ... 2049206&enterthread=y

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1039222

http://www.widescreengamingfor ... .php/Master_Monitors_List

IPS (or rather, S-IPS) is the best panel type, IMO, but they're also very pricey. I ended up with a 20" AS-IPS (NEC 20WMGX2) after my 24" widescreen CRT (Sony FW900) died. It struck me as one of the more CRT-like LCD's.

get 22"

Geez u don't need 24" because it might be too much to focus on.

And massive price difference

Quote from HellBoy99 :

get 22"

Geez u don't need 24" because it might be too much to focus on.

And massive price difference

Err wtf? Think about what you are saying, then maybe think about it again, then refrain from making useless comments.

Hey folks,

just to inform you: I decided to buy a Samsung 226 CW - and until now I don't regret it. Right half a metre in front of me 22'' is the right size.

The 226 BW I had a problem with (which I discussed here) got returned to the manufacturer and so I decided for the CW version. This one works absolutely brilliant.

Quote from smove :

Right half a metre in front of me 22'' is the right size.

Half a meter, 24" @ 1920x1200 is right size too .

But hey, good buy at least, I vouch for Samsung models.

Half a meter! I just tried that with my 22" and it feels like someone strapped the screen to my forehead. I feel much more comfortable at about 80-90 cm which probably explains why I think most LCDs have too high resolutions and why I hate programs that don't let me increase the font size.

Quote from J.B. :

Half a meter! I just tried that with my 22" and it feels like someone strapped the screen to my forehead. I feel much more comfortable at about 80-90 cm which probably explains why I think most LCDs have too high resolutions and why I hate programs that don't let me increase the font size.

Well, for normal office work I can easily push my monitor some centimetres away from me, but for LFSing it can't be near enough. The best would probably be to sit inside the screen. The big advantage of LCDs is the (nearly) complete lack of flickering compared to CRTs you even notice at 85 Hz, especially when put directly next to each other.

Thought I'd post here rather than start a new thread

Got a 19" widescreen monitor for xmas, going to exchange/get refund for a bigger monitor. Was looking at exchanging it (+ adding an extra £80 for a 22" Acer) from Argos.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130842

Decided to see what eBuyer were offering and they have a 24" Acer for £205 (only £5 more than the 22" at Argos). Now the only difference I see are the contrast ratio of 800:1 and 6ms response time. The 22" has a ratio of 1000:1 and 5ms response.

Anyone got any opinions or advice? Don't know a huge amount about what to look for in a monitor. I do a lot of graphic work so could be done with the extra work space. It also needs to be able to play LFS.

edit//

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128036

Now also considering the monitor above, has some good reviews. Reason for considering the 22" above is I'm hoping to finally put together a new computer so the extra £50 would come in handy there.

Any thoughts on the 22" also?

Thanks
Keiran

How deep are your pockets...

The Price between 22" and 24" is a fairly large jump (at least locally for me it is...)

But the jump between 19" and 22" viewing size is enormous!
I just recently upgraded from 19" to 22" (2x LG L226WTQ-BF, 2ms, 5000:1, S Panel) and what a difference it makes! 1680x1050 res and much larger viewing space then the 19".

Have a look at the LG model I bought, it sells for a rather good price (picked mine up for ~$380AUD) whilst 24" models such as the Samsung (which is a very good display) fetch nearly double the 22" price!

Lol, going to a larger screen size will take some adjusting. I use my TV now, I went from a 17 inch monitor to a 32 inch TV
It's awesome playing LFS, it's a HD ready, so I can only run it at 1280*782 or something, otherwise it won't handle it. But it does look very good.

I have just bought a samsung 226cw and it is much better than I expected.

However one major problem is the reds that are oversatured and orangy in wide color gamut mode, that can be disabled.

However the picture is so much nicer, however probably less accurate, that I still use it in wide color gamut mode. And normally I would prefer a more natural picture.

Conclusion;
Great monitor for the price which is really very low for such a screen. And colors can be chosen between a rich or more acurate setting. Black is very black. Overal it really is a joy to use. I have used an Eizo T965 a lot so I have good reference.

I just bought a 24" and I am happy. it is immersing me deep in lfs