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 Post subject: 1920x1200 vs. 1920x1080
PostPosted: 21 Jan 2012, 00:50 
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Hi,

since I'm going to buy an all new gaming rig in the near future I stumbled upon this forum and have found lots of useful information. One thing I'm still not quite sure yet, is what kind of monitors to buy for the new machine. I was planning to buy the new AMD 7970 with 3 24" monitors.
But what resolution do you recommend? 1920x1200 or 1920x1080? I mean, I'm familiar with the difference on a single monitor and that a 16:9 actually gives you a wider FOV than a 16:10 in most games, but if I'm going with 3 monitors I'll either have 48:10 or 48:9, which are both much wider than any normal FOV (well, obviously, cause this is what it is all about). So why not just go the extra mile and add some pixels in height? Still, I see almost all benchmarks done in 5760x1080.

Is there any particular reason to go with 3x 16:9 except the extra bit of FPS sacrificed?

I am thankful for any help regarding this issue.

On a slidly related note: Is an IPS panel really THAT much better than a TN, despite the slower response time? Because, if it is, the question is quite obsolete, since all 24" IPS monitors are 16:10 and I would go with the Dell U2412M.


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PostPosted: 21 Jan 2012, 10:26 
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If you switch from 16:10 to 16:9 it can feel a little cramped. I personally don't mind the Mrs U2211 compared to my NEC for aspect ratio alone. You also save the extra pixels you don't have to render :P

I would personally say on IPS/ TN that TN has come a long way, and the 120Hz screens are the ultimate gaming screens, but you have to be careful that they don't exhibit their awful viewing angles. The Samsung S27A750D seems to get a lot of good reviews (for a TN panel), a guy over at HardOCP (Vega) has 3x23" ones, with reduced bezels, in 3x1P, it looks amazing.

If you do any work on a single monitor at all, a lot of text work or whatever, you might appreciate the 16:10.

I don't think you can go far wrong with the U2412M though, apart from the anti-glare coating being very aggressive!

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 Post subject: Since i use 3 screens, I
PostPosted: 21 Jan 2012, 17:03 
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Since i use 3 screens, I prefer 16:10. Plus, having 1200 height allows easy play of 4:3 games at 1600x1200. 3x16:10 also gives a wider portrait setup, not that I'll ever use one.


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PostPosted: 22 Jan 2012, 01:18 
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on my single monitor setup (pc2 @ my desk) and before i went to ultra widescreen i am a huge supporter of 1920x1200. you think 180 pixels won't be noticeable but it totally is.
as soon as work got me a HP2408 i bought the last gen for home.

Also my work setup developed in to a 3x1 and my flaking monitors are 1920x1080, and i like the feel of having the center monitor be bigger and better heh, course id love to get two more of them, but that wasnt exactly in the budget ;).

but personally i am a huge fan of the extra pixel height

One should note though, that if you do alot of 1080 content that is locked at 1080, or you want to lock it at 1080 (like a movie where even though its like a 2% stretch or zoom it still might annoy you, you will get the black bars on the top and bottom, they will be quite small, but they will be there.
So if you watch alot of 1080 content be aware.
personally i just zoom in, it only take one or two quick taps of the zoom feature on most media players and doesnt cut off enough to really be noticable. even hard coded subtitles dont give me any trouble

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 Post subject: As the above posters,
PostPosted: 22 Jan 2012, 07:59 
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As the above posters, 1920x1080 might help you avoid image stretch or black bars on 1080 content, but otherwise, you'll gain 1600X1200 option for games and lets face it, with 3 screens you'll have enough horizontal space, so some extra vertical wouldn't do any harm. :)

When it comes to TN vs. IPS, there is a lot of "voodoo thinking" going on. I'll try to get you a pretty straight answer.

You might have seen this picture:


Source

Its the famous horseshoe, the artificial color space. Both IPS and TN's can show those colors. Since its pretty accurate science, it either shows the color or it doesn't (which means the color calibration is off, regardless if its a TN or IPS). A TN and an IPS can show the exact same color and should in a perfectly calibrated world (which LCD's are not). The same color doesn't look "better" on one matrix or the other. It either looks the same, or something is wrong.

However, on older TN's (without hi-FRC with 6-bit->9-bit->8-bit dithering) you were lacking shades on each primary. Dithering was also worse, so you could get visual artifacts in the colors.

Today, dithering is well done in newer TN's, and as Gilly said, TN's have come a long way.

Where TN lacks the most, is image consistency. If you use a TN and do the "[H]ardforum test", which I use, you can see that the red bars in threads on [H]ardforum have a different shade of red, depending if its on top or bottom of the image. TN's suck at vertical angle and a full screen solid color looks like gradient on TN's.

But, in context as gaming and regular use, you really have to look for it to notice and it doesn't matter for most users I think. I have a S27A950D TN (same panel as the S27A750D Gilly mentioned) in front of me as I write this. I can easily recommend it as a gaming screen. Wouldn't recommend it for Eyefinity if you are going to use portrait (due to both TN's poor vertical angle and there is no VESA mounts on it). For landscape Eyefinity, it might be good, despite it doesn't have height adjustment (love the thin design they made instead).

TN's and IPS are a matter of abilities and features. With a TN, you can get 120hz and 3D, cheaper screen and a larger selection. With IPS, you can get a better image consistency which results in better portrait ability and colors will be more accurate across the screen.

Other features worth mentioning are:

Coating makes a difference as Gilly mentioned. Apart from a few screens like the glossy ACD, most IPS screens have an agressive anti-glare coating. Some NEC screens have a light matte which is my favorite (like a 2690WUXi H-IPS I have). The BenQ XL2410T TN which I also have, has a light matte as well.

Glossy makes colors pop, but reflects a lot in the room. Its shiny, but as gremlins, its vulnerable to bright light.
Semi-glossy/light matte is a good compromise, has a bit of the color pop of the glossy, but colors look more solid and its not so shiny.
Agressive AG coating is very good with light in the room and colors are consistent at all times. But, it on the most agressive ones, colors and white might look a bit grainy.

Input matters when going Eyefinity. I have read many places that having native display port on the screen is to be preferred.

Mount also matters. If you are not going to use a triplemount, you should consider the stands of the screens you purchase.

Gamut is important as well. Wide gamut makes colors pop more, but is less accurate to the source material which is mostly in sRGB. Some find wide gamut oversaturated, while some find sRGB washed out after using wide gamut for a while. WG is more flattering, sRGB more accurate to the source material. Pick your poison.

Refresh rate is important for some. If you consider going HD3D in the future, you might want 120hz screens supported by AMD. This limits you to 1080P TN screens and again you might not like portait mode (some use portrait on TN's too and are fine with it, so its said). Some that has used 120hz claims they will never go back to 60hz, because of responsiveness. I have both and I could easily buy a 60hz screen, but 120hz is good for FPS gaming though. The difference is larger then I wish to admit. For other games, it matters less.

There's probably more, but its early morning. Point is, you need to figure out your needs. There isn't a one type fits all. Just remember that these are features and there is really nothing more too it then that.

Lets take the S27A750D Gilly suggested. Since I have the same panel, but a different model with different stand, I can say some about it:

Its glossy, which means reflective but colors pop and looks gorgeous sometimes. Don't expose it to bright light and don't feed it after midnight. ;)
Its sRGB, which means its accurate to the source material.
Its TN, so it means its not accurate at all across the screen, especially top vs. bottom.
It has DP input, which is a bonus for Eyefinity.
It does not have DVI (the S27A950D I use have DVI too).
It has 120hz, which is good for response in FPS games.
It supports AMD's HD3D and has a fun 2D-3D conversion that makes everything 3d, even dos games. Image is brighter then with 3D vision (version 1) which I have on the BenQ.
It has no VESA mounts. Without VESA mounts, you cannot put it on a Triplestand without breaking warranty by modding it.
Its not good for portrait use due to poor vertical viewing angle.
Scaling sucks on these screens (it has wide and Auto, which doesn't work well), so for older 4:3 games, you might rely on GPU for scaling options.

I can easily recommend this screen as a gaming screen. But, you need to see if it suits your needs. :)

Edit: Here is VEGA's setup (modified S23A750D TN's in portrait):
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1644035
Check out the video's especially.

Looks pretty sweet, though the TN angle issues should be pretty visible (don't mean its a problem, just that its an obvious degradation of image vertically when in portrait, so it can be an issue for some). Its much in the eye of the beholder, so you need to find out what you like. :)


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PostPosted: 22 Jan 2012, 08:38 
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One thing that cheesed me off about watching 16:9 vieo on a 16:9 TN panel is that the light bleeding really fudges darker scenes - an effect that is reduced when you have the letterboxing while watching the same content on a 16:10...


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PostPosted: 22 Jan 2012, 19:59 
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Think Tamlin's post should be made a sticky. Just saying :P

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 Post subject: Thank you all for your
PostPosted: 22 Jan 2012, 20:24 
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Thank you all for your answers.
Special thanks to you, Tamlin, you really posted a lot of useful things to look after and I will keep those factors in mind, when chossing my monitor(s).

I don't mind watching letterboxed 1080p content. I don't watch that many movies and if I do, I have the feeling that most of them are already letterboxed anyway, since they are in some strange cinema-like aspect ratio.
As far as games are concerned, I don't really need the fastest possible response time. Most of the time I will be playing EVE Online, where response time doesn't matter or role playing games like Skyrim. I do play some ego shooters, but mostly single player and maybe some online rounds for fun.
If the panel is fast enough, so that I don't see a lot of disturbing bluring, I'm fine with it.

So I think, I'll go with 1920x1200 IPS displays.


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PostPosted: 24 Jan 2012, 23:41 
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light bleed is also pretty varied monitor to monitor.

i have a pretty sweet samsung where the light bleed isnt too noticable, even in pitch black scenes. it does have a little bit of a hot spot in one corner but its worlds better than others ive seen.

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