Monitor recommendations. What's good?

In further tinkering, I discovered that the 4:4:4 setting on the Panny S64 was messing things up pretty badly. Setting '1080p direct' on the screen, which put it in 4:4:4 mode, did not play nicely with my 680, even though I manually put the 680 in 4:4:4 mode in its settings. Turning that off improved text quality tremendously. It's now a reasonably acceptable computer monitor, though I still prefer LCD for this purpose.

I ordered the cheap Monoprice monitor, and will probably use this until it shows up, next week sometime.

Dell has some on sale for Black Friday. They are really tempting.

Desktop monitors

Dell 27-inch 1080p monitor for $199.99

Model: E2715H

Dell 24-inch 1080p monitor for $99.99

Model: E2414Hr

Damn. $99 would be a sweet second monitor to go along with it's Dell sibling.

Costco has a few monitors on sale.

$140 - http://www.costco.com/.product.10012...

plavonica wrote:
Malor wrote:
plavonica wrote:

My $50 flea-market wonder is failing.

That looks more like a video card problem. Can you borrow another monitor to test with?

I swapped my 2 monitors around (yes my 2nd one is worse off) and the problem followed the monitor not the cables/video card. It's been slowly getting worse as time goes on.

I'll say, look how blocky all that text is, how do you even read that?

Thoughts on this one? Should I pounce on it? The model with the G-Sync in it is like $600.

Edwin wrote:

Thoughts on this one? Should I pounce on it? The model with the G-Sync in it is like $600.

I have one. It's really fast and smooth, works great for gaming purposes. Black levels and contrast aren't great and color saturation and accuracy are mediocre.

The VG236HE was a far better panel. Asus did a much better job with that one than with the 248QE.

If you're only after it for gaming and aren't overly picky then it's fine. But overall picture quality definitely suffers.

I used mine for a long while, but to be fair I also have a second monitor I do all my video watching and whatever else on. The 248 basically got games and web browsing and nothing else.

If I could only use one display I would have been unhappy with it.

Yeah this would be my only monitor since I don't have enough room for two. I'm still using a Dell 2005FPW that I bought from Pyroman like 10 years ago as it's slowly dying. I have to turn it on and let it warm up while I make breakfast before I can even use it. It's also got burn in and all sorts of other stuff. I'm sure it'll be fine anyways but I still worry.

Really I just want a 2560x1440, G-Sync-ish monitor but those are crazy expensive.

Edwin wrote:

Really I just want a 2560x1440, G-Sync-ish monitor but those are crazy expensive.

As someone who *just* gave in and bought one a couple weeks ago, yarr. Almost changed my mind in the store, but did end up giving in and buying myself a PG278Q.

Gsync is a noticeable improvement in any game where the framerate fluctuates. It just stays smooth no matter what.

If it's ever in the cards though, I highly recommend it.

I think Acer has an equivalent 1440p 144hz gsync capable display coming out sometime. Maybe they'll beat Asus on the price initially and it will lead to both of them dropping.

Right now the Asus is the only game in town if you want those features at that resolution.

*Just found out there's an AOC Display coming out that should be around half the price of the Asus, and up to $200 less than the other 1080p gsync displays that are available. Might be something to keep an eye out for.

Is there a date/price for that AOC? I bought that linked to monitor earlier because for $209 shipped, that seems like a decent deal but can cancel the order before it ships if I can get more details.

There is no date that I've seen. Price should be around $400, if the rumors end up being true. Would undercut all the other 1080p gsync enabled displays pretty significantly as they're all over $500 or even $600.

Even so... there's no guarantee the panel itself will be better picture quality than the 248QE. You'd be waiting on a maybe.

And it's AOC. So it's a big maybe

*Edwin, when the Asus you linked shows up, here's a guide to improving its color saturation and contrast a bit if you're hooking it up via an HDMI cable.

It still won't be an IPS display but it can help. If you're using DVI there's another guide somewhere I'll keep looking for. Hopefully I can find it.

Thanks for the link, lets see how it goes when it gets delivered on Friday.

The Monoprice monitor came today.

First impression: I kinda miss the plasma. After I finally got it dialed in correctly, it was so gorgeous. Why did plasma die? It just makes no sense.

Second impression: lousy stand, all wobbly. I think I'm probably going to need a new one. Maybe I can re-use the one on the HP, which was excellent.

Third impression: hmm, external power brick. After some thinking: that's actually kind of good, because it makes it easy to replace.

Fourth impression after turning it on: no dead or stuck pixels that I can see (four million pixels, and they all seem to work: modern manufacturing is amazing.) The colors are a little strange, probably due to the new backlight bulb. In a few hundred hours, I'll try to calibrate it and see what I come up with.

I think, ultimately, it will end up being just about as good as the old monitor, for half the price. The only thing I definitely don't like, so far, is the stand.

edit: oh, and something I just noticed: no HDCP on this display. It won't matter for me at all, because I don't use protected content, but, say, Netflix might not like it.

Could I go wrong with this Acer 1440p IPS monitor for $275? It's 6ms as well.

Also thinking about these monoprice mounting brackets for $13 each

After looking a little bit more I see that this isn't really an IPS monitor. I think that's ok since I wan't to stay in the $300 range. My only concern is the input lag and I have no idea how to tell before I buy.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Could I go wrong with this Acer 1440p IPS monitor for $275? It's 6ms as well.

Also thinking about these monoprice mounting brackets for $13 each

After looking a little bit more I see that this isn't really an IPS monitor. I think that's ok since I wan't to stay in the $300 range. My only concern is the input lag and I have no idea how to tell before I buy.

This article says about 40ms, or 2 frames delay at 60hz. That's pretty poor for a monitor, good for TV/console use. You might not notice it.

This mono price monitor that was posted here previously is on sale for $300. Is this the one you got Malor?

http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?pg...

Anyone get this and does it work well with games? If it is I'm gonna jump on this deal. Not worried about the stand since I already ordered the desk brackets.

After reading this anantech reviewI asked my family to get it for me for Christmas. Very excited. I needed to stay in the $300 range so this is perfect.

Is this the one you got Malor?

No, I bought a bigger one, 30" and 16:10 size, at $576. Note that this can only be used as a computer monitor, however, as it takes a dual-link DVI connection only, has no internal scaler, and doesn't do HDCP.

In terms of appearance and functionality, it's very similar to the $1300 monitor it replaced. The differences I can see are that the stand isn't very good, the power supply is external, and the old one had HDCP. Other than that, it's about the same.

Sounds good. It will be only a computer monitor and I don't care about HDCP or the stand. Thanks everyone for the info in this thread! I will let you know how everything is around Christmas time.

I'm looking to get anew monitor, 1080p, 24", under $200. Preferably with built in speakers. I've recently got back into pc gaming a bit. Are there any decent IPS monitors at this price point? I don't need the fastest response times for any competitive games, and it sounds like the color quality of ips would work well for my mostly solo gaming purposes.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?it...

Newegg had this Asus PA238QR on sale, for example. There are so many model numbers that I have trouble seein the differences. Anyone have any tips for a decent, cheap 1080p monitor? I was also keeping my eye on the 24" Dell ultra sharps, as those seem pretty highly recommended.

I don't know much, but if there's one thing I do know, it's that built-in speakers are usually pretty crummy. Honestly, I wouldn't pick that up as a selection criteria.

Is say the speakers aren't mandatory, I'd take the best monitor for the price overall. It's more based on I don't have any standalone speakers at the moment, so I'd need to pick some up too if they weren't built in.

vlox_km wrote:

I'm looking to get anew monitor, 1080p, 24", under $200. Preferably with built in speakers. I've recently got back into pc gaming a bit. Are there any decent IPS monitors at this price point? I don't need the fastest response times for any competitive games, and it sounds like the color quality of ips would work well for my mostly solo gaming purposes.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?it...

Newegg had this Asus PA238QR on sale, for example. There are so many model numbers that I have trouble seein the differences. Anyone have any tips for a decent, cheap 1080p monitor? I was also keeping my eye on the 24" Dell ultra sharps, as those seem pretty highly recommended.

Just saw this:
Cyber Monday Dealmaster has a 24“ 16:10 Dell monitor for cheap
No built in speaker though.

vlox_km wrote:

Is say the speakers aren't mandatory, I'd take the best monitor for the price overall. It's more based on I don't have any standalone speakers at the moment, so I'd need to pick some up too if they weren't built in.

I'll echo the suggestion of some quality speakers over anything you'd get attached to a monitor. Malor or one of our audiophiles should have suggestions there.

As for monitors, I'm a big fan of both Asus and Samsung. Find something that fits your budget and I don't think got can go too far wrong.

Was reading the part about using a monitor's built in speakers with something that I'm sure was akin to absolute horror on my face

That said I'm honestly not super useful on budget speakers. The closest thing to "budget" I tend to recommend on speakers on a PC is a pair of bookshelfs and a T-amp, a combo that usually ends up running about $80-$90 on the lowest of the low end. Or for a contained all in one set, the M-Audio AV40's, but those are still over $100.

But then I guess if you're considering relying on built in monitor speakers... quite literally anything is probably better.

I think Creative still makes the T series, all of those should be well under $100. The T20's should be like $40 or so and should at least sound a lot better than anything built into a monitor.

I just looked and they have a set called the T12's at $35 that looks like it uses the same drivers as the T20's and T40's. Probably as good as it's going to get.

Thanks for the speaker tips. I'd probably get something inexpensive, which anything would be better than the built in ones.

My current monitor is a 20" Asus that I've been happy with. Looking forward to bumping up to 24" 1080p.

So what is it called when gradients on-screen show up as stratified bands of color rather than a smooth gradient?

I picked up a cheap Asus monitor a couple years ago, and I'm finally losing my patience with the image quality, but I know so little about terms or specs that I don't know where to start. However, I do know that, for example, when I'm on the Skyrim main menu screen, the fog or smoke wafting in the background looks pretty terrible, and I'd like to find something with better image quality that's good for gaming. I don't do video or graphic design so if something is better for gaming but worse for those things, I'm fine with it. I've had a fantastic Dell 4:3 LCD monitor in the past, so I'm somewhat inclined to go with them again, but it's not a hard rule. I've even heard that Asus does in fact make good monitors. I just happened to pick one of the crummier ones last time.

1080p is fine for my needs, though I'm not against a 1900x1200 screen.

beanman101283 wrote:

So what is it called when gradients on-screen show up as stratified bands of color rather than a smooth gradient?

I picked up a cheap Asus monitor a couple years ago, and I'm finally losing my patience with the image quality, but I know so little about terms or specs that I don't know where to start. However, I do know that, for example, when I'm on the Skyrim main menu screen, the fog or smoke wafting in the background looks pretty terrible, and I'd like to find something with better image quality that's good for gaming. I don't do video or graphic design so if something is better for gaming but worse for those things, I'm fine with it. I've had a fantastic Dell 4:3 LCD monitor in the past, so I'm somewhat inclined to go with them again, but it's not a hard rule. I've even heard that Asus does in fact make good monitors. I just happened to pick one of the crummier ones last time.

1080p is fine for my needs, though I'm not against a 1900x1200 screen.

It's called posterization. Are you sure it's the monitor? It's not uncommon for posterization to occur in games, especially when filtering effects (like fog) are applied. Every added filter will reduce overall image quality by a small amount.

So what is it called when gradients on-screen show up as stratified bands of color rather than a smooth gradient?

I call that 'color banding', which is what happens when the monitor doesn't have enough actual colors to display what it's being sent, a common issue on TN screens. I thought posterization was something totally different, where the colors get all blown out and weird.

You probably want a monitor in of the IPS type (there are many flavors of IPS, and probably any of them would be fine), but I'm not familiar with what the current good brand names are.

Malor wrote:
So what is it called when gradients on-screen show up as stratified bands of color rather than a smooth gradient?

I call that 'color banding', which is what happens when the monitor doesn't have enough actual colors to display what it's being sent, a common issue on TN screens. I thought posterization was something totally different, where the colors get all blown out and weird.

You probably want a monitor in of the IPS type (there are many flavors of IPS, and probably any of them would be fine), but I'm not familiar with what the current good brand names are.

According to Wikipedia at least, it's both.