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DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

MadMax posted:

I guess I have three main questions regarding this. My graphics card is a radeon 6870, currently not over clocked at all and I can play Crysis 2 at maxed settings no problem; will I need to upgrade my gpu for either/one/both of the above-outlined ideas?
Consider that 2560x1600 is ~77% more pixels than 1920x1200; you can expect your FPS to drop by roughly half if you make that jump. I highly doubt that a single 6870 will be able to keep up at that resolution. On the other hand, at that resolution FSAA is a little less needed in many cases, so it might not be quite that bad, but I'd still be expecting to have to either turn the resolution down, or turn down/off a lot of the extras in order to get 30+ FPS on upcoming games. If you don't plan on picking up anything newer than Crysis 2 anytime soon, though, it may be ok. Check you FPS with something like FRAPs, then cut it in half and see what you get.

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KakerMix
Apr 8, 2004

8.2 M.P.G.
:byetankie:
I wanted to get the U2311H as a replacement monitor, but I had about $100 in reward zone monies at Best Buy so I ended up getting this LG IPS monitor. The stand blows but I'm going to be mounting it to some desk-mounted arms anyway so that isn't a big deal. I can't seem to find much of anything about these LG IPS monitors though, besides this award and some other positive reviews. I replaced my main monitor (an HP w2207h). The difference is absolutely amazing. I see colors that I simply didn't see at all on the new panel. Subtle gradients and things all over the place I can now see, whereas on the HP monitor it would be a solid mass of color.

I'm very happy with the LG and was wondering if anyone knows about it at all? I don't do photo work or anything that needs exact colors, I just happen to be able to notice the increased color depth. It also claims it is an IPS LED monitor which I have never heard of before.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
There still aren't too many reviews of that monitor floating around, but from what I've seen it's generally considered to be a pretty decent monitor. The display quality should be only slightly below the U2311H (if at all), with the main differences coming in terms of the extras: A much better stand, a thinner bezel, a better/longer warranty, a Display Port input, as well as USB ports. The U2311H also claims to be brighter (300 cd/m2 vs 250), but those measurements are always iffy. The LG, on the other hand, has speakers and LED backlighting (which won't improve the visual performance at all, but does allow it to be thinner and consume less power, which also means it'll run cooler), and is $50 cheaper.

e; The LG also appears to use an external power brick, which I've never been a fan of at all, so points docked for that.

DrDork fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jun 26, 2011

wwqd1123
Mar 3, 2003

movax posted:

I think you will; 2560x1600 is murder on graphics card. If you're willing to give up AA or AF, you might slip by with a single card containing the highest-end GPU. I have this feeling I'm going to end up going SLI to play Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 with all eye candy when they come out. (I have the U3011).


I run one U3011 plus 2 2209WAs, one of them in portrait. While the 30" is obnoxiously high-res (I realized the other day that 1/2 of my U3011 = the resolution of that 2209WA in portrait mode), I do still enjoy having the multiple monitors. The 30" is my "workspace" i.e. current task of interest is on there (Visual Studio, etc.), the portrait monitor always has Firefox open in it (or comics), the landscape 2209WA has Outlook and IRC.

I think just getting a 30" monitor and still using your existing displays would do you fine. Tilt the Samsung into portrait as your web browsing monitor, use the Viewsonic as a scratchpad display.

I find that the dell u3011 has excellent scaling so you still play games at 1920x1200 on it, it will just look a little soft. I don't find that I am that sensitive to it, but other people might scoff at using the monitor at anything other than it's native resolution.

Seems like a better solution than messing around with sli.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
Well, you can always get something like a 6990 or 590. About the same price as a SLI/CrossFire setup, and while slower, you don't have to worry about the issues that always crop up in multi-GPU setups.

tyang209
Feb 17, 2007
I have my computer connected to a monitor and my tv through HDMI. I'm trying to get XBMC to run in fullscreen and at the same time play a game on my monitor full screen but my tv goes black when I run Bad Company 2 full screen. Is there anyway to fix this?

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
That sounds like BC2 causing you grief with trying to monopolize the output when fullscreened. If you can, try running it windowed. Not sure if it has a "full screen windowed" mode, but if it does, try that. If not, try a normal windowed mode and see if that helps, and if it does, use something like ShiftWindow to fake the fullscreen windowed effect.

slartibartfast
Nov 13, 2002
:toot:
It's time to replace my 10 year old Sony LCD with a brand new monitor. I'm looking for a color-accurate IPS around $500 or less, since I'm a cheap bastard who also happens to do a lot of amateur photo editing.

Is the Dell U2410 still the best thing going? I understand NEC and HP have some good IPS models, but I don't know enough about their specifics to know which ones the good ones are. Anything comparable to the U2410?

Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.
Not really. The U2410 is possibly the cheapest wide gamut display out there, which is a critical feature for photo editing. Its 24" and 23" competitors generally max out at the sRGB gamut, which is fine for web work and stuff that will be e-mailed to friends and family, but it's a narrower gamut not suited for print.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Factory Factory posted:

Not really. The U2410 is possibly the cheapest wide gamut display out there, which is a critical feature for photo editing. Its 24" and 23" competitors generally max out at the sRGB gamut, which is fine for web work and stuff that will be e-mailed to friends and family, but it's a narrower gamut not suited for print.
^^^ This is all true. Of course, the reverse also applies: if your photo editing is mostly intended for digital consumption (web, facebook, etc), wide gamut is actually more of a hassle than anything else, in which case I'd recommend something like the HP ZR24W (which is much like the U2410, but standard gamut, stripped down, and priced a bit less).

slartibartfast
Nov 13, 2002
:toot:
Very helpful, guys. Thanks.

A lot of what I do ends up printed just for my own pleasure, and this represents the first in a long series of steps to sharpen my skills and calibrate my gear with the goal of selling some of my prints some day. Next up after I get a decent monitor is learning proper calibration and how to use color profiles.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
If that's the case, then yeah, the U2410 is really hard to beat. As for calibration, it's going to be required to get the most out of the U2410. You can use some of the current generation of calibrators, like the Sypder3 or the X-Rite i1 with good results. X-Rite has also just put out a new lineup of i1Display Pro and iColorMunki products, which promise better support for wide gamut, which may be worth looking into.

WanderingKid
Feb 27, 2005

lives here...

DrDork posted:

The U2311H also claims to be brighter (300 cd/m2 vs 250), but those measurements are always iffy. The LG, on the other hand, has speakers and LED backlighting (which won't improve the visual performance at all, but does allow it to be thinner and consume less power, which also means it'll run cooler), and is $50 cheaper.

Literally the first thing you want to do on a U2311H is turn down the brightness anyway because by default, its set to liquidate your eyeballs into radioactive puree. Factory default is 70. I have mine somewhere in the 30s (and in a dark room its still bright as hell).

As long as you get one that doesn't have weird tinting or stupid amounts of backlight bleed, U2311H is a fine monitor but the stand is crap as mentioned above. Its too stiff, so you can't swivel the panel without holding the base (or nailing it down).

Built in speakers are almost always complete asscakes so I generally wouldn't regard that as a positive in any display.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



Regarding color profiles, is sRGB okay for just about anything? I like to make sure I am getting the best bang for my buck. Things look amazing (this is on the U2410) but if I can push it even more, hell let me know. :)

Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.
sRGB is a small gamut. It is intended as the standardized web gamut, designed to standardize the gamuts on all computer-connected monitors and displays the way NTSC does for broadcast and TVs. Anything that's meant to be consumed on a PC will be displayed in sRGB, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not the largest set of colors in the world.

Compared to AdobeRGB or the gamut possible in the CMYK printing process, sRGB is lacking. AdobeRGB has a wider range of blues and greens available, for example.

The U2410 is capable of wider gamuts for professional or high-end photographic use:



This is why you buy a U2410. If you only use it to display sRGB-gamut things, one or two things will happen:

1) You'll have wasted your money, as you didn't need wide gamut
2) If you don't calibrate the display (or use its sRGB mode), you'll display sRGB content with heart-achingly beautiful but actually incorrect colors

If you Google "sRGB vs. Adobe RGB" you get some real morons who don't understand color management lording themselves over people who also don't understand it, so be careful with that.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



I'll switch it up tonight than, this stuff is way above my level of understanding but that is what those presets are for.

Thank you once again!

Megiddo
Apr 27, 2004

Unicorns bite, but their bites feel GOOD.
How future-proof is a 1366x768 display? In 3-4 years, will programs stop supporting a res with such a short height? Or have menus that are truncated?

This will be mostly be running Office 2010, a bunch of statistics programs and several AutoDesk programs.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Megiddo posted:

How future-proof is a 1366x768 display? In 3-4 years, will programs stop supporting a res with such a short height? Or have menus that are truncated?

This will be mostly be running Office 2010, a bunch of statistics programs and several AutoDesk programs.
While I can't really imagine anyone voluntarially or intentionally opting for such a small resolution these days--let alone years from now--I doubt that you're going to see much innovation in the menu department between now and then. If you're ok with how the Office "ribbon" menus look on it now, well, that's how they're gonna be for the foreseeable future. Can't speak much on AutoDesk, since I've never used it.

Seriously, though, unless there's some solid reason for that resolution (like it's a laptop), there's virtually zero reason not to step up to something bigger. 1680x1050 is usually only fractionally more expensive, while providing substantially more space.

Megiddo
Apr 27, 2004

Unicorns bite, but their bites feel GOOD.
1600x900 is an available option, but the powers that be went for the cheap base display option with a 1366x768 resolution rather than paying the $70 to upgrade to 1600x900, and without even consulting us first. What's really stupid is that all the laptops they bought last year were 1600x900 resolution 8440p models, so I was expecting the same specs in the new model.

I think I came up with a good enough justification, so hopefully my department will pay for the upgrades. These are mostly going to be used by students at a private university, so they will definitely notice the lack of screen height when using Word or doing research for papers (or using Facebook).

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
Yeah, 1366x768 is acceptable for, say, a netbook, where you're already accepting that you're going to be very space-limited, and aren't intending to use it for a whole lot more than web browsing and email. You should have a strong case for 1600x900 if it's meant as a more full-featured platform where people will actually be using it for productive purposes. I can't really imagine trying to do any sort of CAD work with such a low resolution. Having looked at some screenshots, it seems that the various menus and whatnot would take up 1/2 the screen even on an empty project!

Megiddo
Apr 27, 2004

Unicorns bite, but their bites feel GOOD.
Well, CAD programs will be on there since we're licensed and it's part of our standard scripted install, but I don't expect very many users to try using the laptops for CAD work. That said, they are Core i5 laptops with 4GB of RAM and will be better spec'd than the majority of our desktops for the next two years, so I would expect that some users will use them in lieu of a desktop for all kinds of stuff you wouldn't think people would use a laptop for.

Adhesion
Sep 10, 2001

Next you gonna mention lifting up a nacho and seein' a big old terrified eye starin' at you
Does anybody have any thoughts on IPS vs TN (with LED backlight) just for stuff like gaming, movies & coding? I'm not sure if it's worth it to get better color reproduction (that I might not even really take advantage of) in exchange for the slight loss in response time/potentially higher price. I was mostly looking at the U2311H for IPS & the Dell P2411H and Samsung BX2440X for TN.

singe
Aug 24, 2008

I want to ride my bicycle.
Snagged a 2405fwp for $100 on criaglist. Looks really great except the 9 in 1 card reader doesn't work. Also what is the life time for these displays (this one is about 5 years old though in great condition)

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



My 2005FPW just started crapping out this year so you may still be good for a little longer more. Actually, the monitor was fine just that when it came back from being in hibernation the image would be like a film projector eventually producing a stable image if that makes sense.

Wibla
Feb 16, 2011

The main problems with aging LCD monitors seem to be capacitors going bad, and/or the backlight going out, either because the inverter goes poof or the CCFL's themselves basically burning out (purple tinting and extended warmup as two symptoms of the latter).

Capacitors are not the end of the world to replace, they're generally cheap, and not a horrible hassle to get at. CCFL's are also bearable to replace, but the replacement CCFL's are often expensive enough to make it not worth it.

I had to swap caps on an LG L245/L246WP myself, a slight hassle, but the monitor works perfectly after fixing, saving me a few hundred bucks in the process.

Bubble-T
Dec 26, 2004

You know, I've got a funny feeling I've seen this all before.
My wife has a bunch of money to burn from a professional development allowance her work gives her, and one of the things she can use it for is a monitor. Our PC has an ATI Radeo HD 5770 1GB video card and is used for a bit of everything (word processing, internet, gaming etc).

Does anyone have a recommendation in the $1500 or less price range? Are the Apple Cinema displays worth looking at and will they work with that card (I've read mixed things around the net)?

arbybaconator
Dec 18, 2007

All hat and no cattle

I recommend the Dell 30"

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Adhesion posted:

Does anybody have any thoughts on IPS vs TN (with LED backlight) just for stuff like gaming, movies & coding? I'm not sure if it's worth it to get better color reproduction (that I might not even really take advantage of) in exchange for the slight loss in response time/potentially higher price. I was mostly looking at the U2311H for IPS & the Dell P2411H and Samsung BX2440X for TN.
If you're not some pro gamer who feels he lives and dies by single frames, it's unlikely you will ever notice the (very small) performance difference between a TN and the U2311H in game mode. In fact, the U2311H is faster than some current TN's that have a crappy scaler chip in them, to put it in perspective. You should really ignore the performance aspect and focus more on the cost vs color/viewing angles part.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Bubble-T posted:

Does anyone have a recommendation in the $1500 or less price range? Are the Apple Cinema displays worth looking at and will they work with that card (I've read mixed things around the net)?
ACDs are gorgeous, no argument there. If the particular 5770 she has has a DisplayPort output on it, you can get an adapter cord to make it work. If it doesn't, you can still get it to work, but it takes an active converter box that costs $50-$100 or so.

Alternately, spaceship's recommendation for a U2711/U3011 is solid (though in either case you probably won't be able to game at full resolution with just a piddly 5770 pushing it unless you just play older games, but you can work around that).

Bubble-T
Dec 26, 2004

You know, I've got a funny feeling I've seen this all before.
Looking around more I see reports that the 5770 simply doesn't work with this screen or the new iMacs vs MiniDP-DP adapter cords. Not sure if that's true for all versions of the card but I don't feel like taking the chance, I'll look at the Dell monitors. Thanks :)

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Bubble-T posted:

My wife has a bunch of money to burn from a professional development allowance her work gives her, and one of the things she can use it for is a monitor. Our PC has an ATI Radeo HD 5770 1GB video card and is used for a bit of everything (word processing, internet, gaming etc).

Does anyone have a recommendation in the $1500 or less price range? Are the Apple Cinema displays worth looking at and will they work with that card (I've read mixed things around the net)?

spaceship posted:

I recommend the Dell 30"

Without a doubt. If you have $1500 to burn and you want the best display for that money:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=224-9949

ToastyX
Mar 15, 2004
N
yaaarrr!

DrDork posted:

No, the U2311H, U2410, U2711, and U3011 all have lag under 20ms. You're probably thinking of the 2408wfp, which did have lag in the 40-50ms range. The older you go, the worse the lag usually gets.
For reference:

The U2311H has no significant lag (< 3 ms) other than pixel response times.
The U2410 has one frame of lag (17-20 ms) except in game mode where it has no significant lag other than pixel response times.
The U2711 and U3011 have one frame of lag, and game mode has no effect.

DrDork posted:

If you're not some pro gamer who feels he lives and dies by single frames, it's unlikely you will ever notice the (very small) performance difference between a TN and the U2311H in game mode.
Game mode has no effect on the U2311H. It's not needed anyway since there's no lag to reduce.

The Gunslinger
Jul 24, 2004

Do not forget the face of your father.
Fun Shoe

Adhesion posted:

Does anybody have any thoughts on IPS vs TN (with LED backlight) just for stuff like gaming, movies & coding? I'm not sure if it's worth it to get better color reproduction (that I might not even really take advantage of) in exchange for the slight loss in response time/potentially higher price. I was mostly looking at the U2311H for IPS & the Dell P2411H and Samsung BX2440X for TN.

I went from TN panels to a U2311H and I've had no problems in any online gaming or etc. I play a lot of fast paced FPS games but I'm not a pro-gamer or something. Either way, I can't really see a difference in ghosting, response or etc. Black actually being somewhat black instead of a dark grey is really nice for darker games too.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



Were the old 2005FPW's "bad" for gaming too? I played everything on there and not once did I have problems. Dell makes solid monitors that don't gently caress around.

The Gunslinger
Jul 24, 2004

Do not forget the face of your father.
Fun Shoe
Also someone was mentioning the stands on the U2211H/U2311H being kind of average but when you compare them to the wobbly pieces of poo poo you find on most TN panel monitors they are heaven.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Vintersorg posted:

Were the old 2005FPW's "bad" for gaming too? I played everything on there and not once did I have problems. Dell makes solid monitors that don't gently caress around.
They typically had something like 40-50ms of lag, which is about 2-4 frames. Obviously that'll be more of an issue the faster paced the game you're playing, but if you never noticed a problem, then anything you get these days will feel even better.

e; I originally read your post as being about a 2405FPW. Not sure what the latency on the 20" is/was, but everything's gotten a lot better in the last 6 years, so my point still applies.

The Gunslinger posted:

Also someone was mentioning the stands on the U2211H/U2311H being kind of average but when you compare them to the wobbly pieces of poo poo you find on most TN panel monitors they are heaven.
WanderingKid noted that it's a bit hard to put them in/out of portrait mode without holding the base so it doesn't tip over, which is true but a pretty minor complaint. Otherwise, yes, they beat the poo poo out of your "standard" monitor stand which is flimsy, wobbly, and often lacking any sort of adjustment besides (maybe) a little bit of tilt.

DrDork fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jun 29, 2011

yum
Oct 27, 2005

Only good things will come
to someone like
you.
I currently have a benq g2400w which I bought 3 years ago but I'm looking to get another monitor for my new computer. Is this monitor still decent compared to what's out now? I'm looking to spend around 200-300 and would prefer 24 inch/1900x1200. I just do standard web browsing and some tf2/sc2 gaming at ~medium settings so I'm not looking for some extreme super response time or 100% color reproduction photoediting monitor. I've been getting fine with the benq so far but I'm gonna need a 2nd monitor since the benq will be used for my old one. Please help!!

poemdexter
Feb 18, 2005

Hooray Indie Games!

College Slice

The Gunslinger posted:

Also someone was mentioning the stands on the U2211H/U2311H being kind of average but when you compare them to the wobbly pieces of poo poo you find on most TN panel monitors they are heaven.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082808&p_id=5400&seq=1&format=2

A 15 dollar solution. My brother bought a dell monitor a while back and I didn't find the swapping the view around to be that bad. I did have to hold the base down though but that was just fear of plastic.

Bazanga
Oct 10, 2006
chinchilla farmer
Gunna pull the trigger on one of these two:

ASUS VW246H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049

Acer G245HBbd
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009297

Don't need the build in speakers and the HDMI port on the ASUS is nice, but it's not worth $40 when I can get an HDMI-to-DVI converter for $9 shipped. Is there any significant difference between the display quality on either of these to warrant buying the ASUS over the Acer? They seem to both have 1000:1 contrast ratios, which is really all I know what to look for when comparing displays.

Bazanga fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Jun 30, 2011

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Adhesion
Sep 10, 2001

Next you gonna mention lifting up a nacho and seein' a big old terrified eye starin' at you
Thanks for the great info everybody! Looks like a U2311H is in my future :cool:

Anybody have any experience ordering monitors direct from Dell? I would go with Newegg but it looks like they don't stock it.

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