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New gaming LCD - Viewsonic vs Samsung vs Hanns-G


aclays

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As the title says. Except I've never owned an LCD before, I've always gamed with my CRT and been very happy, it's dying now though. So I can read all the reviews I want, but I don't have any real world experience (except gaming with an old 16ms monitor - terrible when playing fast paced games such as quake 3 - which is why I've focused on the lowest refresh rate possible).

 

I'm looking at 3 different 2ms, black, 19inch lcd's. Prices range between $210 and $260. I just want the one with the best quality. Also curious about the warranty. It looks like the samsung is the best choice as far as specifications, but it's warranty is 2 years less. Is the warranty something I should take seriously with a purchase like this?

 

Viewsonic - 3 years

Samsung - 1 year

Hanns-G - 3 years

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viewsonic:

VX922 $259 Free ship: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824116375

Brightness 270 cd/m2

Contrast Ratio 650:1

 

Samsung:

931C - $249AR Free ship: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824001085

Brightness 250 cd/m2

Contrast Ratio 2000:1 dynamic

 

Hanns-G:

HX-192RPB - $210 $15Ship: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824254006

Brightness 300 cd/m2

Contrast Ratio 700:1

 

The samsungs contrast ratio is a lot higher. If I got one of the other monitors, would I wish I'd have bought the Samsung instead?

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Get a widescreen LCD. Its kinda like crack, once you've had it its really tough to get off of it.

 

As to what LCD to get.

 

TN panels have very good response times but colours and viewing angles ain't too hot.

 

Be wary of anything offering less than 5ms as its likely to be a firmware trick that pre-sets the LCD pixels. I've read numerous accounts of fast games, stuff showing "future" position ghosts due to aggressive "overdrive" modes (I'm thinking of a particular monitor but do some research anyway).

 

Go to www.widescreengamingforum.com and read some.

 

You don't have a sig so I can't comment on your vid card and suitable resolutions etc.

 

The monitor in my sig is very good for everything and a vast improvement over my 6yr old CRT. It uses a S-IPS panel and is rated at 16ms but I have no problems in games whatsoever (as its probably more like 8ms).

 

Another consideration. How long do you plan on keeping your monitor for? On the timescale you hope for what known technologies are likely to make it obsolete (e.g. Hi Def etc.) and is it a likely issue for you? Would your PC be used in a more general entertainment fashion and so on.

 

My apologies for not giving a definite answer...

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RE Warranty: I recently RMA'd a 940BF with samsung. They sent a brand new replacement and payed shipping both ways. And idk what newegg's problem is, I was told explicitly by a Samung rep that warranty is 3 years, it says it here on Samsung's site too under "TFT-LCD Monitor". They make some company's products look very unattractive when they stupid up the facts such as they appear to have done here. If you are at all unsure you should email samsung and inquire personally about their warranty.

 

I am not a big fan of Hanns-G, as I've seen 3 different models with inexcusable viewing angle. They are cheap monitors, they look and feel cheap to me, and I have one in house that I see nearly every day. Maybe if I didn't have better LCD's to contrast it might be acceptable.. but if you can afford it, get a better one.

 

Of the 3 I would go with the 931c. Samsung's customer service gets a thumbs up from me too, they took my abuse quite well.

 

Good luck with your purchase,

Ugly

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I have 1st hand experience with the VX922 and i love it. There is nothing that i have displayed on it that was less than my expectations. I game, watch movies, had my tv tuner running on it when i had my AIW 9800 Pro. Everything was great for me.

 

That said, i would agree with the widescreen comment. If i were to go back and do it again, i would have held off for a little while longer and taken a serious look at the widescreens that are available. It really seems like they are becoming more in the norm these days and the prices are quite reasonable for a 20.1" widescreen.

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RE Warranty: I recently RMA'd a 940BF with samsung. They sent a brand new replacement and payed shipping both ways. And idk what newegg's problem is, I was told explicitly by a Samung rep that warranty is 3 years, it says it here on Samsung's site too under "TFT-LCD Monitor". They make some company's products look very unattractive when they stupid up the facts such as they appear to have done here. If you are at all unsure you should email samsung and inquire personally about their warranty.

 

yeah, I e-mailed them yesterday, they replied saying that all of their lcd monitors had a 3 year warranty. So that puts that to rest, guess it is just newegg's problem :)

 

That said, i would agree with the widescreen comment. If i were to go back and do it again, i would have held off for a little while longer and taken a serious look at the widescreens that are available. It really seems like they are becoming more in the norm these days and the prices are quite reasonable for a 20.1" widescreen

 

that seems to be the consensus over all the different forums I've asked this question at. I want my monitor to be able to handle gaming as close to as good of quality as my crt, I seem to recall peopel having troubles gaming with widescreens, which is why I've focused on non-widescreen lcd's. Has anybody else heard about problems with them?

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Get a widescreen LCD. Its kinda like crack, once you've had it its really tough to get off of it.

 

As to what LCD to get.

 

TN panels have very good response times but colours and viewing angles ain't too hot.

 

Be wary of anything offering less than 5ms as its likely to be a firmware trick that pre-sets the LCD pixels. I've read numerous accounts of fast games, stuff showing "future" position ghosts due to aggressive "overdrive" modes (I'm thinking of a particular monitor but do some research anyway).

 

Go to www.widescreengamingforum.com and read some.

 

You don't have a sig so I can't comment on your vid card and suitable resolutions etc.

 

The monitor in my sig is very good for everything and a vast improvement over my 6yr old CRT. It uses a S-IPS panel and is rated at 16ms but I have no problems in games whatsoever (as its probably more like 8ms).

 

Another consideration. How long do you plan on keeping your monitor for? On the timescale you hope for what known technologies are likely to make it obsolete (e.g. Hi Def etc.) and is it a likely issue for you? Would your PC be used in a more general entertainment fashion and so on.

 

My apologies for not giving a definite answer...

 

not definite, but certainly helpful :) I'm definitely checking out the widescreengamingforum. I've got a sig, so it was probably the forum not showing it or something, but if you still can't see it, I'm using a xfx 7600gt.

 

I'd be pretty worried going any higher than 5ms, when I play quake3 or unreal tournament, i play at a very fast pace. When I played with the other 16ms lcd, the colors and refresh problems were all over the place, it really put a dent in my accuracy.

 

hmm, well I'd like to use the monitor for 2-5 years. of course, that all depends on what changes over the next 5 years and how well I'm doing with money when the time comes, but I see the monitor as the computer part that should need replacing the least often.

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I would definitely say go widescreen. Once you go widescreen there is no return.

 

I have the Viewsonic 2025 and its a great display. Read around on the web for all the reviews and you'll see it is a very popular monitor. The current version is called the 2035. They bettered the response time etc.

 

If your going to stick with a standard 19" I would say go for the Viewsonic. There is probably a reason why the Viewsonic has 787 reviews compared to the Samsung's 51 and the Hanns' 35. ;)

 

But once again GO WIDESCREEN YOU'LL BE AMAZED. Almost all new games support widescreen and the ones that don't "officially" support it can be made to support it by doing a few tweaks in the game's config file.

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Go on, try it just the once.

 

As to the response time issue there are two values Grey to grey and Black to White (see wikipedia for more info). You'll be quoted the lower of the two.

 

If you're seriously into twitching then you might want to consider trying them out for real which isn't that easy unfortunately. I bought my Dell blind but I wasn't disappointed though.

 

Also there are only a few players that make the panels although the 3rd party bezel adder can have a difference that effects backlight bleed etc.

 

Another also...

Not all games support widescreen. Dawn of War doesn't but my monitor allows me to use a 1:1 ratio so I don't get any nasty stretching. This was v. important for me which is why I stumped up for the Dell. Apparently this is something that can be done through graphics drivers but as with most things there are no 100% guarantees it will work.

 

Go widescreen - you'll love it!

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I have the VX922 as well and its been a great monitor, but.....

You can get much higher screen resolutions with a nice widescreen 22", 5ms delay is right on the money, you really dont need 2ms, 5 is fine. Wide screen better for gaming. If I didnt have this VX922 I would definately go for a 22" at roughly the same pricing.

Good Luck.

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I did a good amount of research at widescreengamingforum, and ultimately decided on getting that viewsonic VX922. It's pretty cheap compared to a widescreen monitor that would have a comparable quality picture and refresh rate, and since the ratio of price / fps picture quality is really my biggest concern over flexibility in resolutions, I think it'll the best bet for me right now. I'll probably wait a couple years to get a widescreen, once they've matured a bit more and become more common. Really though, I just don't want to spend the time messing with making the monitors resolutions compatible with different games. I'll be perfectly happy with old, fast, and very little time spent tweaking it. Thanks for all the help and advice!

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I did a good amount of research at widescreengamingforum, and ultimately decided on getting that viewsonic VX922. It's pretty cheap compared to a widescreen monitor that would have a comparable quality picture and refresh rate, and since the ratio of price / fps picture quality is really my biggest concern over flexibility in resolutions, I think it'll the best bet for me right now. I'll probably wait a couple years to get a widescreen, once they've matured a bit more and become more common. Really though, I just don't want to spend the time messing with making the monitors resolutions compatible with different games. I'll be perfectly happy with old, fast, and very little time spent tweaking it. Thanks for all the help and advice!

 

Nice choice. Personally I think 19" wides are too small, and bigger ones look great but then you have to keep a system strong enough to run 1680x1050 all the time (I don't like gaming out of native), not to mention the issues some games have with them. Then of course there are the price concerns for a good 22" wide. I made the same tough decision as you some months ago, and I ended up with a 5:4 1280x1024 like you and I'm very happy. Widescreen is just not a slam dunk for everyone.

 

Hopefully new flat panel technology will be out in the coming years and we will have a good excuse to go 20"+ wide, by that time it'll be the norm and the swift mainstream will force resolutions[pun] to the drawbacks.

 

Good luck breaking the LCD cherry,

Ugly

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