Choosing New Monitor

P

PC Fanatic

Silver Level Poster
(not sure if this is the correct section, feel free to move if not)

I am investigating upgrading to a new, larger monitor and noticed that several of the options I had identified had a slightly slower response time (7ms) compared to the monitor I have now (5ms). I have read that this may be because they are IPS panels.

My question is: how likely is this to affect my gaming experience (if at all)?

Thanks in advance.
 
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steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Personally I'd say not much, I've gamed on a TV with a horrendous response time and I would suggest its unlikely you would notice 1ms of difference. If you did notice, I would guess the 5ms would be 'too much' lag anyway :)

Good way to check would be to see the new monitor in action if you can :) Obviously this can be difficult though but as I said its unlikely to make any difference.
 
P

PC Fanatic

Silver Level Poster
steaky360 said:
Personally I'd say not much, I've gamed on a TV with a horrendous response time and I would suggest its unlikely you would notice 1ms of difference. If you did notice, I would guess the 5ms would be 'too much' lag anyway :)

Good way to check would be to see the new monitor in action if you can :) Obviously this can be difficult though but as I said its unlikely to make any difference.
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I saw it online, so unfortunately no opportunity for previewing. Thanks for the advice!
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
IPS panels benefit from a better colour palette and also much better viewing angles. You may find viewing angles not that important but I notice them even when sat directly infront of my TN panel i.e. top part of the screen might be much darker than the bottom. IPS panels used to be appalling for gaming (they used to have like 18ms+ response rates) but now they're actually on a par with most TN panels. The only difference is TN panels can be bought in 120hz+ whereas IPS panels max out at 60hz. If you were only planning on getting a 60hz monitor anyway then an IPS would probably be your ideal choice.

Only other things I can think of is that blacks aren't as black on an IPS monitor according to reviews. They display more like a grey when a screen is really dark. I have no personal experience of it though and I think it varies from monitor to monitor. What I learnt when searching for my monitor is that if you read into reviews too much you'll never end up buying one. Alot of the tests they carry are things that would not be noticed to the untrained eye or in general practice so I would advise just taking a punt on something.

If you fancy an IPS panel with better colours/viewing angles, I would recommend the Dell Ultrasharp U2312hm. Don't be put off by the 8ms response time, it's rated as one of the best gaming IPS monitors out there as the input lag time on it is ridiculously low. The only drawback is it doesn't have a HDMI port, it has 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI and 1 x Displayport which are all brilliant for PC use but no so great if you want to plug a console/dvd player in, etc. The u2312hm can be picked up for around £160. There are plenty of other options out there if you don't fancy that one though! I've linked to a detailed review just incase you're curious, you'll see it even manages to pass their rigurous tests pretty well compared to competitors: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2312hm.htm
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
PC Fanatic said:
Anyone able to offer an opinion on the monitor I linked to above?
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I think I read about the Viewsonic in a PC Gamer a few months ago. They voted it as their favourite monitor and thought it was brilliant. I looked further into it online and wasn't really keen, quite a few reviews saying the build quality wasn't brilliant and the gaming performance was average. I'm sure it would be perfectly fine though, in hindsight I wouldn't read too much into reviews anyway.
 
P

PC Fanatic

Silver Level Poster
Grimezy said:
I think I read about the Viewsonic in a PC Gamer a few months ago. They voted it as their favourite monitor and thought it was brilliant. I looked further into it online and wasn't really keen, quite a few reviews saying the build quality wasn't brilliant and the gaming performance was average. I'm sure it would be perfectly fine though, in hindsight I wouldn't read too much into reviews anyway.
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That's my problem - too many conflicting opinions. I'm sure I wouldn't really notice a 2ms difference anyway so I might just go ahead and buy it.
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Yea I highly doubt you'd notice at all! I think this was one of the decent reviews I read about it (this is for the 23 inch panel but I imagine it will be identical almost to the 27 inch that you linked to) http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...nitors/viewsonic-vx2370smh-led-1129117/review

I am starting to remember why I didn't fancy it now, I think the lack of being able to adjust height was a bit of a put off for me and also I didn't need built in speakers so assumed I was paying a premium for something I didn't need. I think it's just something you'll have to take a risk on! It's difficult giving monitor recommendations as most people use 1 monitor for a few years. And if you spend too much time looking into reviews then you won't end up buying anything as they do tests that would never be relevant! It's a lose-lose situation I'm afraid :(
 
P

PC Fanatic

Silver Level Poster
Grimezy said:
Yea I highly doubt you'd notice at all! I think this was one of the decent reviews I read about it (this is for the 23 inch panel but I imagine it will be identical almost to the 27 inch that you linked to) http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...nitors/viewsonic-vx2370smh-led-1129117/review

I am starting to remember why I didn't fancy it now, I think the lack of being able to adjust height was a bit of a put off for me and also I didn't need built in speakers so assumed I was paying a premium for something I didn't need. I think it's just something you'll have to take a risk on! It's difficult giving monitor recommendations as most people use 1 monitor for a few years. And if you spend too much time looking into reviews then you won't end up buying anything as they do tests that would never be relevant! It's a lose-lose situation I'm afraid :(
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Cheers for the help - will go ahead and purchase it in the near future.
 
bigben

bigben

Master Poster
Grimezy said:
much better viewing angles. You may find viewing angles not that important but I notice them even when sat directly infront of my TN panel i.e. top part of the screen might be much darker than the bottom.]
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I don't know if I am just a bit blind to them or if you have a dodgy monitor because I find the viewing angles pretty good on mine (same monitor as yours)..

It looks decent to me from all of the following angles (although the camera appears to disagree):

http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2415.jpg.html
http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2416.jpg.html
http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2417.jpg.html
http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2418.jpg.html
http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2419.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bigben93/media/IMG_2420.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
 
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Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Yea it's not so much webpages that I mean, it's normally when I play quite a dark game i.e. Sleeping Dogs is normally set at night time and I often find it's far too dark in areas of my screen unless I sit up and look down at the monitor.

I've also watched catch up tv on it sat slightly lower down and no matter how much I tilted the screen, etc it still displayed as way too dark. The programme was quite dark in the first place but it was definitely a lot worse unless I sat right in front of it.

I agree though, I can watch other people play on some games on it and the colours are still absolutely fine side on, etc. It just seems to be the vertical angles in certain games that aren't great on mine. It is quite regular for TN panels not to be that uniformed across the screen though.

Like I said, only happens in some games and tends to be darker scenery ones :)
 
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