Edit: Looking for a low budget 27", didn't like IPS glow and poor black color. Suggestions ?

[salawow]

The monitor: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009720&AID=10657534&PID=1796839&SID=100099386&nm_mc=AFC-C8JunctionCA&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JunctionCA-_-na-_-na-_-na&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-%zn

(english is not my native language btw)

I can't find any reliable reviews about this monitor (actually any low budget monitor seem to lack reviews).

I do a little bit of everything on my computer, including gaming. Not playing FPS that requires extreme precision though, the only "first person" game i play is skyrim.

I was initially looking to buy a 27" monitor, but after reading here and there i'm concerned about the pixel density of 27" at 1080p, so i'm thinking about 25" being a good in-between 24 and 27.

I read that IPS was terrible for gaming, but i also read it was not that bad. I read anything slower than 2ms was terrible for gaming.. but also read 5ms was just perfect at 60hz. Alot of different opinions apparently.

I also read that IPS had fantastic colors, brightness, etc, and that going to an IPS means never going back to TN. Is it true ?

Being a IPS with 4ms, how would it be for gaming ?

So, well.. the specs of that monitor looks pretty nice, but the price is very low compared to others.. what's the catch ?

And btw, at the momment i have an acer x223w 22" 1680*1050, which have 5ms. I never noticed any issues in games even if it's 5ms, so should i assume an IPS with 4ms will be faster than my current monitor anyway ?

Anyway, would you recommend that monitor to me ?

Thanks !

 

[ak47jar3d]

No, ips panels are not terrible for gaming. Ips panels are not as fast as TN panels but do have much better color reproduction and viewing angles. I would not buy a TN panel as the tradeoffs are not really worth it in my opinion. The monitor that you posted a link is a solid 25" monitor. I would go with a 27 inch monitor instead.


ASUS VC279H Slim Bezel Black 27" 5ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS , 80,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers , http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=24-236-584

 

[salawow]

Thanks for the answer

The 27" you posted is a bit over my budget, the cheapest is 300$ in canada.

If we put aside the size (25 vs 27), is there something better about the one you posted compared to the acer 25" i posted ?

 

[salawow]

Ok so yesterday i decided to stretch a little bit my budget and bought a Asus VX279 which was on a sale at a local store. I returned it today though, didn't like it.

What i didn't like at all was the blacks. There was no such thing as "black" on this monitor, watching an episode of star trek was a real joke, what should appear as a black sky was more like dark grey. (compared to my current old TN monitor). It was like there was some kind of white transparent pellicule covering the screen in dark scenes. I assume it's the so called "IPS glow effect" i keep reading everywhere. I liked the crisp colors and larger viewing angles though.

Ok so, now at least i know i really want nothing smaller than 27" (so i'll forget about the 25" i posted). And i know that 1080p on a 27" is good enough for me. I also know that i want black color that looks black, so i assume i have to stay away from IPS monitor, unfortunately.

So, i've checked thoroughly ca.pcpartpicker and it leaves me with a few choices in my budget range, and most of them are VA, like the benq gw2760hs which seemed to have nice reviews. But how is VA for gaming ? And does it suffer the same bad black color as the IPS ? There is also the Asus VN289H, which is a 28", but VA again. I could have been interrested in that TN AOC e2752She, but i've seen people claim that blacks are not dark enough on this monitor 🙁

Anyway, here's my options given the limited budget i have http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/parts/monitor/#W=2700,4200&p=0&sort=a8&page=1&X=0,27586

What you're thinking about that ?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

There's no such thing as pure black on any LCD, it's a limitation of the LCD technology. Did you at least try to calibrate the display? Windows has a tool built in. On a TN panel, black is grey, so that's definitely not comparable. Have a black wallpaper and see if you can still see what you saw watching Star Trek, if you can't - the problem is the video.

 

[salawow]

Well, about black i'm comparing to my current LCD (acer x223w). The blacks are of course not pitch black, but are still much darker than the IPS screen a bought and returned. I tried to calibrate it as well, but i've never been able to make it better about blacks without making the whole screen too dark.

 

[ak47jar3d]

I really like Acer G276HL Gbmid. The VA panel are going to be better at dark images than ips. You should have the same issue with this one.

 

[salawow]

Would you say the Acer G276HL Gbdim is better than the BenQ gw2760hs ?

And what do you think regarding VN panels and gaming ? (no competitive fps though).

 

[ak47jar3d]

Both monitors are very good, but if you can afford the BenQ gw2760hs, I would take it for the extra features. VA panels perform very well in gaming, but not as fast as tn panels. I use 3x VA screens in my surround setup.

 

[salawow]

Thanks for your input Now i'm considering buying the BenQ gw2760hs

So if i get it, it's good for gaming but not as fast as a tn panel. I keep reading things about response time, latency, how "fast" tn panels are compared to others, but what does it mean exactly ? I tried to find more in-depth explaination, or youtube video comparison, but never found anything.

So my question: let's say i was able to try 2 monitor side by side and play an hour on each to compare, in a game like skyrim or world of warcraft (two games i play alot). One of those monitor would be a fast tn monitor with 1ms such as a benq rl2755hm, and the other a va panel BenQ gw2760hs. What kind of difference would i feel exactly regarding speed ? How exactly would i percieve the TN panel to be faster ? Would the VA one appear blurry when something is moving on the screen ? Or it's something else ?

At the momment i have my old 22" TN panel with 5ms, and i've always felt like everything was perfectly fine regarding how "fast" it is. The BenQ VA Panel is 4ms. Will everything be "faster" than my current monitor anyway so i don't have to worry ? Or regardless of the lower response time in specs, the VA will still be slower ?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Response times are fast enough. Overdrive is what's causing issues, but just ignore the response time. It doesn't mean anything to anyone. It's a marketing trick to sell more "gaming" monitors. They're doing a pretty good job fooling everyone that hasn't been around for a long time.

 

[salawow]

Hello again

So i ended up ordering a Benq GW2760HS and recieved it 3 days ago... and now i'm trying to return it. The colors were beautiful, the blacks were very deep, for web browsing and movie watching is was just fantastic. However in games, the response time, or overdrive, or whatever it's called (i'm still lost in all those terms) was horrible. I did alot of comparison between this monitor and my old one, playing the same part of different games and the difference was huge. Overall, it was mostly about "blur when moving", but here's few exemple of what i mean:

(all of those games were running at 60fps)
(i was using monitor setting AMA = high. Setting it to "none" just made everything worst. Setting it to "premium" made some funky visual effect, which added even more issue)

World of Warcraft: While standing still, a character with his name over his head was running sideway in front me of. With my old monitor i was able to read the name over his head. With this one, the text was too blurry.

Skyrim: Moving the camera made everything blurry again, but the effect was much worse than world of warcraft, probably because it's a first person game, and the texture are more complex. It was both annoying and painful for the eye (for me at least, couldnt play more than 10 minutes without getting a headache). For a more concrete exemple, i stood in front of a NPC (the blacksmith in whiterun), and moved the camera at moderate speed in circle around the NPC face. With my old monitor, the face was still very recognisable, while it was definetly not with the new one.

The Sims 3: The textures in this game are not very complex, so instead of a general blur, it was more like every object leaving a huge trace behind it when moving the camera. It was more or less heavy depending on the object and background color. I was felling it slightly with my old monitor, but it was nothing compared to what it does with this one.

Civilization V: Well, although it was making thing more blurry when moving the camera, since it's not a game that rely much on it, i was not much affected by it. Just to point out not every game was horrible with this monitor.

Just thought it would be a good idea to come back and post about my feeling with this monitor, in case someone reading this has the same issue as i had, choosing a right monitor. So my opinion is that the benq gw2760hs is a very nice monitor for everything beside gaming.

Now that i've ruled out IPS and VN monitor from my options, i guess i'll have to stick with TN.

Thanks again for your input guys