LF : IPS + LED Backlit + Vesa Mountable + Fast & Affordable Monitor?

[louno]

Hey guys i need some help !
I want to buy a new monitor within 2-5 months.
Ideally what I would like in order of importance is :

- Vesa Mount Holes : I have a dual arm monitor
- As Light as possible : The monitor cannot weight more than 9lbs my monitor arm cannot support more than that This is of course for the weight of the screen only, cuz the stand will be removed
- IPS Panel Type : I am a graphic designer, lots of photoshop.
- Led Backlit : if possible, this would not only be more eco friendly but also reduce the thickness of the monitor and make it lighter.
- As Fast As possible : I do a lot of gaming too so it needs to be good enough for gaming. I play SC2 and Shooters such as Battlefield, im not like a professional so as long as its not noticable by regular gamers...
- Affordable : I would like to buy 2 because my monitor arm support 2 monitor... so if I can afford it ill get 2, to replace both my current 3 and 5 year old screens. If the screen is over 300$ then I'll only buy 1 for now.


I really would appreciate any info you could share, any suggestions, even if they are not a perfect match to my most wanted features above.

So far I havent seen anything...
Thanks A lot !

 

[rofl_my_waffle]

Apple makes a LED IPS display. Doesn't support vesa wallmounts but you can buy an adapter for $40. They only use cheap white LEDs so their color gamut is very low (68% typical for WLED) and not very thin either since LEDs are dim so a lot is used to achieve good brightness. Apple monitors are also very expensive and have no RTC so reponse time is at 12ms for GTG.

The other option for LED backlighting is the LaCie 700 series, unlike Apple displays, these use full RGB LED backlighting for very very wide color gamut and accuracy. Though you would be paying $3500 for a 30", which is unaffordable even for people with more money than sense.

Honestly the only sensible option is to get a IPS panel without LED. The Dell IPS line can all take Vesa mounts, wide gamut, pre-calibrated, have response time compensation, and even a game profile to reduce input lag. If you are unhappy about wide gamut it has an SRGB mode. More afforable though a 24" (U2410) would still run for $400. They are very good monitors however.

If $400 is too hard to swallow (which isn't all that expensive for a H-IPS panel really) then their e-IPS panels are pretty good too. Their color accuracy isn't good as their H-IPS monitors for sure but the price is considerably cheaper. They use eco CCFL backlighting instead of Wide gamut CCFL backlighting so it uses less power and weighs less but at the same time only typical 72% NTSC color gamut. A U2311H is $300 MSRP but can be found for $250 if you look hard enough or wait for a sale on the Dell website. You can sometimes negotiate price of Dell monitors over the phone.

 

[louno]

Definitively do not want to spend more than 500$ for 1 monitor, I could go up to 600$ for 2 monitors though.

Led backlight is not necessary, I just thought that Led monitors would be thinner and lighter, which is not only important for my monitor mount, but also for esthetic aspect... these monitors go on my office desk.

I checked the U2410, they give the weight of the panel without the stand and it is too heavy at 14 pounds ( the max recommended weight for my monitor mount is 10 pounds... However my current monitor is 12pounds and it bends the monitor mount arm a little, but i'd like to avoid that just to be safe cuz I have a glass desk table and if they fall... )

The U2311H is not bad, however it only has 8MS response time which I dont think is enough for gaming ? or is it ? It also weights about 15pounds INCLUDING the stand, so im not sure without the stand how much it would weight, but regardless it seems like a really thick monitor... I guess I could live with that, but its just that i'll be keeping these monitor for at least 4 years so they will be looking mighty ugly in a few years when everyone has SUPER THIN panels everywhere... kinda like an old crt... meh... anyways, again I could live with that, but the 8MS is a little scary because I know that manufacturer dont really advertise the real MS soo... makes me wonder if it will be fast enough...


Thansk for all the great info , really appreciate it

 

[jaguarskx]

Basically all monitors using the e-IPS panel tech that I've seen all have 8ms response times. The only IPS monitors with lower response times use the more expensive H-IPS panel.

My NEC LCD2690WUXi has an official advertised response time of 8ms, but I do recall tests showing the average response time to be 6ms. My Planar PX2611w is rated at 5ms. Both monitors are no longer in production and are above your budget anyway.

As Rofl_My_Waffle implied, low response times of LCD monitors are determined by RTC (Response Time Compensation) and is sometimes referred to as OverDrive. It basically overvolts the sub-pixels so that they respond faster, but overvolting also causes some color inaccuracies since sub-pixels.

Technically with enough RTC applied response times can be reduced. However, the are consequences such as a further reduction of color accuracy, invert ghosting effect (ghosting trails with reverse colors) and damage to the sub pixels themselves due to high overvolting. Those could be some of the reasons why there are no e-IPS panel monitors with lower than 8ms response times.

 

[louno]

Jaguar, thanks for the technical information, i didnt know what response time compensation ...

However this doesnt really help me find a monitor that suits my need... Aside from the dells are there any other options ? ( better ? ) are there any new monitors coming out soon ? Is an advertised 8ms response time good enough for gaming ?

It seems like there is a market gap to fill in the monitor industry... the manufacturer that realize that professional graphic artists almost always are also gamers and who first release an affordable IPS, LED (or thin, light, visually pleasing), Low ms, Vesa mountable monitor is sure to make tons of cash...

 

[jaguarskx]

Response Time Compensation (RTC for short or OverDrive) allows TN panel monitors to be rated 5ms, 2ms and 1ms for response time. It's what makes them respond so fast.

IPS panels are generally slower because TN panels are much simpler to manufacture and they do not actually produce 16.7 million colors; more like 256k colors and through a process called dithering (blending) the other 16.4m colors can be estimated. The "simpleness" of TN panels allows them to have faster response times with RTC.

IPS (and VA) panel are shall we say more "complex" and that allows them to truly produce 16.7m colors. But this complexity increases there natural response times compared to TN panels. Since the natural response time is higher, RTC can only bring it down so much before being harmful to the panel itself.

To put it simply, if you want something faster than 8ms you will either have to step down to a TN panel monitor, which can also bring down the price. Or you need to step up to a H-IPS panel has is faster than 8ms; however doing so will blow out your budget.

For example, my Planar PX2611w has a natural response time of 12ms. Using RTC (they call it RapidVideo) the response time is reduced to 5ms. This mopnitior uses a H-IPS panel as stated before and when it was in production I was able to buy it for about $790 and that was considered a low price. These monitors can still be purchased new, but since they are no longer in production, the lowest price I've seen is $925.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Trust me when I am saying the explanations I have given you are pretty over simplified to the point where if someone who knows about LCD panel tech will say my statement are pretty misleading.

Perhaps I don't know how to dumb things down...

 

[rofl_my_waffle]

I don't want to go into depth about the technology since it can get very confusing very fast.

Generally anything under 10ms for GTG response time is fine.

Response time compensation will cause artifacts and you will notice ghosting from RTC even if it was qouted as 1ms. Also the GTG response time qoute isn't very accurate. Manufacturers can choose which tone of grey to use in their tests to give best results. Most TN panels actually have an average of 6ms response time despite being as low as 2ms for certain tones of grey.