I wanna buy a monitor...

Hello,

I'm looking for a nice monitor for gaming, but I need recommendations. I don't know much about monitors. I have zero idea what to look for... I looked at the monitors on newegg, but I don't even get what it's saying, like 16.2 million display colors (is that a lot?), contrast ratio 2500:1 (what?) etc... I don't even know what brands are good...

I'm looking to spend about $100~$200...

Thanks!

Grab an Asus in the size of your choice. For your budget, there really aren't many good options.

If you bump up to $300, this is pretty much the best monitor on the market below $1k: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...19&sku=2209WA3

IPS panel, no input lag, can run at 76Hz with no frame skipping. Downsides are low resolution, 5ms response time, and low availability.

Manufacturer specs are pretty much meaningless - everything they list is either inaccurate or irrelevant.

i've always thought that IPS panels have greater latency but have better color reproduction and viewing angles, while TN panels have lower latency but suffers on the clor reproduction and viewing angles.

That's correct in general, but TN panels have better response times, not necessarily input lag. From what I understand of panel technology, input lag results from the processing electronics rather than the pixel type. I would guess that many TNs happen to have low input lag because, being budget panels, they tend to do less image processing. I don't think there's anything inherent in the panel type that would result in TNs having universally lower input lag than IPS, and the 2209wa isn't the first IPS panel with very low input lag (Planar PX2611W, for example).

Yep, Asus is king of Monitors in that range in my personal opinion. I've bought 7 Monitors in the last year and 3 of them were Asus, it's no coincidence that my 3 favorites (including the one I bought for personal use) are all Asus. Go with Asus for motherboards and Monitors and you won't go wrong.

Or Samsung.

Or *gulp* Dell.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001317

best monitor ever. or atleast really good.

Someone said there's a noticeable difference between 2ms and 5ms response time. What do you guys think?

What do you think about this one by Asus? It's the only one that has 2ms response time (20"~21.5"), so I don't really have a choice if I'm going for a 2ms Asus monitor. But it seems like it has some serious bleeding & dead pixel problems. I have terrible luck with dead pixels (iPod, DS lite, laptop...), and newegg only exchanges if you have 8+ dead pixels. That kinda worries me...

2 and 5? Barely any, but I do use a 22" Samsung SyncMaster T220 with 20000:1 contrast (xD) and 2ms response.

Personally i would go for something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001317

I have a 22" samsung and it works beautifully, although i don't know about the specs i know that it looks great, plays all my games really nicely (Crysis on high settings <3) and was fairly cheap in comparison to some others of the same size.

I have that exact monitor sitting in front of me now. I have had it for 3-4 months and I love it. I honestly can't say whether it's the 2ms response time (vs 5ms with my old monitor), but this one does seem "quicker" to me when the scenes on the screen are changing rapidly (ie massive explosions). In any case, it has bright, rich, vibrant colors and has 5 diff. presets so you can quickly find something that suits any ones viewing preference. Dead pixels usually happen when idiots poke the screen with their fingers anyways.

I will say that I like the monitor, esp. in that price range, but don't plan to use the built in speakers if you get it.... quality is fine, but they are nearly inaudible......

The answer depends on the individual. Some people are sensitive to input lag and response time, some people are not. Note that high pixel response times, unlike high input lag, do produce visual artifacts (e.g., ghosting) that can be noticeable even when viewing time-insensitive material (i.e., watching a movie). Input lag really only matters in timing-critical applications, such as fighting games.

Newegg's dead pixel policy is unacceptably poor; I strongly recommend buying monitors elsewhere.

I think they're right. Comparing 2ms to 5 ms directly, i've noticed 5ms is much more likely to give you ghosting/blurring than 2ms is. Personally i wouldn't game on a 5ms panel of any type.

Buy a good cheap monitor and wait for Ion monitors. They don't give backlight bleeding along pressing above Ipn color quality and 0.01 ms latency.

16.2 million colors is a lot - it would be the high end of what you could expect at your price range.
Contrast ratio is the difference between the intensity of a black color vs a white color. It mostly affects how black the "blacks" are. A monitor with a low contrast ratio will look greyer than a monitor with a high ration. 2500:1 is not high by today's standards - and the higher the better.
Response time is the amount of time a pixel takes to change from one color to another. Lower is better. A monitor with a high response time can look blurry when pixels try to change faster than they can (so the actual color you see lags behind the color that it should be.) This shows up mostly in "action" scenes where things are moving quickly.
Of course, all these specs are subject to various measuring systems. There are no official standards for measurement so companies can measure things in a way that makes them look good. For example some companies will measure their response time from black-to-white(-to black) while others will just use grey-to-grey (which gives much better numbers)

There are many good monitors out there, but you would need to look into the specs if you are really concerned about best "theoretical" performance.
Best thing is to either go with what sounds good and seems to work well, or go with an established brand like Samsung.

Go for best of both worlds, gaming, and full HD, go for a 1920x1200 pixels.
Take a 24" you will never regret, grab a Samsung 2443BW, my best buy ever!

I am on the proccess of buying a new monitor for dual screening. My recommendation is;

ASUS VH242H 24'' TFT
23.6" Wide Screen Full HD.
3 years guaranty
Can be mounted on the wall and has speakers too(not that it matters but oh well)
For more details click here --> - x -

Cost is 215 euros ~ $260 or something? It's a little higher than what you actually have but imo it's worth it.

i got this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009145 and have no complain so far, it is only 1680x 1050 though.

I would like to remind everyone that an older video card may not be able to push a higher end monitor. I would advise that the OP check to see what resoulations are supported by for video card PRIOR to spending your hard earned money on a new monitor. You may need to upgrade your video card too.

^^ Agree with KZaske. This should have been mentioned earlier.



^^ What's your experience with this brand? I've been looking at that model for a while now...sitting on the fence.

Had one ViewSonic before flatpanels became popular in gaming (most of them had slow response). Never had any problems it was ahead compared to others at that time. Can't say anything about this particular one though

Personally I don't and will never buy anything from Samsung. Had too many problems with them in the past (laptops/memory/hard drives), poor support. Enough is enough
Been using iiyama monitors since 2001. /happyface