Just got my ViewSonic VX2268wm

Hi,
I recieved this monitor today from ocuk (thanks for the speedy delivery and excellent service!!) and have been testing it this afternoon.

It is my first step into the world of the LCD, having used CRTs forever, my only experience with an LCD is the one I use in work for general internet browsing, etc. I had always been a bit dubious to 'upgrade' to an LCD when I hear a lot of gamers say that CRTs are better for fast paced FPS games. However, when I heard about the new 120hz LCDs I decided to bite the bullet and give one a whirl as the prospect of a larger, better monitor than my dusty old 19" CRT sounded very appealing.

I haven't had it long, only a few hours, long enough to ensure it's set at 120hz in games and that the brightness is good and working. However upon loading my favourite game Unreal Tournament ('99) I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed. As soon as I move the mouse quickly the screen definetely becomes slightly blurry, everything loses it's sharpness until you stop doing it. I tried in 60hz mode and I honestly can't believe people put up with that? It's a MASSIVE step back in technology, like swapping your brand new quad core for a pentium 1

My main reason for writing this is to ask if there is something setup wise I haven't done which needs doing? Being a complete LCD novice I don't want to put the monitor down because it looks great, it's just the blur issue I have in UT, and like I said, seeing it in 60hz has led me to believe maybe something is up, because I would never ever ever play any games if I had to play in that mode, and I have no idea how anyone does

Can any1 with this monitor shed any light? Or is it something you just get used to?
Cheers

The problem, see, is that the VX you got is 120Hz but isn't entirely amazing in terms of performance or quality out the box.

I'd recommend seeing if any image processing modes are turned on in the OSD because good TFT panels these days have little to no ghosting and you do NOT need a 120Hz screen to be able to enjoy games.

If you cannot solve the problem then return the monitor and ask for recommendations here because there are plenty of other better monitors and while they may cost more you will get something that is near on perfect clarity wise and almost as good as a CRT.

60Hz on that VX panel is not going to be the same 60Hz performance you get on a good LCD I can assure you. It has a specsheet ms of 3ms which I'm dubious about (is it overdriving/processing internally to get to that figure and thus causing movement ghosting? maybe..) and 170 by 160 degree viewing angles which are more inline with TN panels.

"I haven't had it long, only a few hours, long enough to ensure it's set at 120hz in games and that the brightness is good and working"

"seeing it in 60hz has led me to believe maybe something is up, because I would never ever ever play any games if I had to play in that mode, and I have no idea how anyone does"

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I have absolutely no idea what problem you are experiencing lol!??!?!? In 120hz the monitor runs amazingly, it has zero input lag and no blurryness. Why are you attemtping to run it in 60hz? I Don't understand anything you've said.

some input lag tests i did: http://nvcgamer.eu/images/vx2268

Is dynamic contrast an image processing mode? I like the colour it gives so would be a shame if it was. Having used it for over 24 hours now it has grown on me. In games besides UT it isnt as noticable because they either aren't as fast paced, or they are so high detail it's not as easy to notice the haziness when shifting view quickly.

nvc, I tried it in 60hz to see what it was like and to get an idea as to how the majority of LCDs perform in games. Also, is input lag what courses ghosting?

If you are javing a problem with a 120Hz LCD then it must be something to do with the Viewsonic implementation. I have the Samsung 2233 120Hz monitor and I notice a massive difference in gaming experience compared to the 60Hz Samsung 226BW I played all my games on before. The 226BW was pretty good, though not as responsive as my old CRT and I kind of got used to playing at 60Hz with vsync on. However, with the 2233 its virtually like playing on a CRT again. I disabled Vsync and after playing COD4 and Witcher I see no visible tearing, using a GTX280 that is. Very glad I went with a 120Hz monitor.

Yes this is what TFTs are like... even 120Hz ones - which still have almost as bad problem with residual images as 60Hz ones... yes for twitch fps games they blurr badly on fast moves and for high end gaming can not compete with a CRT...

However you do get used to it - after a month or so you brain compensates for it - but you lose a split second while your brain waits for the blurring to clear... which means if you went up against someone of equal skill but they were on a CRT and you on TFT you'd lose much more often than if you were both on CRT.

don't get me wrong, the difference between the 60hz and 120hz is huge, i would never play any games if i had a 60hz lcd.
It's just the 120hz isn't AS good as i was hoping it would be...still nice though, and it IS growing on me

Nothing is wrong with the panel btw and it is a big step up from 60Hz for gaming... but you will get 2-3 more decaying versions of the image on fast moves compared to a CRT - the average person might not notice them but anyone whos played twitch shooters at a decent level will deffinatly notice it.

Thanks rroff, that clears things up a bit, so despite the low numbers they proclaim on the response time, the technology is still inferior to a CRT. It's a shame but I'm really loving the extra desktop space i have now and I think i might just stick with it. I'm not into competitive gaming anyway, but I do want to continue winning on the publics and I don't think this is gonna hinder that
Now I just need a beefier graphics card to run this new resolution, hope ATI releases some soon as I want a big jump from my 8800gt

Games need to be tweaked also remember! UT.ini @ 120hz + use either 120fps (if no tearing) or around 85fps for smooth playing.

Yup done all that

If you want as close to CRT as possible then an IPS based panel is the only way at present.

I came from a Mitsubishi Diamondtron, Sony Trinitron and LG Flatron CRT setup back in the day and have eaten through as many LCD panels as I have fingers and only the Dell 2007WFP and Hazro HZ24Wi have met my demands for performance and image quality.

Rambo2683 said:

Also, is input lag what courses ghosting?

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Ghosting is entirely different thing and happens because every single LCD is slow especially when colour delta is smaller than from 0 to 255 or reverse. Especially in TNs specs are half lies and "5" ms response time practically means it doesn't have response time compensation which in turn means 13-15ms average response time.
And thing which makes this worser is image being always on in LCDs reinforcing eye's sample and hold effect while in CRT dimming of phosphor dots after refresh helps vision system to clear previous picture by "giving black frame between images" while this holding effect still keeps appearance of image being shown constantly while in fact phosphor dots "black out" ~1ms after being refreshed.

So there's more than enough reasons why developing of LCDs should be terminated in favour of OLED and FED/SED which can combine flat shape to speed of CRT. (and hence also easily include pixel being blanked before refresh for preventing eye's sample and hold)
Instead of actually getting new products out marketroids are just recycling old junk with new wrapping papers and devising ways to lie more and more.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/20/sony-demos-19-inch-fed-display-running-gran-turismo-5-at-240-fps/

nvc said:

some input lag tests i did: http://nvcgamer.eu/images/vx2268

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Too long exposure time for those to be useful. Shutter speed has to be clearly faster than refresh rate of monitor for avoiding two clock times being exposured into one image.

I received my one last Saturday and have no problem at all with this monitor. I've switched from a 20" crt @ 160hz to this, and for me I see no difference at all playing games.. ie CS source COD2 COD4 etc.

As for the stand, for me its not flimsy at all, Im not in the habit of moving the screen, and as for people saying it shakes when typing etc on other forums, I can only suggest that your dont buy your desks from IKEA as my monitor hasnt gave me 1 wobble since Ive had it.

The only thing that threw me when i first got it was trying to run games at a lower res than 1680 x 1050 @ 120hz. The drivers that comes with the monitor (for me) only allows the monitor to run full res @ 120hz and all lower res's at 75hz max. The only way I got around this was to make new drivers for it and setting all lower res's to run from 60-120hz. Now that I've done that playing on any res @ 120hz is available and is on par with my old crt.

I'd suggest you check what hz the monitor is running @ when dropping the resolution down ( press 1 on the monitor , and goto "information" on the OSD, there it will display the current hz ) as when i checked b4 i modified the drivers the max i could get out of it was 75hz

I really cant fault this monitor 1 bit. playing it from 800x600-120hz to 1680x1050-120hz with no tearing, colour issues, lag issues its safe to say the old crts will be packed away forever.

You need drivers for a monitor? Wow, I had no idea...

it comes with the drivers (.inf file ) on the disc but for me they do nothing more than the auto detect drivers that windows uses. Hence making my own . Im on win7 so not sure of the other o/s behaviour

Greig said:

it comes with the drivers (.inf file ) on the disc but for me they do nothing more than the auto detect drivers that windows uses. Hence making my own . Im on win7 so not sure of the other o/s behaviour

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I, and I think others, would really appreciate it if you could post your modified .inf file here. I tried modifying the drivers myself but not with great success.

Ive uploaded it to rapidshare, not the best I know.

Also the rez's ive set to 120 are 1680, 1280,1024,800,640

all the rez's can be set from 75 through to 120 , but these are the ones i use

http://rapidshare.com/files/277503440/120.inf.html

You should be able to use 120hz with different resolutions using graphics card software, scaling.

I'm going to buy this monitor at some point, looks a tad bit more favourable over the 2233rz and a tad bit cheaper.

Greig said:

Ive uploaded it to rapidshare, not the best I know.

Also the rez's ive set to 120 are 1680, 1280,1024,800,640

all the rez's can be set from 75 through to 120 , but these are the ones i use

http://rapidshare.com/files/277503440/120.inf.html

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Hi, I've tried using your inf file and also tried creating my own using Phoenix + MonInfo but neither work as I'd expect.

In windows 7 (with ATI 4870x2) I can select the resolution I want (e.g. 800x600) and 120hz to go but when I apply it, the window is tiny and doesn't scale (this happens for Windows and any games I try it with as well). The "scaling" option isn't available in the ATI control pannel on Win7 - not sure why.

In XP the inf file just makes no difference. Even if I select 120hz, it still only updates at 75hz.

Any ideas?