Dell U2711 questions before purchase

Devrij · 13 Aug 2011 at 14:22

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-051-DE

Hi all, looks to be an excellent deal and I've been lusting after a really special monitor for a while now, but before I blow £500 on a monitor I had a few questions:

1: 2560x1440 will probably be too much for my 5850 (which I can't CF) so if I play at 1920x1080 will it look crap as it isn't native res or will it just look the same as it does on my 24"? I'll upgrade my card eventually, but not until the next gen are out.

2. I've been looking at the new iMac 27" and can't get over the sexiness of its panel, which is why I'm upgrading, so how does this compare in terms of colour vibrancy/black depth/etc?

3. I'm upgrading from this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-050-AC&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

Is it worth it? (mainly gaming and desktop work, looking to get into PS as a hobby too)

inflynx · 13 Aug 2011 at 15:12

1: 2560x1440 will probably be too much for my 5850 (which I can't CF) so if I play at 1920x1080 will it look crap as it isn't native res or will it just look the same as it does on my 24"? I'll upgrade my card eventually, but not until the next gen are out.

No, it will look ok. U2711 scales very well. Besides, there is an option in the screen menu to set it to the actual resolution i.e. it will display 1920x1080 dots in the middle of the screen and have the rest just black. In any case it will look ok, but you will need a better cards eventually.

2. I've been looking at the new iMac 27" and can't get over the sexiness of its panel, which is why I'm upgrading, so how does this compare in terms of colour vibrancy/black depth/etc?

The panels in iMac and U2711 are exactly the same, so the colors will be exactly the same.

3. I'm upgrading from this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-050-AC&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

Is it worth it? (mainly gaming and desktop work, looking to get into PS as a hobby too)

Don't know. I have switched to U2711 from 26" TN Samsung and never looked back. I love the colors and I absolutely adore the huge number of inputs.

PCM2 · 13 Aug 2011 at 18:18

inflynx said:
The panels in iMac and U2711 are exactly the same, so the colors will be exactly the same.

But alas, the screen surface and backlight is different. The new Apple Cinema Displays used on iMacs use a WLED backlight which has a colour gamut of just roughly sRGB. The U2711 uses a WCG-CCFL to provide a broad colour gamut of > NTSC. The matte screen surface of the U2711 has a relatively high haze value and has very different light transmission characteristics compared to the glossy polarising layer of the ACD. Under the ACD's native gamut and U2711 set to its sRGB emulation mode the ACD offers far superior colour vibrancy, slightly better contrast and perceptively deeper blacks. I know many users of the U2711 who are happy to use its native gamut for extra vibrancy (it doesn't always oversaturate things, depending on the game title) but the clarity of colour and subtle distinctions are still not quite as good.

Don't get me wrong the U2711 can make a lovely gaming monitor (and due to the pixel responsiveness a better one than the ACD overall) but there is a lot more to a monitor than just the panel it uses.

Devrij · 13 Aug 2011 at 19:32

Thanks for input guys, that's enough for me to make a decision: bought! Will post feedback when I get it. Looking forwards to some high res desktop

PCM2 · 13 Aug 2011 at 19:49

I assure you that when you get it you will simply stare in awe at all the desktop space.

inflynx · 13 Aug 2011 at 22:02

Well done, buddy, good choice.

You might wanna increase font DPI in Windows prefs if the text is too small for 'ya.

On the other hand I really like that you can put two windows side by side and still have them display all the contents. Very useful for two words documents.

clippa · 13 Aug 2011 at 23:29

u2711 isn't a gaming monitor, has an average of 23ms input lag which is far far too high.
If gaming is your primary concern, I'd strongly advise against that monitor.

inflynx · 14 Aug 2011 at 00:40

clippa said:
u2711 isn't a gaming monitor, has an average of 23ms input lag which is far far too high.
If gaming is your primary concern, I'd strongly advise against that monitor.

Way overstated marketing brainwash. I've had U2711 and it works perfect with all games.

Devrij · 14 Aug 2011 at 09:33

I was thinking that I may continue using my Acer for some games that need high fps and low lag (eg bc2,bf3 etc) and use this for everything else. Of course I'm going to try it to see what it's like though

This was the final decision maker for me:

The washed out colour on my acer (and that's calibrated with a colorimeter in that shot, mine isn't) compared to what I'm hoping the dell will be is what made me want it.

PCM2 · 14 Aug 2011 at 10:33

I should mention, since you won't be offended by it any more, that the Acer S243HL is one of the worst monitors I have come across as far as colour reproduction goes. There is really no use looking at pictures to try to justify anything - they depend on the processing done by the camera and of course the monitor which you're viewing the pictures on. You will notice a positive difference when your Dell arrives, I have no doubt.

clippa · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:26

inflynx said:
Way overstated marketing brainwash.

Marketing gimmick? No, quite the opposite in fact. If you want to know the input lag of a certain monitor you have to scour the net looking for expert reviews, or you need to find someone who owns that particular monitor themselves and has tested it against a crt.

inflynx said:
I've had U2711 and it works perfect with all games.

Well one man's perfect is another man's unusable. Input lag from different sources all adds up and everyone has their own threshold, the input lag of this monitor would be way way above my personal threshold on it's own.
I play a lot of online competitive shooters, too much and inconsistent input lag really messes with my aim. I play shmups too, these are games where a few ms delay can be the difference between life and death. The difference between being top of the scoreboard and being an also ran. If you take you gaming seriously (can't believe I said that XD )and you have fast reactions, you want to get a good monitor with a quick response time and low input lag to compliment that.
Trust me, I wish you were right, it would have saved me a lot of time and money returning monitors that were too laggy over this last month

I'd love an IPS panel, I wish I didn't game and then I could get one

If you're playing mmo's and stuff then yeah, knock yourself out, this monitor would be perfect.

Guest2 · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:36

If you can handle the antiglare then its a perfect monitor. Refunded for my U2711 and now looking at getting a U2410 for £390

PCM2 · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:37

clippa said:
If you're playing mmo's and stuff then yeah, knock yourself out, this monitor would be perfect.

Guest2 said:
If you can handle the antiglare then its a perfect monitor. Refunded for my U2711 and now looking at getting a U2410 for £390

Don't use such a strong and misleading word please. No monitor to date is anywhere near perfect. Although again it would depend on your threshold for such things.

clippa · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:54

Yes, sorry, perfect wasn't the right word. Will "more than adequate" do you?

Sorry to bang on about the input lag issue as well, but you see so called professional sites like digitalversus testing for input lag and I don't even know why they bother when afterwards they go on to say something ridiculous like "from our tests this monitor has just over 2 frames of input lag which is well below the threshold of human perception. This monitor is therefore perfect for gaming"

Whaaaaaa? :eek:

HNR1 · 14 Aug 2011 at 15:03

Guest2 said:
If you can handle the antiglare then its a perfect monitor.

That put me off as well when i was first looking at it.

PCM2 · 14 Aug 2011 at 16:39

clippa said:
.

Haha yeah. The way they write their so-called reviews is completely robotic and far too simplistic. They rely on figures a little device spits out for them from the centre of the screen or rely on questionable methodologies for measuring other aspects and "doing the work for them". They have two so-called reviews of the T27A950 and in one they "praise it" for "Low input lag: 33ms". In the other they state:

"Finally, one last point: we really think that Samsung's engineers should concentrate on reducing input lag.* According to our tests, it's 43 ms, or two whole frames.* That might well be invisible to the naked eye, but it's still 30 ms more than the average found on other monitors of around 16 ms."

Well as mentioned in our review the input lag could certainly be felt and without measurement we put it at 1-2 frames. And there was good reason the review was over 6000 words long and didn't just cut off at certain measurements without exploring the deeper reality.

It's like they don't have a pair of eyes or a brain cut out for reviewing something as complex as a monitor and either way are incapable of affirming a reasonable opinion of things. I could write that kind of review in a very short period of time - but it is worth the extra effort to make things more complete.

Devrij · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:24

HNR1 said:
That put me off as well when i was first looking at it.

This was my main concern, but I have a window right next to my desk and figured a glossy screen would drive me mental.

Devrij · 14 Aug 2011 at 17:29

PCM2 said:
I should mention, since you won't be offended by it any more, that the Acer S243HL is one of the worst monitors I have come across as far as colour reproduction goes. There is really no use looking at pictures to try to justify anything - they depend on the processing done by the camera and of course the monitor which you're viewing the pictures on. You will notice a positive difference when your Dell arrives, I have no doubt.

Lol no offence taken, I've known it for a long time! It was my first monitor and I didn't do any reading on it. I'm quite confident the dell will be a great improvement, and if the lag bothers me i'll stick with my already laggy acer

Devrij · 18 Aug 2011 at 21:39

Well, I got my u2711 tonight and I'm

! Colours are infinitely better than my 24" acer, and after a few games of BC2 (knocked AA down one notch) I'm playing better since I can see so much more when scoped in. Surprised! Still getting 60fps solid too (bar the odd drop in heavy explosions/smoke).

fowler002 · 18 Aug 2011 at 22:32

I'm in the same situation in terms or monitor and graphics card, i have a 5850(the msi twin frozr ii bought from here for £125 before xmas) and have bought the u2711(tho from the flea bay for £570 brand new according to the listing, will find out soon enough when it arrives) upgrading from a 24inch monitor(hyundai w240d, overheating problems which started 6months after the 3yrs warranty ran out) tho 1920 x 1200 rather than 1920 x1080.

devrij whats the rest of your system(cpu etc)? I have q6600@3ghz, asus p5q dlx, 4gb pc2-6400, trying to decide if I should get a 2nd 5850 or just wait till the new cards are out. do you have crysis, crysis warhead or crysis 2? if so how well/badly do they perform?