** NEW SAMSUNG 750D & 950D True 120Hz LED Monitors - PRE-ORDER! **

Well I got the 950 on Tuesday after decided to splash the cash as my old 22" had pretty much packed in.

Its a great looking monitor and I was very surprised at how light it is! I'm using an Nvidia GPU at the moment so I connected it up with the included D-DVI cable. Initially I had trouble getting it to 120hz as the option in my driver wasn't showing up, but it turned out I had to manually select options from the PC custom section.

I'm extremely impressed with 120hz performance. Everything looks so smooth and fluid, games especially benefit from it. Going back to 60hz was terrible and I don't think I could ever do it again :p

I've had a brief mess around with 3D. I watched Avatar 3D on the monitor and it was absolutely stunning. It was very clear and sharp, no ghosting or dulled by the effect. My family where also very impressed with it.

Games wise, as I'm using an Nvidia card I'm limited to side-by-side 3D. I booted up Mass Effect 2 from the Tridef option of scanned games and noticed an immediate drop in resolution during the menu screen and things looked much less defined. I'm thinking it wouldn't be so obvious at a smaller sized screen, being that a 1080p resolution is already quite stretched at 27" anyway. However once the game loaded and I was stood in the Normandy looking over the galaxy map, I was really impressed. I ran around for quite awhile and visited different environments. I never got a headache or felt fatigued by it in anyway.

After ME2 I tried other games and the experience was much less impressive. Infact some games where completely unplayable, especially games where a cursor/mouse is needed as it often gives a double image. Certain games like Oblivion are impressive, but once you need to use that cursor, it becomes a pain and not worth the effort. The experience might be better with an AMD card.

I was quite impressed with the 2D-3D conversion. Its not perfect by any means, but it really does do what it says. Static 2D images really do appear in 3D and it brings real depth to videos. The effect quality varies depending on the content, but I'm really rather impressed with it considering I never expected much.

I've found no dead pixels and nothing obviously bad regarding back-light bleed, its much better than my old 22" monitor regarding this. There is a very slight bleed on the far bottom right that is only noticeable when you have a purely black screen and look for it. I've not noticed it in movies or games. To my eyes everything appears evenly toned across the screen, and it has made me realize just how awful my old Samsung Pebble LCD really was :o

The only real annoyance I have with the monitor that I've not read by any other owners on the net, is that there is a slight height level drop to the left of the monitor. Its like the screen drops by a few mm's to the top left which I can only assume is due to the stand support being on the far right. Its only a tiny drop that no one has noticed, however my eyes are very sensitive to this type of thing (I'm a very horizontal person :p comes with the job.) I'd be very interested in learning whether any other owners here have the same problem?

Anyway, that's my initial impression. Yes I know nothing technical, but I don't notice or look for anything else in-depth when using it so I don't need to be :D Overall I'm impressed, however if my last monitor wasn't on its death bed then I would have waited until its price dropped, as it is a ridiculously expensive shiny thing.
 
Any 950 owner mind checking for me if you can switch the black level between normal and low while using a DVI cable? Is backlight bleed much worse on low?

I ask because I've read Samsung call the options 'HDMI black level' on some monitors, but comments online sometime seem to imply it works on other connections.
 
OCPete said:
I wonder if they will ever get frame sequential to work for NV users?:rolleyes:

Anyone else get cursor miss-alignment in certain games with sbs mode enabled (Dragon Age 2 for example)?:confused:
Click to expand...

frame sequential with nvidia? no problem

1. Install iZ3D
2. Output 120Hz
3. Run game in 3D
4. Press 3D on monitor and choose frame sequential.
5. have fun 30 days trial
 
I went and got a S23A950D, though I'd post some feedback

- screen is VERY clear to look at - the tradeoff being it reflects if you have a light source behind you of course.
- It seems very uniform when looking straight on to me
- HDMI black level can be switched even when using an DVI connection. It crushes shadows/greys though so I leave it at normal.
- there is some backlight bleeding on the bottom right corner and bottom edge, and some on the left edge. They are small patches that fade in though, so are not too noticeable unless you look for them on dark backgrounds. Especially when you can turn the brightness down a lot(monitor is too bright at 100). Much better than my old ASUS.
- 3D is naff and makes my eyes feel funny(I used the 2d-3d conversion). Didn't get it for the 3D though, I knew it wouldn't be good from others comments.

I do have an issue which is hopefully not in all units though, where a thin vertical flickering line of pixels appears sometimes. Sometimes it can come after a few hours use, sometimes a few minutes. It goes away after I turn the monitor on and off, or switch input/resolution.
I Googled and found some s27a950d owners who had made similar comments about a flickering line, so it looks like some units get this problem. I only found two or so comments about this though, so it seems uncommon.
Will be ringing Samsung to check with them what is going on with it, would like to exchange for another unit without this issue.
 
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