Questions on 120Hz monitors

Baldbloke · 7 Nov 2011 at 23:29

Hi,

I've been reading lots of stuff about 3D monitors recently. I haven't had the chance to see any of these for myself yet. I do fancy the idea of 3D gaming though. But.. From what I gather, it seems that once the novelty wears off many (not all) folks aren't much bothered about using 120hz monitors for 3D. However the advantages of smoother 2D gameplay and web browsing or general PC use does seem to be worthwhile on 120hz monitors. Is this a fair assumption?

As I say, i do fancy a 3D monitor but I'm not sure I could justify the cost in the long run. 120Hz for a monitor though, seems a good bet. So, I think I'll try a 24" 120Hz monitor now and maybe 3D glasses some time in the future.

I game occasionally. E,g. it would usually take me two to 3 months of occasional gameplay to complete a Call of Duty title. I also enjoy racing games. I only ever play single player. Never multiplayer. I'm afraid my skills are woefully lacking when it comes to competing with enthusiastic gamers.

Q. Would I see much benefit if I bought a 24" 120Hz monitor? I currently have a Samsung 24" 60Hz monitor which seems fine to me but can't help wondering if 120Hz would be a big improvement.

I'm not sure I know what a display port ie either. Nor do I understand the difference between single and dual dvi. My gtx460 has hdmi out and dvi out. I think from what I've read, the DVI would be the connection to use for 120Hz,

Am I right in thinking a 120Hz monitor is a big improvement? Would it work with my nvidia gtx460 gpu?

And thank you for having the patience to read my rambling post.

dvs20 · 8 Nov 2011 at 10:14

Baldbloke

I wont comment on the 120Hz vs 60Hz argument as it is a subjective topic, I could rant about how I love 120Hz but you may not share my views once you "see" it (excuse the pun). Plenty of opinion exists on these boards though.

To answer some of the other questions though, Displayport is a new connection type currently used alongside HDMI and DVI. They are all high bandwidth (performance) digital display connections, DP and HDMI can carry both video and audio signals, DVI is a bit old hat given it can only carry video.

However you are correct that in your case DVI would be used to run 120Hz - HDMI doesn't provide enough bandwidth to support 120Hz at a high resolution such as 1920x1080. For this reason you need "dual link" DVI which I guess is the equivalent of dual channel memory / RAID0 on disks / twin engines on an aircraft, except that the doubling up occurs within the one cable.

From nvidia.com the GTX 460 has support for dual link DVI so 120Hz should be no problem:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gtx-460-us.html

Hope that helps.

Baldbloke · 8 Nov 2011 at 23:19

That has helped, dvs20. Thank you for that.

I'll certainly have to have a look at 120Hz displays before buying.

Thanks again.

DanTheMan86 · 9 Nov 2011 at 00:37

Once you go 120hz you won't want to go back and you would wonder why you waited so long, it is sooo much better for gaming seriously

Baldbloke · 9 Nov 2011 at 00:42

DanTheMan86 said:
Once you go 120hz you won't want to go back and you would wonder why you waited so long, it is sooo much better for gaming seriously

Do you think there is any benefit to be gained when browsing net, writing documents or general pc use other than gaming?