Samsung SM-960BF/970BF - how do they rate?

idoru66 · 27 Mar 2006 at 12:29

Finally going to make the jump to a TFT from my trusty 5-year-old Trinitron CRT, been checking this forum and an obvious contender is the NEC LCD20WGX2 20.1", or perhaps the Philips 200W6CS. However, I'm a little concerned that I'm not going to be able to run games at these monitor's native resolution (I currently have to run FEAR at 1024 x 768 with 2xAA/8xAF, no soft shadows, nearly all other settings maxed... although I guess with FEAR I can run it at a lower rez via 1:1 setting) and so am also mulling over a more conventional 19" screen. How do these Samsungs rate? Main concern is ghosting obviously in fast FPS games; I don't use my PC for watching DVDs; desktop sharpness/colour etc is also a priority.

Thanks for the input - I've done endless research on moving to a TFT (possibility dead pixels etc being a big concern for a long time) so I'm determined to get it right when I do make the jump.

idoru66 · 27 Mar 2006 at 13:14

Bah! How predictable - Tom's Hardware has just put up this article literally in the past hour:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/27/the_spring_2006_lcd_collection/index.html

Which answers my questions. The 970BF looks an excellent choice for office applications, and as a journalist I guess that should be a priority for me as I spend many, many hours using Word.

Most of the other monitors tested were deemed too bright for office work... first time I've seen this 'measured'/assessed, so that's another variable to throw into the bloody pot!

But latency is not good, so gaming would appear to be ill-served by this monitor... does anyone have personal experience of the monitor to put this in some sort of context?

NEC's use of tinted 'X-Black' style screens also came in for a kicking...

I guess the key observation made by THG is that few TFT monitors these days are all-rounders... maybe I need to buy two different ones! :rolleyes:

Baddass · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:03

do you mean the 970P rather than the 970BF? There isn't a 970BF that I can see, certainly not in that review. The 970P is still pretty good for gaming, don't rely on those latency graphs for everything. They onyl show measured response times, and dont show anything for perceived real user responsiveness. beHardware also reviewed the 970P here which might help. It'#s not as fast as some of the modern TN Film panels though, but being based on a PVA panel, it is a bit more rounded than TN Film technology. It will offer wider viewing angles, better colour depth and black depth, but the sacrifice is that PVA is fundamentally not as responsive. While Samsung have applied overdrive to the panel to help boost grey transitions, the control of the RTC impulse is not good and so you see the variable results in the latency graphs at THG. This can also lead to some added noise in movie playback, but this wont be an issue for you.

The 930BF is different altogether, being based on a TN Film panel. This is more responsive and arguably one of the best in the market for a gamer. For office use, there isn't really much difference between this and a non TN panel, so i woudlnt worry too much about that. Most modern TFT's are very bright, but with some adjustments this isn't really an issue. If you want a gaming screen, you'd be better looking at the 930BF compared with the 970P imo. this article at X-bit Labs and this article at TFT Central might help too

ps welcome to OcUK

idoru66 · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:10

My bad - 970P it is.

The obvious choice at 19" I didn't mention was the Viewsonic VP930... though might not be responsive enough for gaming? Most people seem to think it would suffice. Price is getting closer to the NEC 20" though.

How does the VP930 look if you game below the native resolution? And do Viewsonic still offer RMA for just one dead pixel?

Thanks again. And, after months of lurking, pleased to be here officially.

Baddass · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:14

VP930 is an excellent screen, and still pretty responsive. See that TFT Central article above as that should help

If you want a gaming screen, i dont see the need to spend the extra to get the VP930 when a 19" TN model would be just as good, if not better for gmaing purposes. Interpolation outside of native res is generally pretty good on modern screens, i doubt you'd tell much difference in games between the screens we've discussed already at running outside native res. VS do a zero pixel policy but i think it is only on black / white pixels and might not cover dead sub pixels (blue/green/red) but might be worth checking with them about that.

idoru66 · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:54

Again, appreciate the input. I'd already checked the TFTCentral article (first port of call!), very useful. Always handy to get a bit of direct feedback from other paying punters, of course, hence my posting here.

GeezerButler · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:15

I have a 960BF and it seems pretty good though still adjusting from having a big CRT monitor....

Display brightness pretty good. Response time for gaming absolutely fine - no problems noticed. Have noticed a bit of backlight bleed on both sides of the display about half way up the screen. Only really noticeable in games like Doom3.

2D desktop pretty good - had to turn off Cleartype as some fonts looked pretty ugly with it turned on.

Haven't played any DVDs yet so can't comment on that.

No dead pixels on my example. Well packaged and arrived in good shape. Monitor stand tilts and swivels but no height adjustment. Monitor has an off-board power brick (quite small, about fag packet sized).

Beware that this monitor has no controls for brightness etc.. You have to use the MagicTune software that comes with the display. However, I couldn't get it to work on my PC and had to downgrade to Catalyst 6.1 to get it working. Could also use SoftMCCS as an alternative.

Monitor rotation works OK but again requires use of included software to make it automatic. I just change the rotation in Catalyst.

Hope this helps....

Steve_h · 28 Mar 2006 at 18:33

Had my 970P for a few months now,done a review on it in the review sticky.
Quick points if you don't want to read it

Overall it's a great monitor,takes a while getting used to it's brightness/contrast most peps will tell you the same coming from a CRT.
I still don't like the Samsung software and I still make small adjustments now and then.
I didn't have a problem with clear type,dvd's are kept to my dvd player so can't comment on that and as for games well I don't see any ghosting.
The colour reproduction is lovely and it has a fully adjustable stand which is a must I feel.
I would say that if it is space and 2d quality you want then go for it,but coming from a good CRT as such as yours you may want to continue with CRT OR wait for the 20"lcd's to become more responsive.
Hope this helps