Yeh another monitor thread

Doco

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So recently found out that to get the full use out of my PC it would be advised to upgrade from my 720 26" tv to a 1080 Monitor, now I know I'm being very picky but Ive become acustomed to my 26" display and was browsing for a decent 27" monitor - damn are they expensive :O, in all honestly I should really be getting a 22-24 inch monitor with my budget (have to recover from my recent splurge on CPU and Motherboard lol ), but I have found http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-029-AS&groupid=17&catid=1120&subcat=

now its still more that I would like to pay (but thats because I dont know the prices of monitors) but seems to be a good quality display at 27" for a reasonable price.

Another problem I sorta have is that I know Samsung,Acer,Asus and what sorta quality there monitors would be, but BenQ,AOC etc I dont know what to expect from these Manufacturers, your opinions would be apreciated lol

edit: I can always use my current TV for movies etc (watch a lot of films)
 
Hi there,

If you are going to spend that kind of money on a monitor I would strongly recommend you go for an IPS panel 24in 1920x1200 (1200p) monitor (like this one) or a 23-24in 120Hz 1920x1080 (1080p) monitor like this. The IPS panel gives you better image quality and wider viewing angles - plus the resolution of 1920x1200 is really nice to have and offers even more vertical resolution than 1080p. While the 120Hz monitor offers you smother feeling motion - so great for gaming.

I say this because the 27in monitor you link to (and similar ones by different makes) use TN panels. Often TN panel monitors are perfectlyOK, but for a 27in monitor they aren't ideal due to their narrow viewing angles and the consequences on such a large screen (looking dead-on and moving your head a bit you will see colour shifting and you will see colour banding at the edges). If you really want to go for a large panel for a low cost, then I would instead go for an IPS panel 32in 1080p TV like the LG 32LK450.
 
Thanks for the info, I may have to compromise and get a 24 inch as uve suggested, better quality for a similar price, and I dont think I'd get another th because the image doesnt seem to match the tvs and I have to manual make it fit the panel exact

would ther be a noticable diffrent going form 26 to 24? or will it be less noticable
 
If you went from a 16:9 26in to a 16:10 24in then the drop in total viewable area isn't too big (10% reduction in area) - it is basically all width (see here).

Considering that a 1200p monitor like the Dell has 219% more pixels then this is a pretty decent trade-off IMHO.
 
Yeh think I'l go for a IPS 24" monitor, the 1200p monitor that you suggested would - ive read a few things regarding the size of text on such a screen?
 
Size of text, as in it being too small? At default windows DPI settings text will certainly be smaller than on your 720p 26in TV, but compared to standard monitor sizes (like 21.5in and 23.6in 1080p) text on a 1200p 24in isn't particularly small and if you want to increase the size of text you can always increase it within windows.

Here is an in-depth of the Dell U2412M if you are interested.
 
The dell seems to be the best at this price range, when comparing ti to other monitors it says it doesnt have "vesa" and I assue that I wouldnt have any issues with the deskop not filling the screen or the desktop being to large for the screen (not 100% on the 1200p part, Ive nly every used my tv as a monitor as the pixels never "matched")
 
Actually, the Dell U2412M is VESA compatible - it can use the 100mm VESA mounting system.

As for issues with filling the screen and the desktop being too large - that sounds like overscan/underscan issues when running a TV/monitor via HDMI. That can be remedied by going into the graphics cards software control panel and setting overscan to 0%. However, the U2412M's primary connection is either DVI or Displayport - which don't have any of these scaling issues so you don't need to worry about that.

When you plug in the monitor via DVI to your graphics card (presumably with current drivers) then the screen will come to life and it should automatically display at full 1200p resolution with no scaling issues.
 
Yeh I have scalig issues with my tv, and would prefernot to havethe issues if buying a 200+ monitor, obv. just get a dvi cable then, I think ive been swayed into this monitor lol
 
If you are having the issues right now and you are using the 5670 graphics card - then I can tell you how to fix that. First make sure your graphics drivers and Catalyst Control Centre are up to date.

Then go into catalyst control centre and look for the "My Digital Flat Panels" part on the left. Then look for "Scaling Options (Digital Flat Panel)". Then in the main screen ensure that your 26in TV is selected and set the slider in the box to "0%" and click "Apply". Also, ensure the resolution is set correctly (1366x768).

You won't have this issue at all with a DVI monitor like the Dell. You also won't need to buy a DVI cable - as the U2412M comes with one in the box (as well as a displayport cable).
 
Thanks for the info, but Ive had that solution for a while it was just irrating me that I had to use it and that it wouldnt work from the start, and very nice dvi and DP, its the lil extras that make all the diffrence XD

edit - so I follow a pc mag. and last months issue was on monitors, one of which covered was that dell lol
 
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Sorry to bump this up but how well do you think my current gpu will cope with a 1200p 24 inch dell?
 
As surveyor says, it will get you into games - but the 5670 is really on the low-end of gaming cards these days so expect to turn the settings way down to achieve playable framerates in modern games (this would also apply to a 1080p monitor, though a 1200p monitor is even more demanding).

As for watching HD videos and general desktop stuff at 1200p the 5670 will be perfectly fine
 
I assumed as much just wanted to check lol ive got my 1gb card overclocked to 850/1050

only recently got into pc gaming - play skyrim (and after buying my parts I got a Battlefield 3 code),

managed to get a lend of a 32 inch 1080p tv

skyrim running on high setting is ok about 0 fps

battlefield 3 runs at 25-30 fps (think on high I'l double check that - but runs 190fps durning the cut scenes XD) Just wanted to know if 1080p 32" could be compared to the quality i'd get on a 24 " 1200p monitor

ps I do watch a lot of films (when I've time lol )
 
Doco said:
Just wanted to know if 1080p 32" could be compared to the quality i'd get on a 24 " 1200p monitor
Click to expand...

It really depends what particular 32in TV you are using and what panel type it has.

Usually 32in TVs have either IPS or VA panels - since IPS is what the Dell monitor then if the TV has one of these then expect the image quality and motion performance to be around the same level. If the TV has a VA panel then motion performance will be worse than the Dell monitor (more ghosting), though the black level and contrast ratio should be better than the dell monitor.

Also, please bear in mind that input lag can be a really big problem with using TVs as monitors as some have input lag of over 50ms, while good ones are more in the range of 16ms to 32ms. In contrast the Dell monitor has an input lag of only 10ms - so expect the monitor to feel slightly more responsive.

Finally, even if the TV uses an IPS panel and has low input lag then the pixels will be far bigger and there will be a bit less of them compared to the Dell monitor. The size issue can be solved somewhat by putting the TV further away, though as for the "missing" pixels you will just have to imagine there are 120 more vertical lines of pixels than the TV displays.
 
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Thanks for that, Ive been doing some reseach, but I was wondering more along the lines if the 32" 1080p tv is currently putting as much strain on the gpu as a 24" 1200p monitor would, that is the FPS im getting atm going to be roughly the same as it will be on a far smaller screen size, but of better quality?
 
Doco said:
Thanks for that, Ive been doing some reseach, but I was wondering more along the lines if the 32" 1080p tv is currently putting as much strain on the gpu as a 24" 1200p monitor would, that is the FPS im getting atm going to be roughly the same as it will be on a far smaller screen size, but of better quality?
Click to expand...

Resolution is important, not size.

A 1200p monitor has ~11% more pixels than a 1080p TV.

It's very unscientific but if you said your frame rates would drop by 10% at 1200p then it gives you something to work on.

(100*1080/1200=90%)
 
I see where your comming from but would the fact that the lower resolution is 25% larger in size not count?
 
The screen size itself has no bearing on the framerate the graphics card can output - so a 24in 1080p monitor will see the exact same framerate as a 1080p 32in TV, the performance of the graphics card is governed by the resolution, not size.

As for relative performance of the same graphics card between 1080p and 1200p monitors, well a 1200p monitor has 11% more pixels to drive - though expect to see a higher framerate drop since it is more complex than just looking at the number of pixels being driven. Since most reviews only do a test at either 1200p or 1080p (and not both) then I can't give you an exact figure for the performance drop going from 1080p to 1200p, but I would estimate it would be around 15%.
 
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