16:9 Gaming Monitors: Overview & Comparison

[Mr Tigers]

We are slowly seeing a shift from the regular 16:10 aspect ratio commonly found on PCs to a 16:9 which is more in tune with console gaming and TV / movies. This new ratio makes a lot of sense for the multi-purpose screen as it correctly displays Xbox 360, PS3, film and TV.

With your help and experience with said monitors, I'd like to create a fuller comparison of what is available, specifically for gaming. This said it must have =< 5ms response time (watch out for clever advertisement tricks which use the grey to grey response time which isn't the normal standard), as well as both an HDMI port for a console and DVI/VGA port for the PC.

At the moment I'll concentrate on 22" and 24" but feel free to post others. I feel these are optimum as any bigger and it feels too big for gaming, any smaller and it will lag behind with screen real estate, especially for TV / movies.

Please post your opinions and experiences with these monitors, as well as alternative options. I am currently researching this topic, so I will grow this over the next few days.

22" Monitors

Viewsonic VX2260wm
Price: £175
Connectivity:

• VGA
• HDMI
• DVI
• 3.5mm audio

Speakers: Yes

BenQ E2200HD
Price: £150
Connectivity:

• VGA
• HDMI
• DVI
• 3.5mm audio

Speakers: Yes

Iiyama Prolite 2209HDS-1
Price: £156
Connectivity:

• VGA
• HDMI
• DVI
• 3.5mm audio

Speakers: Yes

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Mr Tigers

We are slowly seeing a shift from the regular 16:10 aspect ratio commonly found on PCs to a 16:9 which is more in tune with console gaming and TV / movies. This new ratio makes a lot of sense for the multi-purpose screen as it correctly displays Xbox 360, PS3, film and TV.

I'm not sure that we're seeing a shift, we are seeing some 16:9 screens coming onto the market for those who want to use content designed for televisions but given their disadvantage of reduced screen space only time will tell if they end up as more than a niche market.

Originally Posted by Reirol

With your help and experience with said monitors, I'd like to create a fuller comparison of what is available, specifically for gaming. This said it must have =< 5ms response time (watch out for clever advertisement tricks which use the grey to grey response time which isn't the normal standard), as well as both an HDMI port and VGA port.

Why the VGA requirement? It doesn't really have much use these days except for compatibility with some laptops, a second digital port (DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort doesn't really matter) for the PC use would be a better requirement.

p.s. You've got your response time measurements muddled up there.

[Mr Tigers]

No I haven't muddled up anything to do with response times. Your post isn't very constructive for the purpose of this thread.

[too_funky]

Just a quick point, rather than listing useless specs like 3.5mm audio jack and speakers, because most people on this forum who will want to game or watch a film on a 16:9 monitor will have their own dedicated speakers. Speakers in a screen are rubbish quality and just add unnecessary bulk. I would recommend listing specs that a relevant to a monitor's primary function, ie its capability to display an image. Specs i would prefer to see would be resolution, contrast ratio, brightness, colour reproduction etc so people can see them at a glance rather than having to google or click a link. Apart from that its a gd idea for a continuing thread.

[Theydon Bois]

Originally Posted by Mr Tigers

No I haven't muddled up anything to do with response times.

I thought you had as well - I thought that Black to Black was the 'trick', and the real response time to check for was grey to grey. I stand to be corrected though obviously, and appreciate the point of the thread.

I will add the specs of my Sammy later.

[Mr Tigers]

On a slight sidetrack RE the response times: The typical measure for response time as far as I know is black to white or on/off. Often manufacturers list both typical and grey to grey. You can clearly see this here. Would be nice to hear from an authoritative point of view if I'm wrong.

I've had a huge workload recently so hope to add to this soon. I plan to add offerings from Viewsonic, Iiyama, BenQ and Samsung, any other manufacturers I should be looking at?

[Theydon Bois]

I know its Wikipedia, but I could not find anything else in the quick time I looked - bold my emphasis.

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The fast response time has been emphasised in advertising TN displays, although in most cases this number does not reflect performance across the entire range of possible color transitions. Response times were quoted for an ISO standard black-to-white transition and did not reflect the speed of much more common transitions from one shade of grey to another.

More recent use of RTC (Response Time Compensation—Overdrive) technologies has allowed manufacturers to significantly reduce grey-to-grey (G2G) transitions, without significantly improving the ISO response time. Response times are now quoted in G2G figures, with 4ms and 2ms now being commonplace for TN based models. The good response time and low cost has led to the dominance of TN in the consumer market.

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

I know its Wikipedia, but I could not find anything else in the quick time I looked - bold my emphasis.

Thin film transistor liquid crystal display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, and additionally the black to white times are also the fastest transitions of the matrix..

And overdrive is another issue on top of native response times since the more agressively implemented ones to get to lower response times cause visual artefacts themselves.

It might be easiest to just drop the requirement, 16:9 is a new format so all the screens are going to have up to date panel technology and it's not advancing much right now.

As for manufacturers I know Dell has at least one 1920x1080 screen.

Oh, and as you're making a list that's apprently skewed heavily to designed for TV devices you might want to specify that only HD resolutions are acceptible and other 16:9 resolutions not supported by TV devices like 1600x900 and 2048x1152 won't be allowed on the list.

[Theydon Bois]

Endless has a point - also this means that my Sammy would be disqualified from the list as a gaming monitor as its actually 16:10.

Perhaps the title could be changed to Console Gaming Monitors: ..... to remove any confussion.

[Mr Tigers]

This is interesting, so the standard now is to list grey to grey? Then I'm heavily confused by Viewsonic who list their typical as black to white and list a separate grey to grey. Do we then assume companies like Samsung are listing their grey to grey response times?

I'm having a hard time finding any 2ms Samsung screens, even though I've got one in the house (226bw iirc). I thought grey to grey was just a ploy and basically ignored it, assuming most 5ms would have the 2ms grey to grey. Taking my misconception into account, should we only accept 2ms as proper gaming screens, as I've been told about ghosting on screens with 5ms.

I was reluctant to post any Dells as I've heard nothing but bad reviews for their screens.

[eiren]

What's the benefit in getting a dedicated gaming monitor over a good LCD television screen?

There's plenty of nice large LCD television screens that do 1080p resolutions nicely with game modes to reduce unwanted processing time.

[Theydon Bois]

My 226BW had a 2m sticker on it, but I dont know whether it was measuring grey to grey or black to white. I have had it for a good 2 years though.

[Mr Tigers]

Originally Posted by eiren

What's the benefit in getting a dedicated gaming monitor over a good LCD television screen?

There's plenty of nice large LCD television screens that do 1080p resolutions nicely with game modes to reduce unwanted processing time.

This is to reduce the size of the monitor, ability to use it as a PC screen and as far as i know it's cheaper to get a 1080p monitor than it is a TV. Not to mention there's little choice in good TVs as small as 22".

@Theydon Bois - do you know what the current version of your monitor is?