120Hz (FPS) LCD Gaming is Near

[RPGWiZaRD]

Hardcore gaming fans still hanging onto their CRTs with superior refresh rates and motion fluidity should be delighted to hear 120Hz LCD monitors are waiting just around the corner and should be available early next year. It started off with ViewSonic announcing it's VX2265WM which was demonstrated at NVISION 2008 together with NVIDIA's new try to bring 3D stereoscophic gaming alive after many years of hibernation due to incompatible LCD displays.

For more information on 3D stereoscophic gaming read this great article. (Interview with ViewSonic rep and details about their 120Hz panel available on 2nd page).

However ViewSonic isn't the only manufacturer that's been keen on entering the 120Hz LCD monitor market, Samsung have hinted long ago already at CES 2006 when it showed off it's first 120Hz based TVs that in future also LCD computer screens could be enjoying higher refresh rates in order to improve motion smoothness, however when that would happen was very unclear at that point. Now with NVIDIA announcing the revival of 3D stereoscophic gaming and ViewSonic announced its own solution, Samsung also wants to get a piece of the new cake, with a model dubbed SyncMaster 2233RZ with following specs:



- 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor (1680x1050)
- 3D Gaming Ready Monitor (120Hz)
- 20.000:1 Dynamic Contrast
- 5ms Response Time
- HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
- DVI-D (Digital Interface)
- Dual-Link DVI input for 245MHz capable pixel clock
- Full specs available here in Samsung's product link.

Manual available for download already as well, where you can see there's a preset timing mode for 1680x1050 @ 120Hz too.

For some people Santa came early and dropped off a "surprise-surprise" brand new Samsung 2233RZ:





For more pics check out the source for above pics here.

It shouldn't be too long before the Samsung display is available with product page already up and the display shipped off to select people for testing, sounds like late January or February to me. The ViewSonic display is said to be available since January sometimes according to some interviews/articles I've read (can't find the source right now). I think it's safe to say now that 120Hz capable LCDs will be available and available very soon too! I don't think we will see many 120Hz LCD displays before 2H of 2009 or let's say even 2010 though.

[aztec]

Just more sh*t to buy, that's all. I don't have a prob with 60Hz LCD's now.

[RPGWiZaRD]

Just more sh*t to buy, that's all. I don't have a prob with 60Hz LCD's now.

Maybe you don't have a problem with 60Hz, but I do for my fav FPS titles when used to 100Hz / 100 FPS, 60Hz / 60 FPS feels so wrong and I know there's other people with similiar thoughts. It's great if you're happy with 60Hz, I wish I also were so I could have switched to a LCD sooner but for me it's been too big loss when trying to force me to get used to the 60Hz LCD gaming after years of 100Hz gaming, I simply cannot give up the very smooth motion fluidity I'm used to. For some people this 120Hz support is a night and day difference, for others it doesn't mean a crap. Personally I've waited 5 years for this, so to me it's very important news.

[Stevethegreat]

Just more sh*t to buy, that's all. I don't have a prob with 60Hz LCD's now.

If you ask me that's a lot more important development to the LCD technology than ANY of the other blink blink you came to know, included ridiculous resolutions like 25x16. If this stuff comes out @ 19x12 it would be the best offering coming from the display arena for many years to come, and -no- you don't *need* to be a gamer to see the benefits of high refresh rate, it makes working with your PC FAR more relaxing and it finally brings LCDs to the CRT level, FINALLY...

[HKPolice]

Any input lag?

[aztec]

Yeah, depends. I have a nice 19" Mitsubishi DiamondTron CRT sitting around unused b/c I don't have issues with my NEC LCD. I don't see any ghosting, tearing or lag, so why not have the sharper/cleaner picture.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Horizontal 30~135 kHz

Vertical 56~75 Hz,120Hz what does this mean?
Edit:
Shouldn't that read 56~120 Hz?

[RPGWiZaRD]

Just to clear things up, ghosting isn't what bothers me, I couldn't notice any ghosting even on a very cheap 17" LG TN panel with 4ms (GTG) response time when playing UT99 for example which is very fast paced FPS game. What bothers me is the lack in motion fluidity at 60Hz compared to 100Hz+. It gets so much more smooth, everything that moves on the screen looks so much softer and more natural the higher refresh rate / FPS until about 100Hz/FPS for me, between 100 and 120Hz for example I can barely notice any difference if any at all but between 60, 75, 85 and 100 it's a huge difference though for me at least. This probably varies a bit from person to person, I probably belong to the minority that sees/feels the difference between 85 and 100Hz but I think most people would at least notice a difference when comparing a 120Hz panel vs a 60Hz side by side, no doubt.

[initialised]

So a mainstream manufacturer has picked up same the iZ3D 22" panel that Zalman used in the 22" Trimon, this is good news, hopefully some more budget oriented brands will jump on this bandwagon next. For interlaced 3D 120Hz = 60Hz.

Oh and before anyone starts harping on about ATi not supporting 3D look here

[RPGWiZaRD]

This is NOT the same as what Zalman has. These panels use 120Hz input, Zalman doesn't. These panels aren't ONLY targeted for 3D gaming, you can still enjoy higher smoothness compared to a 60Hz LCD panel in whatever moves on the screen when not using any 3D glasses. You see the glasses works like this:

They rely on 120Hz input if wanting to get 60 FPS when using the glasses. If we take for example 6 consecutive frames, 1,2,3,4,5,6. Then left eye will see frames 1, 3, 5, while right eye sees frame 2, 3 and 6. So you'll get 60 FPS for both eyes. That's how it worked for CRTs too. Zalman has a different approach. I remember they discussed this in this article too http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea..._goggle_gamble.

[tiro_uspsss]

is this *real* 120Hz or pseudo?

[Eastcoasthandle]

is this *real* 120Hz or pseudo?

That's what I like to know. From looking at the spec it doesn't look like it's 120Hz native. Which was why I asked what does 56~75 Hz,120Hz means for vertical?

[smdude]

lol, ever heard of Vsync?

[RPGWiZaRD]

That's what I like to know. From looking at the spec it doesn't look like it's 120Hz native. Which was why I asked what does 56~75 Hz,120Hz means for vertical?

I think it's a mistake or lazyness or confusion by whoever made the spec page. There are so many other things that point it to be native 120Hz by now so I'm not doubting it anymore.

So far I've been able to bypass the FPS limit cap in any game I've wanted higher than 60 FPS by editing ini file or other solutions in case the game have had a specific max fps limit which often isn't the case.

[tiro_uspsss]

That's what I like to know. From looking at the spec it doesn't look like it's 120Hz native. Which was why I asked what does 56~75 Hz,120Hz means for vertical?

my money is on it being pseudo

[RPGWiZaRD]

my money is on it being pseudo

How do you explain the need for 245MHz pixel clock, dual-link DVI input and the screen where the monitor is set at 1680x1050 @ 120Hz, the 1680x1050 @ 120Hz mode preset in the manual and the developers comment on it being true 120Hz input in order to display 60 FPS when using the glasses by dividing the frames between left and right eye like it worked with CRTs too?

[tiro_uspsss]

How do you explain the need for 245MHz pixel clock, dual-link DVI input and the screen where the monitor is set at 1680x1050 @ 120Hz, the 1680x1050 @ 120Hz mode preset in the manual and the developers comment on it being true 120Hz input in order to display 60 FPS when using the glasses by dividing the frames between left and right eye like it worked with CRTs too?

I didnt read any of that sh*t - i'm just a pessimistic pr1ck!

[DelaMaris]

Great news. I've been waiting for 120Hz LCD for years but one thing that bothers me is that is has 5ms response time. Any word on input lag?

Take care!

[Loque]

120hz and a 5ms response ? wtf seriously..

[RPGWiZaRD]

What personally bugs me most is the specified 5ms response time for the Samsung display, if it was 5ms GTG then it would be pretty bad for 120Hz, knowing theoretically the response time should be like 8ms or better. But then again also the pretty new 2233BW which is available now is specified as 5ms and the BW models usually are the ones targeted for gaming with low response time with 2ms (GTG) advertised for the older BW models so I guess it's the average response time or whatever rating they follow, at least not GTG unless it's not a TN panel...

I find it funny how people take it for granted every specification they read, how much sense does it make to suddenly advertise as 5ms if they rated the 226BW model as 2ms and this 2233BW is like the newer BW display targeted for gaming. At least to me that says Samsung has changed the way they rate the response time. So the ghosting rate for 2233RZ could very well be close to 2233BW, haven't read any reviews to see how much delay there is for black-white though so have no idea if it's fast enough but I certainly don't expect it to be faster than 8ms in worst case scenario, that had been too huge step forward. I only need 100Hz myself and then the response time requirement becomes already a bit lower compared to 120Hz.

[Luka_Aveiro]

Great news. I've been waiting for 120Hz LCD for years but one thing that bothers me is that is has 5ms response time. Any word on input lag?

Take care!

1 (second): 120 = 8,(3)ms

this means you should have at least 8,(3)ms response time to be able to have a perfectly synchronized input with every frame. If you have a 5ms response time, then you shouldn't notice any input lag.

At least this is how i think it works, if i am wrong, please someone correct me

[Loque]

I have two of the fastest lcds rated at 2ms, the Samsung 2232BW with S panel and the Viewsonic VX922, both aren't able to display clear image during fast motion.. in my old crt I can see everything but in lcds its just impossible just to try read text when it moves at a moderate speed on screen.. like motion blurr, even worse on this new 5ms screens and the bigger they are the worse :\

Just as a small example, try using the Universal Scroll on this forum, you won't be able to read the text at all scrolling at normal speed..

[RPGWiZaRD]

I think higher refresh rate on a LCD will help here too because at school I've compared when I get bored 60 vs 75Hz on the LG 19" 4:3 and ViewSonic 20" WS screens when scrolling up and down to see if it helps the text to get less blurry and it does help (Same goes for the mouse pointer). These LCDs are connected via D-Sub / VGA and yes I know with DVI it wouldn't even be possible to get 75Hz. The difference wasn't very spectacular but there was an improvement nonetheless (why I always set the monitors to 75Hz if I notice they're running at 60Hz). Perhaps with 100Hz+ it would be a lot bigger difference.

[G4h4o8s6T]

Just more sh*t to buy, that's all. I don't have a prob with 60Hz LCD's now.

Agreed, though I wasnt into PC gaming when I had a CRT, so Ive never experienced 120hz.

Ignorance is bliss

[[XC] Lead Head]

I was about say the exact same thing.

I don't think that 120Hz refresh rate is going to help at all whatsoever.

Why? Simple, all games cap at 60fps, so anything above that you will not see, for TV it may make a difference but still, even my non-120Hz TV is more than good enough for action movies.


So, +1 on that comment and QFT.


And I had a CRT about two months ago, playing 16x12 with only 75Hz but overall, the 24" LCD at 19x12 with 60Hz. BTW, at 1280x1024 I was playing at 100Hz and still, I don't think it was all that great......specially when games are capped at 60fps.

Try disabling V-Sync. Every game I play is certainly not capped at 60 FPS. I wish I could tolerate lower resolutions so I could turn my Trinitron's refresh rate up. 1360x1024 @ 85 Hz, 1024x768 @ 100Hz, or 800x600 @ 120Hz. Games are just amazing at 110-130FPS with a 120Hz refresh rate.