Opinion on 30" Monitors

[Carfax]

I think you said that to me a few months ago after I bought it :p

I'm just going by what I saw in reviews:

The probe quickly confirmed our first impression. The Samsung monitor had good initial settings (it's even pre-calibrated) while the Dell had oversaturated colors. The 3007WFP only provides better results in one situation. Monochrome photos were better and grays more neutral. Once again, the probe confirmed our visual assessment

Source

BTW this review is for the standard 305T, and not the plus version which is what I have. Plus version has a higher color gamut and is HDCP ready if I recall.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

yeah I probably did haha, I had a dejavu moment no hard feelings about that

[Carfax]

No problem man..

Maybe they found a way to include all the ICC profiles for various video cards in the monitor itself. All I know is that the colors are very accurate and look spectacular. I don't think you could get much better, even with a professional calibration tool.

[LinusTech]

I've been using a 305T Plus for about 6 months now and I still get headaches, ESPECIALLY with certian games. Borderlands is brutal for me to try to play on my 30", but only slightly more tolerable on my 2405FPW (win-ass monitor btw), so it could just be the art style that gets to me.

I've also found that my eyes are just more tired in general these days, but I don't know how much of that to attribute to my 30" at home and how much I can attribute to my 17/24/17/17 quad monitor setup at work. I upgraded them both around the same time...

I DEFINITELY notice input lag more with this monitor than I do with my 24", but YMMV because everyone perceives it a little differently. Playing around with different settings like vsync and AA seems to help and some games are worse than others, but when it's bad, it's unplayably BAD.

So overall I give it 1.5 thumbs up, and while it's not as big of a deal as my move from a 19" CRT to a 24" LCD was several years ago, I haven't exactly put the 2405 back on my desk either...

[STEvil]

windowed mode doesnt deactivate a scaler.

[Carfax]

I DEFINITELY notice input lag more with this monitor than I do with my 24", but YMMV because everyone perceives it a little differently. Playing around with different settings like vsync and AA seems to help and some games are worse than others, but when it's bad, it's unplayably BAD.

Strange, I've never noticed any input lag or ghosting on my monitor. These problems seem to have been licked with modern LCDs.

[Carfax]

windowed mode doesnt deactivate a scaler.

When I said that comment, I meant he shouldn't bother with getting a monitor that has a scaler.

The 305T plus doesn't have a scaler, so I just use windowed mode if I need a lower res and it looks perfect.

[shazza]

I'm happy with the quality of my Dell 3008 (lag isn't an issue for me, as I mostly play RPG games and use it for Photoshop / Office Apps). I like all the screen real estate, but have to say I've never really adapted to it for gaming - it's just a bit too big for me and not that comfortable to use (my issue is more about neck/shoulder discomfort, not eyestrain). Although games look great at 2560x1600.

Also have a 27" Dell that is just about perfect for me - although it's only 1920x1200, this works better for my old eyes and I seem to be able to get full view without having to move my head a lot.

Actually looking to go to 3 x 24 with Eyefinity. That way, I'll still have lots of display space, and can experiment with 3 screens for gaming.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Now we just need the price to drop well below $1000.

[STEvil]

When I said that comment, I meant he shouldn't bother with getting a monitor that has a scaler.

The 305T plus doesn't have a scaler, so I just use windowed mode if I need a lower res and it looks perfect.

Why bother with windowed? If you use the hardware scaling capabilities of your GPU all the content looks fine as long as its good content to start with.

[LinusTech]

Strange, I've never noticed any input lag or ghosting on my monitor. These problems seem to have been licked with modern LCDs.

I can easily detect motion blur (most people call it ghosting, but usually they are using the wrong term) in many games on any "VA" or "IPS" panel, but not to the point where it detracts from my gameplay experience.

Input lag only comes up for me in certain scenarios and my experience has been that certain game engines feel "laggier" than others as well as many other factors.

Remember input lag is made of of a huge chain of events

Mouse sensor to mouse electronics
Mouse to USB controller
USB controller to chipset
Chipset to CPU
CPU to video card
Video card to monitor electronics
monitor electronics to panel
panel refresh rate
pixel switching time

Most of these are negligible, but you need to remember that it's a threshold. As long as it's below (for example) 75ms person A might never notice it, so if he's using a wired mouse on a laggy monitor, he might have a great experience, but as soon as he adds a wireless mouse to the mix, he can feel it.

Person B might have a wireless mouse with a very responsive monitor and swear by wireless mice for gaming.

It's hard to compare one person's gaming setup to another person's, and when you add in that everyone's perception of input lag is different it becomes very hard to compare....

[STEvil]

also the game engine plays a large part. L4D2 for example if you drop below 30fps it doubles or tripples the speed of the mouse on my machine for some reason..

[Carfax]

Why bother with windowed? If you use the hardware scaling capabilities of your GPU all the content looks fine as long as its good content to start with.

I tried using the GPU scaling and to me, it looked blurry and washed out

[Carfax]

I can easily detect motion blur (most people call it ghosting, but usually they are using the wrong term) in many games on any "VA" or "IPS" panel, but not to the point where it detracts from my gameplay experience.

You must have some keen eyes then. I checked for motion blur and input lag right after I hooked my monitor up, both on the desktop and in games, and I never noticed anything..

Of course, thats not to say there isn't any, but I'd definitely rather not notice it than notice it.

[flopper]

its not the eyes, its just a finer brain that can calibrate to the visual key movement.
I notice difference with 4ms and 20ms in fps games.

Input lag is also the reason some feel seasick playing and watching games.
Your brain is able to detect stuff people normally never think off.
normally the brain "delete" and shuts it out, its still there tho, like sounds in the background, which if you cut the power will find out how much sound is in the background and how it affects the stress levels in your body.

visually, stuttering, inputlag is there, some can detect it and see it.
I used others computers, and I was like, can you even play with this?
They go smiley, oh its so good.....
however, everything was so lagged, delayed, and simply was unplayable.

so if someone tells me, this screen has input lag, I go with their assesment.
that dosnt mean I might see it or that it will bother me.

I cant play using lcd as far, as it simply is unplayable so still use crt.
I get a TN panel soon to test to find out how it works.
when your able to finetune your senses, and start to discover how much stuff goes on without your even aware, its a new brave world out there to find out about

[STEvil]

I tried using the GPU scaling and to me, it looked blurry and washed out

Try a different resolution. 1440x900 works awesome for me if I cant get 1920x1200...

[lutjens]

Among those 30" I can think of Dell 3007WFP-HC, 3008WFP, Apple Cinema, Samsung 305T, LGW3000H, Gateway XHD3000 and a HP I forgot the model number. I picked Dell since they have the best price for the money and the quality is awesome too, especially for their high end monitor.

I think most of the XHD3000s have been removed from the market. If you find one, do NOT buy it. They are very poor quality monitors with very poor manufacturer support.

The Samsung 305T lacks HDCP if I recall, but are good otherwise. Don't know much about the LG, but the HP LP3065 is a decent monitor from what I've heard, but HP support may be spotty. The Dells are also good, but their support apparently has issues as well when it comes to monitors, and I heard they require come calibration or adjustments to achieve maximum color quality. I chose my LCD3090WQXi 30" monitors because NEC support is excellent and the monitors are top quality. Not the best connection-wise, but the color quality is superb and NEC quality in general is excellent (I use NEC at work extensively). The NECs cost a fair bit more, but you are are buying a top of the line piece of equipment, as well as buying piece of mind.

My $0.02...

[slim142]

lutjens

I also heard all positive reviews about the NEC monitor.

Im now debating between the Dell 3007-HC, the NEC and the LG.

Stevil mentions LG has the best from the 3007 and 3008. The NEC one is positive reviews everywhere I go. The 3007 looks good too, but I think has some time in the market already.

Any help here

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I'd say if you only want to speed 1000 - 1200, get the LG. The NEC is 2000+, right?

The NEC is going to be a much better monitor, but for me, I simply can't justify spending 2K on a monitor with the salary I make.

[slim142]

You got a point.

Even though the NEC is considered the best by many, the price is insanee. I think Ill stick to the LG.

[AndrewZorn]

im still reading reviews every so often, i will be ordering whatever the new best sub-$1500 30" is around february

cant wait to make my keyboard look even smaller

[slim142]

I have a question

So on 30 inches there is no point in having HDMI or not?

I see a lot of people complain many screen dont have it, but others say that is because HDMI doesnt support the resolution. Then why Dell bothered with it and even DP?

[iTravis]

I have a question

So on 30 inches there is no point in having HDMI or not?

I see a lot of people complain many screen dont have it, but others say that is because HDMI doesnt support the resolution. Then why Dell bothered with it and even DP?

HDMI 1.3 can support up to 2560x1600 if I remember correctly. But since it's just based on DVI standard, you can always just get a DVI-HDMI cable if you want to hook it up to a device with HDMI. As for the reason manufacturers like Dell doesn't bother with HDMI, I think it's because they still have to pay a usage fee while with DisplayPort, they don't have to pay for licensing fee. And either HDMI or DisplayPort doesn't improve IQ anyway so it's better to stick with DVI since it's a standard for monitor for such a long time.

[winstontj]

I have a pair of Dell 3008WFP monitors and love them. I was worried about spending time in front of something that size but it's not that bad. One is my central monitor mounted horizontally and one is off to the side mounted verticle.

Excellent monitors and well worth the investment.

[slim142]

HDMI 1.3 can support up to 2560x1600 if I remember correctly. But since it's just based on DVI standard, you can always just get a DVI-HDMI cable if you want to hook it up to a device with HDMI. As for the reason manufacturers like Dell doesn't bother with HDMI, I think it's because they still have to pay a usage fee while with DisplayPort, they don't have to pay for licensing fee. And either HDMI or DisplayPort doesn't improve IQ anyway so it's better to stick with DVI since it's a standard for monitor for such a long time.

I really like the LG, but I just noticed it only has 1 port. Not that I need VGA, but HDMI and/or DP would have been nice.