ViewSonic shows off 22-inch 120Hz LCD monitor at NVISION 08

[RPGWiZaRD]

Nvidia's NVISION 08 starts off today and one of the first bangs coming from the San Jose event is the showcasing of a ViewSonic 120Hz LCD monitor. The prototype built by ViewSonic has a 22-inch diagonal, a 3ms gray-to-gray response time, a native resolution of 1680x1050 pixels and is said to offer blur-free video performance when running games, movies and graphic applications.

"ViewSonic continues to deliver innovative technology that leads and supports the growing trends and demands in digital entertainment," said Jeff Volpe, vice president of Global Brand and Emerging Technologies, ViewSonic. "The 120Hz technology will deliver superb front-of-screen performance and will drive new standards in desktop entertainment igniting the next evolution in digital viewing capabilities."

ViewSonic 120Hz monitor also features two 2W speakers, a contrast of 1000:1, a brightness of 300 nits and dual-DVI connectivity. Moreover, when paired up with the GeForce Stereoscopic 3D technology, the ViewSonic 120Hz display will provide game enthusiasts with realistic depth, intense motion, rich graphics and detailed images that literally leap off the screen.

ViewSonic is set to release its first LCDs that make use of 120Hz technology later this year. Further details are pending.

Source

This may even make me ditch my CRT depending on how it actually performs, I've long waited for a 100/120Hz LCD preferable size 22" just like this one, I just hope it's not cheap trick 120Hz like with the HDTVs and won't cost more than $400 tops. The design sure looks nice too especially for a ViewSonic.

[PrometheusCon]

Slick looking piece of hardware and the specs aren't too bad.

[mrkram]

wait how does it do 120hz... i thought that was impossible with LCD based displays

[RPGWiZaRD]

wait how does it do 120hz... i thought that was impossible with LCD based displays

Same, that's why I'm a little suspicious about this one but then again it really make a claim about GeForce Stereoscopic 3D technology, something you haven't heard about since the launch of LCDs, so who knows, at least I'm very interested in this monitor. :p

[clonez]

evolution

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well if it's really "true" 120Hz technology ViewSonic's gonna get a nice welcome among casual FPS gamers especially if being first to launch such monitor. It says the launch is yet this year so it sure came with a suprise to me. TBH, my aging CRT isn't in the best shape anymore and I'd really need a new monitor soon and fishing among used Trinitron CRTs is either a hit or miss these days...

[Sr7]

wait how does it do 120hz... i thought that was impossible with LCD based displays

Why would it be "impossible"? It was likely a difficult problem to solve but theoretically you can get refresh rates as high as the materials you use let you... Technological advances always allow for things like this

[inCore]

Call this a stupid question, but exactly what benefits does 120 Hz imply?

[RPGWiZaRD]

Call this a stupid question, but exactly what benefits does 120 Hz imply?

I'd say the biggest advantage is being able to "get/see" up to 120 FPS ingame in games. Now it's down to personal opinion what's "sufficient" FPS etc but there's lots of players yet today that refuse to play FPS games at say less than 100 fps. I certainly don't need it for all games but being a huge fan of Unreal Tournament series I've always played these at 100Hz/100 FPS and playing it at 60 FPS feels so wrong and unsmooth for me now. There are also a couple of racing games I prefer having as smooth "motion" as possible such as FlatOut 1 & 2, for me it adds to the overall feel like it would me more realistic/realtime.

Many argues a person cannot see above "x" FPS anyways but AFAIK there's no real answer to that and probably varies a bit from person to person. I honestly after a lot of testing know I can see a difference up to around 100Hz, between 120 and 100Hz I see no noticable difference anymore.

120Hz should also be a good addon if talking about tearing, more games could be run with vsync off I suppose.

[mrkram]

Right on RPGwizard. Hard to explain but the simple fact remains... the higher the refresh rate the better (though like you said diminishing returns once you hit 100+hz.) Some people may not notice it but if your on a quality CRT and switch to a high end LCD most can still notice the difference very easily.

[turtletrax]

I wonder if it will crap out 4 times in 3 years and right after warranty expires like my $1300 VP201s did. That would be a nice feature

[Blacky]

the first viewsonic design that is attractive to me, looks very nice looking forward to this monitor but with bigger size like 24"+

[Budwise]

nice to see this technology finally coming to PC monitors...

[Scubar]

Needs to be 1920+ res or else its worthless.

[Syn.]

I dont trust it. I have a 100Hz LCD TV which as i found is nothing more then two 50Hz chips working together to create 100Hz picture. Seeing as the typical refresh rate of LCD's is 60Hz it is just way too suspicious as they are calling it 120Hz. I dont think it has that much to do with the LCD screen it self its more about the components that send the picture to it.

Either way i dont really notice anything different between my 100Hz LCD and my brothers 60Hz.

[G4h4o8s6T]

Most likely does what Syn stated above, which is nothing to get excited about for PC use, as you will still only be able to set 60hz in the control panel(fps locked at 60 with vsync, not 120)

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well the LCD TVs with 100/120Hz support isn't really true 120Hz and I seriously doubt this is the same as the LCD TVs with 100/120Hz support as they cannot run in 100/120Hz mode using it at a comp monitor so of course if you can't select that refresh rate in windows monitor settings you won't either see any difference in games. But by the sound of that article this might finally be the LCD monitor that really supports 100/120Hz to also be selected in monitor properties. Of course I could be totally wrong but if it doesn't the article kind of lies and it wouldn't be good for the company to spread lies around. I mean they mentioned the old GeForce Stereoscopic 3D tech even which is useless without true 100Hz+ support. It wouldn't make any sense releasing a monitor with the same feature as the highend LCD TVs as it wouldn't offer any advantage for computer usage and I think ViewSonic is smart enough to realize that. That's what speaks for it to be true.

What speaks against it would be it's perhaps just another marketing gimmick so I'm just gonna wait and see. I'd really hope it's real this time though.

[mascaras]

If Vsync enable = 120 Fps really work is great ! (especially for Multi GPU )

we also want a 24" @ 1920x1200 @ 120hz model

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea 24" 120Hz would be cool but 22" is the optimal launch size today IMO and I personally also want a 22" due to GPU demands getting too high for 100+ fps gaming at 1920x1200. (Besides I'm used to 19" CRT size so 22" widescreen LCD would seem really big to me xD)

[metachronos]

Isn't the max refresh supported by DVI 75Hz?

[Oc-Ghost]

Sorry to crash the party, and hi RPGWizard!

A single link DVI can´t handle 1920x1200@120Hz, not enough bandwidth.
I´m not even sure on 1650x1080 , probably doable if they make it Dual DVI .

Oh well, wait and see.

*edit*
pics: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/08...-really-cool/1

[STaRGaZeR]

I wonder if these 120Hz are 'true' 120Hz, not the 'fake' Hz some monitors out there have now, putting black frames between the 'real' ones to make it look a bit like a CRT or whatever technology they use to obtain 120Hz from a 60Hz source.

If true 120 = my next monitor, I want one with this exact caracteristics. What about DisplayPort instead of DVI? How many resolution/Hz DP supports?

[Sparky]

Needs to be 1920+ res or else its worthless.

[RPGWiZaRD]

Sorry to crash the party, and hi RPGWizard!

A single link DVI can´t handle 1920x1200@120Hz, not enough bandwidth.
I´m not even sure on 1650x1080 , probably doable if they make it Dual DVI .

Oh well, wait and see.

*edit*
pics: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/08...-really-cool/1

Hey m8, interesting article, that sorta also strenghtens the point this might be real 120Hz support and if so, it seems NVIDIA is behind and pushing it only to make some $$$ of their 3D glasses. I couldn't care less for the glasses but if it's 120Hz you should notice a difference in motions anyways (ok to be more specific not all ppl but at least some ) I've also read about the bandwidth limitation on DVI but perhaps they've discovered something new or if it's in fact dual DVI. I think other manufacturers would prolly follow quick if it turns up that there's a market for these monitors.

[Caveman787]

Pretty sure its 1680x1050...They have these type of viewsonic screens for sale at newegg. A 19" and a 22" both with 1680x1050 resolution.

I have no clue what the refresh rates are on them however, but they are sexy