Is a Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD a display for a GAMER ?

[1000]

Hi guys.. this is my first post to these forums.

I am upgrading my gear at the moment. I am looking at an Athlon 64 single or dual core at around 3800+ with 2gig RAM and a 7800GTX (possibly a second one for SLI.. undecided).

I have been reading reviews on the Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD and they are mostly positive, but there are some comments regarding ghosting/bluring in FPS games etc.. particularly at the native res of 1920x1600@60hz when gaming at 60fps.

So my question is.. if you own a 2405FPW with a decent card like the 7800GTX or 7800GTX in SLI, when you game with stuff like HL2, BF2, WOW, Fear demo etc at 1920x1200 at 60fps is the bluring/ghosting on this panel bad or not ?

I have a 19" Benq 8ms LCD at the moment and I don't notice blurring/ghosting much at all.. but like I said.. some reviews of the Dell suggest that the response rates are a bit too low for gaming at native res.

Gaming performance is VITAL to me.. it's not negotiable..

Appreciate any help ..

1000

 

[Rage187]

No ghosting for me.


2405

AMD X2 3800
7800GT

 

[1000]

Thanks dude.. are you getting 60fps consistantly in games at 1920x1200 with a single 7800gtx and the x2 3800 ? What games do you run ? Tried the FEAR demo at 1920x1200 yet ?

1000

 

[Rage187]

I run a GT.


I don't look at the FPS, but it stays playable just fine with all the goodies turned on. I do turn Shadows off however since I could give a rats behind about how good a dark spot looks on the ground when the performance hits is so high.


Havent loaded FEAR on the system yet though, will when I get back in the country.

 

[videoclone]

I got mine a week ago now .. and it runs everything fine no ghosting at all .. i upgraded from a 12ms Samsung and i think this Dell's even got less ghosting .. well its less notesable anyways...

I play DOD Source CS Source and Battlefield 2

They all look great on this monitor and play awesome ... I also run all those games at 1920x1200 with every setting maxed out on High and with 8x AA 16x AF on a Geforce 6800GT @T Ultra speeds 400/1100 with 1.5GB's of DDR 400 Cas2.5 -4-4-6 Athlon64 3200+ ( 754 )

The 2405 is the Best hardware ive ever got in my life i should of got it sooner.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: videoclone
I got mine a week ago now .. and it runs everything fine no ghosting at all .. i upgraded from a 12ms Samsung and i think this Dell's even got less ghosting .. well its less notesable anyways...

I play DOD Source CS Source and Battlefield 2

They all look great on this monitor and play awesome ... I also run all those games at 1920x1200 with every setting maxed out on High and with 8x AA 16x AF on a Geforce 6800GT @T Ultra speeds 400/1100 with 1.5GB's of DDR 400 Cas2.5 -4-4-6 Athlon64 3200+ ( 754 )

The 2405 is the Best hardware ive ever got in my life i should of got it sooner.

I REALLY doubt your 8X AA is working then. With CSS + DoD:S I can't run AA on and with BF2 I can only run 2x at playable rates. The FPS just arn't there... Also I don't think HL2 even supports 8X AA

 

[Heckler 5th]

what was your method to get BF2 to run 1900x1200? simply edit the desktop shortcut or is there more to it? and is it true widescreen or just stretched/cropped?
thanks, thinking about getting this myself.

 

[Busithoth]

Originally posted by: videoclone
I got mine a week ago now .. and it runs everything fine no ghosting at all .. i upgraded from a 12ms Samsung and i think this Dell's even got less ghosting .. well its less notesable anyways...

I play DOD Source CS Source and Battlefield 2

They all look great on this monitor and play awesome ... I also run all those games at 1920x1200 with every setting maxed out on High and with 8x AA 16x AF on a Geforce 6800GT @T Ultra speeds 400/1100 with 1.5GB's of DDR 400 Cas2.5 -4-4-6 Athlon64 3200+ ( 754 )

The 2405 is the Best hardware ive ever got in my life i should of got it sooner.

I've been playing a lot of Day of Defeat, with HDR on, AAx2, everything else maxxed, and my x800xt gets 35-50 FPS, which, to my surprise, still looks awesome. I've lowered settings and gotten faster, but prefer the AA/eye-candy. I haven't seen any ghosting on the monitor, although there are definately purists who would call me blind/brainwashed for believing so. Certainly nothing that has distracted me from a game.

If you insist on having gaming performance and nothing else will do, maybe look at getting one of those big, honking CRTs that people praise so much (I loved my CRT until my desk said it wasn't big enough (NYC apt).

It's too bad you don't know anyone with one of these badboys.
The best thing is to see it in action. You can assess for yourself the performance, and see what this 'ghosting' business is all about.

 

[Markbnj]

Had mine for two weeks. I love gaming on it. BF2 runs fine with all settings cranked up, on a 6800GT.

Bear in mind though, that it is never going to be quite as smooth and shudder-free as a CRT refreshing at 75-85 hz. The tradeoff is _more_ than worthwhile for me though. The 2405 is gorgeously bright and crisp, with very rich colors.

 

[jdogg707]

All the games I have run great on my 2405 and 7800GTX combo. Best monitor I have ever purchased!

 

[imported_Amuro]

It's pretty good for gaming. And Nvidia's going to fix the FEAR performance issue before the game releases so it's all good.

 

[knyghtbyte]

some people are more susceptible to noticing ghosting effect, same with SDE and RBE on projectors.......if you are susceptibel i would suggest u avoid it if you play FPS games like CS:S, especially at a competitive level......either get a CRT or a projector......

have to say, having played CS:S in 1280x720 native widescreen on my Infocus 7205 DLP on 8ft of screen, i couldnt go back to either CRT or TFT....LOL....its seriously addictive, the only downside is bulb lifetime...lol......

get a 17in monitor for general webbing, and a HD ready projector for gaming, you wont regret it...heh ;-)
(one good thing with projector is if you have limited room but can free up a wall for projecting on to, as you can stick a projector on a shelf or ceiling mount it)

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
what was your method to get BF2 to run 1900x1200? simply edit the desktop shortcut or is there more to it? and is it true widescreen or just stretched/cropped?
thanks, thinking about getting this myself.

All I did was edit the desktop short cut. Yes it is cropped so a little bit of the top and bottom is missing. The Hud looks a little stretched but the actual game isnt.

 

[screwd01]

have one also with a 6800nu unlocked/overclocked...runs DOD source at 40fps at 16x10 res with mid settings...I am so happy with this purchase, gaming is unbelievable...i want to build a new computer for it. It will eventually be my ps2 monitor, hdtv, and secondary laptop monitor

 

[Phantronius]

Very very happy 2405 owner here. Play BF2, BF1942, HL2 Deathmatch, Far Cry, Fear and GTA San Andreas and I simply cannot find one gripe with this monitor and I simply don't notice any ghosting. Mine is being powered by a BFG 7800GTX OC and my framerates are great, even at native rez

 

[Ronin]

Anyone in this thread that says the 2405 is a good monitor
























is right. I've got 3, game with all 3, and have no problems with any of them. 2 are powered by 7800's, and one by a x850XT PE, and no issues frame rate wise (F.E.A.R. doesn't support beyond 1600x1200 without modification, btw).

 

[Kyanzes]

Originally posted by: knyghtbyte
some people are more susceptible to noticing ghosting effect, same with SDE and RBE on projectors.......if you are susceptibel i would suggest u avoid it if you play FPS games like CS:S, especially at a competitive level......either get a CRT or a projector......

have to say, having played CS:S in 1280x720 native widescreen on my Infocus 7205 DLP on 8ft of screen, i couldnt go back to either CRT or TFT....LOL....its seriously addictive, the only downside is bulb lifetime...lol......

get a 17in monitor for general webbing, and a HD ready projector for gaming, you wont regret it...heh ;-)
(one good thing with projector is if you have limited room but can free up a wall for projecting on to, as you can stick a projector on a shelf or ceiling mount it)

For like four grands it ought to be good...

 

[Madellga]

I have the 2405 FP since July and it runs just fine. No dead pixels, no ghosting. I played HL2 and Farcry on it, very nice.

The 2405 FP is my 3rd LCD screen and the best one so far. Don't fear, it is a top product. After 2 months I have absolutely nothing negative to say.

The 2405 FP is similar to the 20"on the height, but wider. Texts are very sharp.

I did upgrade from an X850XT to 7800GTX for smother performance with 4AA 8AF, since the X850XT is somewhat limited abouve 1600x1200.

It is worth mentioning that the GTX works fine except for the occasional shimmering, which bothers me a lot. The 78.03 driver improves it a lot but doesn't eliminate it.
The X850XT never had this issue.

You can also set the monitor not to stretch the image if the game doesn't support widescreen mode. You can run it at 1600x1200, it works fine. No deformation.
Think as a 20"monitor with the possibility to be widescreen if you need.

I find myself playing some RTS games at 1600x1200, just having the black bars on the sides. Some "hacks" to turn games widescreen are fake, they just stretch the game. I prefer not to do that.

Another funny fact was that it has a lot of desktop space. It took me sometime to get used on the new travelling distance for the cursor. I had to increase mouse speed and acceleration for that reason.

Also get used not to use browsers on full screen, as it gets too wide. Most websites do not take advantage of wider screens, so there is a lot of blank space. I have them open on windows now.

And last, don't buy online. Call Dell and ask for a discount. I got 30% off on mine. I had to try 3 times to get that. The second guy told me to wait some days and call again. It worked. I think DELL has some weeks when sales are weaker and they are willing to sell for less.

PS: Don't believe on reviews, believe on your fellow conrads. The Anandtech review said that the 1905FP was good for games, but its ghosting is unberable for FPS. It is good for desktop working and RTS or WoW, but not FPS.

 

[Stretchman]

I've been using an Apple 23" Cinema Display for the past three years. I've played quite a few games on it, and have had a wonderful time with them. No ghosting or streaking or any other visual anomalies that might seriously detract from the game.

From what I've heard the new 24" monitor only builds on the successess of prior LCD monitors, offering a smooth gaming experience. One thing however, gaming at 1920x1200 is an uphill battle that even the most diehard tech upgraders will be hardpressed to maintain. I would also recommend proper ergonomic habits with a monitor this big. Sitting at a proper distance, taking breaks, etc will go a long way with in keeping your eyes healthy with these large displays.

As a balance, I often used scaled aspect ratio, forcing black bars on the sides rather than play with the image completely stretched out (and distorted somewhat, fatter) to fit the entire screen. I've also been experimenting with a centered display @ 1680x 1050 and found that much easier to deal with. It still looks good with widescreen enabled games and seems easier to handle with day to day computing. Strikes a nice balance b/w size and performance.

 

[Polish3d]

What problems might your eyes experience Stretchman?

 

[Velk]

Ghosting is entirely subjective, noone can tell you what you will notice or not, only you can find that out for yourself.

Find a display model is my advice.

 

[1000]

I did it. I bought a 2405FPW today. Should arrive in 3-4 days.

I've spent over a week reading all sorts of stuff about it.. but one thing was consistant.. forgetting reviews etc.. all ACTUAL high-end gamers that have bought one LOVE the display so that's enough for me.

I can't wait to see how I can reorganise my GUI in World of Warcraft !!!!!

1000

 

[wxmanunr]

How does this monitor calibrate for digital photography? Does it do a good job with Gretag Macbeth calibration tools?

Eric

 

[JRW]

My vote for best gaming monitor goes to the Sony 24" FW900 Widescreen CRT , Im not just saying that because I own one either I recently bought one on Ebay for $400 shipped and its the best decision I ever made.

The seller has more units available and he's already sold a lot of them all with positive feedback.

The FW900 was Sonys highest end PC CRT and it definately shows when you use it,Crisp / bright / pitch black levels / wide range of resolutions with insane refresh rates (1900x1200 @ 98hz is the "recommended" res) these bad boys used to retail for $2,300.

Don't take this as a troll post Im throwing this out there,it seems a lot of people didnt even know a widescreen PC CRT existed and at $400 its a great deal,even if its used. (3 years old).

 

[videoclone]

JRW I Own a Dell 2405FPW And i think and know that the Sony FW900 is a better monitor for gaming BUT.

And lets not all forget not everyones strong enough to move one of these suckers around .... Remember old ladies and small girls also use computers and a monitor like this is impractical for them ....

Another thing is over time all picuture tube displayes "( TV's CRT's ).. will lose brightness & picture quality will degrade ... mind you this can take many many years.

Anyways LCD's for todays world makes allot more sence really .... DELL and all Online PC sellers love the cost of shipping LCD's VS CRT's ... and we all love how easy they are to move around too.