Another part of my "hunt for perfect monitor" soap opera.
Act I:
I went to a store selling used CRTs. Among tons of different monitors, most of them looking just horrible compared to my 109P4 (which looks like a brand new monitor after two and a half years of use), one managed to draw my attention. Dell P1130. 21", all black, with Sony Trinitron tube. Almost flawless physically, just one minor scratch on the anti glare coating, in the upper left corner. A bit annoying but I could live with it. Turned it on. Still looking great. Vibrant colors, very bright, deep black, sharp picture... not quite. Off center, text looked very blurry, and the monitor's convergce was just poor in corners. Tried to correct it. Nope. Convergence better but text still blurry as hell. Unfortunately, it was the only black P1130. Crap Such a nice looking monitor, not even THAT huge or deep. The text blurriness was a deal breaker. My 109P4 might not be LCD-perfect in corners but it's still pretty sharp. On the Dell, just off-center text was already crap. If all used CRTs look like that, I say no, thanks.
Act II:
I went to my friend who has a NEC 90GX2.
First impressions:
- looks very good, like a real classy, high quality display;
- the glossy panel is not really bothersome when the monitor is turned on - if someone plays darker games or watches movies in a dimly lit or dark room, it is just fine;
- colors are nice and crisp - no apparent banding visible either;
- viewing angle is surprisingly good for a TN display - horizontally, the picture does get a slight yellowish hue and a washed out look but it's not bad; vertically, typical TN stuff (milky-pale up, dark down) but unless someone wants/needs to look at the screen from crazy angles or watch movies with current and former girlfriend, her new guy and his dog, the angles are absolutely OK for a single user - I expected worse;
- no dead pixels, no screen door effect, backlight very good - at max brightness, a slightly brighter stripe visible along the upper edge and a slightly more illuminated lower left corner, but even then, it's barely annoying - at brightness turned down, backlight was very good, and blacks quite nice too (washed out at max brightness, but that's understandable);
- the 5:4 format looks a bit squarish first but it's really large so it's hardly annoying;
- scaling was good on this monitor - text was crap as usual but games looked fine, especially with AA on - even though I don't plan to interpolate, the display handles this aspect of its functionality quite well.
Movie tests:
Fellowship of the Ring / Attack of the Clones - very fast, no ghosting or apparent blur, good colors, staisfying blacks. Some skin tones a bit more "artificial" than on my CRT but my friend uses the out-of-the-box settings so it could improve. Some "square building"/video noise effect clearly visible and even annoying in scenes like e.g. Aragorn contemplating in Rivendell (dark, gloomy scene). Horrible, I thought. Then I came home and noticed some image compression artifacts on my CRT as well, when I looked with a more critical eye. Also, lower brightness reduced the unpleasant effects quite a bit. Overall, I wasn't impressed but it was better than I had expected. Again.
Game tests:
GTA San Andreas - a pretty demanding title for LCDs. In the first cutscene (CJ at the airport) I thought I noticed some yellow ghosting but then, the monitor performed great. I ran around, blasted some fools, drove a few rides and I must say, it was very good and convincing. No problems with blurring, no ghosting visible even when driving real fast. To be honest, I was amazed.
FIFA 06 - difficult game for LCDs with fast camera swings during long through balls, some "x on green" color combinations tend to ghost, just like balls shot from outside the box. Well, it was quite stellar again. No problems whatsoever. Camera swings, powerful shots, long passes. You name it, the LCD does it. Very satisfying experience, way better than expected. Sure it does look a tiny bit different than on CRT but that's due to some faint blur seen on every single LCD. I was afraid of this blur, and it turned out harmless and barely noticeable. If you specifically look for it, it's possible to grasp. Otherwise, you won't even notice it playing.
Freelancer - another hard game for LCDs. Action in space is fast, and there are many dark-bright-dark transitions (stars and shots vs. space). If you want to read your opponent's name displayed at his ship during fast chases and dogfights, it's more difficult than on a CRT for sure. The blur isn't bad though, and the game on the whole looks just great. Blacks were deep enough and ghosting was imperceptible. At this point I was confident that G for gaming was a good name for this monitor. Apparently, it handled whatever I threw at it. BTW, no input lag whatsoever in any game.
Painkiller - last but not least, the Polish succesful FPS that Fatal1ty dominated as well, winning the most important tournament and highest prize vs. Vo0 in the finals. The game is a hardcore, old school, "no bullshit" shooter. No strafe/circle jumps like in Q3 CPMA but very fast and with flight control. To show off my sk1llz a bit I took a few "laps" around the first level (cemetary). Let me tell you - performance was again flawless. No ghosting, no blur. I couldn't test the stake gun (sort of closer range rail) to see the real aiming efficiency, but I can say that I'm convinced it would be good because playing with someone else's keyboard and mouse, and on LCD (OMG!), game movement and aim were both absolutely fine.
So, lengthy, but that's it. Is it a perfect monitor? Nope. Viewing angles are OK but could be better for ultimate allround, CRT-like use. The same with blacks. But hey, it's an LCD. Movie playback was a little disappointing with quite a bit of noise especially in darker scenes with uniform backgrounds but adjusted settings can really minimize it. For gaming, it's just awesome for an LCD and damn close to CRT. This is coming from a CRT guy who has never owned a real LCD apart from his laptop and cellphone and saw quite a few LCDs in games (193P+, 2405FPW, 2005FPW, 204B, 960BF, VX924 - saw it this week: good speed but colors, blacks and viewing angles suck, VP930B and a few others) and was pretty disappointed on the whole.
This monitor shouldn't disappoint gamers. Unless you are a purist expecting 125 fps and perfect image sharpness when at speed 700 in Q3 CPMA, you shouldn't be afraid of the 70/90GX2 for gaming. It's 100% gaming-certified by darXoul aka Darius-PvP in Diablo2 aka dx>drizzt in Q3 CPMA
Unless a miracle happens and a sharply focused Dell P1130 CRT lands on my desk, I'm getting the 90GX2. It's that good. I just need to test a few more movie scenes to make sure the digital "squarification" won't kill my watching pleasure. I doubt it though. Therefore, an excellent gaming monitor usable also as an allrounder - this is my preliminary verdict.