My Viewsonic VX2025 Review

[TheRyuu]

Well, hurray for UPS (I can't belive I'm saying that). They actually got my monitor here a day early. It said "schedualed delivery" July 20th, got it the 19th.

Anyway my first impression is that it's very wide. Comparing it to my VP930b, it's a little shorter but a lot wider. Playing a quick game of CS:S I discovered that I like WS gaming Also the dot pitch is a lot smaller (.255 vs. .29) so everything is a little smaller.

I have no doubt that my 7900GT's in SLI (700/1620) should be able to truely shine at this higher resolution. I wonder what game I should start up next.

How about some pics (click the pic for full size):
Box it came in (and an ugly carpet)

Side by Side shot with my VP930b (the VX2025 is actually a little shorter than the shot makes it out to be)

The Flamebait forum

So far it seems to have (or might have) less ghosting than my VP930b. The black levels don't seem as dark as those on my VP930b (the best 19in LCD around) but they are REALLY close. Almost too hard to tell the differnence but also it could by my monitor isn't configured corectly.

Another happy VX2025 owner.

I'll be gald to answer any questions about the monitor. I really don't think I need to go into that much detail since there are already 1000 different reviews about this monitor already (1001 counting me )

However, I have one question. What settings did you use (contrast, brightness, color, etc.). I can't seem to get it just right and I'm wondering what other people have used.

Also I'll pose some more pics if you like.

Edit/Update:
Xtknight wanted banding photo's so here ya go:

Alright, hope the pictures arn't too blurry. I'll take them again tommorow (since it's 1:30 in the morn).

Anyway, here they are.

VP930b Gradient ("show pic to friends" so that it's not as big)

VX2025wm Gradient ("show pic to friends" so that it's not as big)

The pictures are 2592x1944 with my Digital Camera. I then opened them up in Photoshop and use almost max quality jpeg compression (to get it below 1.5mb) so the compression shouldn't create any issues with the pictures.

 

[josh6079]

Congrats!! It is really a great monitor and probably the best bang for buck screen you could get. I'll finish my own review of mine compared to a 2007WFP here when I get a break from work. 8 days straight with no overtime but a vacation waiting at the end!

Also, now you will really be able to see how your 7900's stack up.

 

[RampantAndroid]

For settings, I used the nvidia CP and turned up the digital vibrance, and turned the gamma down. I'll get you my exact settings when I get home. I turned up the digital vibrance because the monitor seemed bland looking in Oblivion and BF2.

Are you able to get the scaling via the NV CP working right?

Congrats on the monitor, just don't forget to check for dead pixels (I use pixel buddy)...I have no dead ones on mine. Most people seem to get this monitor free of dead pixels, so horrah for Viewsonic.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
For settings, I used the nvidia CP and turned up the digital vibrance, and turned the gamma down. I'll get you my exact settings when I get home. I turned up the digital vibrance because the monitor seemed bland looking in Oblivion and BF2.

Are you able to get the scaling via the NV CP working right?

Congrats on the monitor, just don't forget to check for dead pixels (I use pixel buddy)...I have no dead ones on mine. Most people seem to get this monitor free of dead pixels, so horrah for Viewsonic.

Nope the scaling doesn't seem to work. I'm glad most games support WS (in some way) though.

No dead pixels, and the backlight bleeding is the same as my VP930b so it's no big deal. BTW, whats up with Viewsonic and Backlight bleeding?

 

[t4t3r]

man as much as i like seeing people who love their vx2025wm's, i wish my experience would've been similar. the one i bought was noticeably darker on the right side, and also exhibited a reddish/pinkish tinge about 3-4" from that same side. however, it didn't have any dead pixels and the "backlight bleeding" from the corners was almost non-existent. the b&m i bought it from had none for exchange, and the sporadic dvi issue scared me off a bit. maybe i should've waited for them to get one in...

perhaps when they go back on sale at my local b&m's (best buy doesn't carry them around here) i might try to get another one. glad to see so many people who love them, though.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: t4t3r
man as much as i like seeing people who love their vx2025wm's, i wish my experience would've been similar. the one i bought was noticeably darker on the right side, and also exhibited a reddish/pinkish tinge about 3-4" from that same side. however, it didn't have any dead pixels and the "backlight bleeding" from the corners was almost non-existent. the b&m i bought it from had none for exchange, and the sporadic dvi issue scared me off a bit. maybe i should've waited for them to get one in...

perhaps when they go back on sale at my local b&m's (best buy doesn't carry them around here) i might try to get another one. glad to see so many people who love them, though.

Just gamed for 2 hours of CS:S on it. Love the WS

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
For settings, I used the nvidia CP and turned up the digital vibrance, and turned the gamma down. I'll get you my exact settings when I get home. I turned up the digital vibrance because the monitor seemed bland looking in Oblivion and BF2.

Are you able to get the scaling via the NV CP working right?

Congrats on the monitor, just don't forget to check for dead pixels (I use pixel buddy)...I have no dead ones on mine. Most people seem to get this monitor free of dead pixels, so horrah for Viewsonic.

You really don't need a lot of digital vibrance do ya.

 

[xtknight]

Nice...I'm also planning on upgrading to a 20.1" widescreen from my VP930b.

Do colors appear more vibrant on the VX2025WM or is it about the same?

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Nice...I'm also planning on upgrading to a 20.1" widescreen from my VP930b.

Do colors appear more vibrant on the VX2025WM or is it about the same?

Once you adjust the "digital vibrance" (if you have Nvidia CP) it is. I'm sure theres somthing just like it in ATI CP.

When you get it, the colors WILL look more washed out. But once you tweak it, I think the WS looks better.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
For settings, I used the nvidia CP and turned up the digital vibrance, and turned the gamma down. I'll get you my exact settings when I get home. I turned up the digital vibrance because the monitor seemed bland looking in Oblivion and BF2.

Are you able to get the scaling via the NV CP working right?

Congrats on the monitor, just don't forget to check for dead pixels (I use pixel buddy)...I have no dead ones on mine. Most people seem to get this monitor free of dead pixels, so horrah for Viewsonic.

You really don't need a lot of digital vibrance do ya.

Brightness, 50%
Dig Vibrance, 6%
Contract 46%
Image sharpening - off
Gammer +7%

 

[Excal78]

Glad to hear to received it a day before expected.
So, What else could you tell us regarding the vp930b vs vx2025wm comparison???
Is it better? Could you post more pictures comparing both monitors?

Right now, I have a geforce2 mx 100/200 64mb, (I know it's a very ancient card), I don't know if this would be capable of running well enough the resolution 1680 x 1050 until I upgrade my video card.

 

[Vinnybcfc]

Originally posted by: Excal78I don't know if this would be capable of running well enough the resolution 1680 x 1050 until I upgrade my video card.

Might work in 2d mode but games will crawl on 3d even with low quality settings at that res on a card that old

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Excal78
Glad to hear to received it a day before expected.
So, What else could you tell us regarding the vp930b vs vx2025wm comparison???
Is it better? Could you post more pictures comparing both monitors?

Right now, I have a geforce2 mx 100/200 64mb, (I know it's a very ancient card), I don't know if this would be capable of running well enough the resolution 1680 x 1050 until I upgrade my video card.

What else do you want me to tell you. Now I hear that the VX series of monitors is suppose to be Viewsonics "budget gaming line"? And that the VP is the professional line (aka better). Well, comparing the VX2025wm and the VP930b I personally think the VX2025 looks better. I'm not sure if it's because of the digital vibrance, or the smaller dot pitch.

The "feel" of the monitor is just bigger compared to the VX2025. I have good eyes (at least I like to think so ), and people say the text on the VX2025 is too small, but I have no problem reading it. If you get this monitor, prepared to expect something very...wide.

I can only start to imagine what the Dell 2405wfp looks like in person.

 

[Excal78]

Sounds good wizboy11, congrats for your purchase. Like I told you before I was going to order the vp930b but now I'm not so sure, maybe I'll be this one, the vx2025wm.

I got some questions, though.
If you could only buy one monitor for all task; watching movies, programming, gaming, school tasks, which one would you buy of those monitors (vp930b or vx2025wm)?

About watching movies; even if you watch movies which are made in widescreen aspect you still see black bars at the top and bottom?
When you watch movies which are in 4:3 aspect, do they stretch always or do they keep their original aspect?
How well is it for movies?

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Excal78
Sounds good wizboy11, congrats for your purchase. Like I told you before I was going to order the vp930b but now I'm not so sure, maybe I'll be this one, the vx2025wm.

I got some questions, though.
If you could only buy one monitor for all task; watching movies, programming, gaming, school tasks, which one would you buy of those monitors (vp930b or vx2025wm)?

About watching movies; even if you watch movies which are made in widescreen aspect you still see black bars at the top and bottom?
When you watch movies which are in 4:3 aspect, do they stretch always or do they keep their original aspect?
How well is it for movies?

I use ffdshow and Nvidia Decoder to watch movies. The movies will keep it's aspect ratio so you still get some black bars at the top and bottom. The movies do look better on the WS monitor though. 4:3 movies actually give you black bars on the sides instead of top and bottom

I'd choose the WS monitor for all the tasks. You get more real estate with a WS monitor which is good. You can have two windows open side to side also.

And how well is it for movies? Well, it's 100x better than a 5:4 for a WS movie and about the same for a 4:3 movie.

The thing is all DVD's use a 720x480 resolution NO MATTER WHAT is playing. Thats the res. Now in order to keep that ratio, I use 1680x1120 in ffdshow. I also use sharpening and noise reduction in the new Nvidia CP. I'm very happy going from a VP930b to the WS. Gaming, movie watching, etc. all seem better. (gaming is more emersive (sp?))

Have Fun

 

[BrokenVisage]

Cool review, I'm already sure aboutt getting me a VX2025WM, I'm just waiting for my friend to get paid so he can buy my L90D+.

This review just reflects what 200+ on Newegg has said though, it kicks ass! I was very close to actually getting the Samsung 20.1" over this because of the awesome MIR deal they had, but luckily I contained myself and eventually ran into a thread of the Viewsonic vs. Samsung and the Sammy panel was verbally destroyed! And mostly everyoned loved the Viewsonic over it, so I did a 180 on which panel to buy... whew.

Anyway, I've had to deal with a bright-green stuck pixel on the last/first LCD I bought, so I'm hoping for a little mojo here in having a nice, flawless transaction this time!

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
Cool review, I'm already sure aboutt getting me a VX2025WM, I'm just waiting for my friend to get paid so he can buy my L90D+.

This review just reflects what 200+ on Newegg has said though, it kicks ass! I was very close to actually getting the Samsung 20.1" over this because of the awesome MIR deal they had, but luckily I contained myself and eventually ran into a thread of the Viewsonic vs. Samsung and the Sammy panel was verbally destroyed! And mostly everyoned loved the Viewsonic over it, so I did a 180 on which panel to buy... whew.

Anyway, I've had to deal with a bright-green stuck pixel on the last/first LCD I bought, so I'm hoping for a little mojo here in having a nice, flawless transaction this time!

For some reason, the all the VX2025's seem relativly dead pixel free. (good)

However, the more top of the line "professional" VP930b had more reports of dead pixels (boo).

Your X1900XT it a great card for the resolution.

 

[xtknight]

Thanks for the great info. Do you think you could grab a photo of the 'mix' gradient test program running on both monitors side-by-side?

http://www.lcdresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=1

Very few ViewSonic monitors have dead pixels, which can likely be attributed to the fact they use AU Optronics panels. BenQ's "perfect panel" or "A+ panel" monitors use AUO ones. My VP930b has no stuck or dead pixels to this day (going 7 months), whereas my Samsung 710T (roughly 1 yr. 7 mos) has at least a couple stuck/dead. Backlight bleeding on the other hand is infamous with ViewSonics and I'm not sure why. Maybe it is for all AUOs.

All of the AUO P-MVA monitors tend to have an overbrightness problem which I've noticed myself and also have read other reviews implying that. I'm going to make some dark test images to expose that problem.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Thanks for the great info. Do you think you could grab a photo of the 'mix' gradient test program running on both monitors side-by-side?

http://www.lcdresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=1

Very few ViewSonic monitors have dead pixels, which can likely be attributed to the fact they use AU Optronics panels. BenQ's "perfect panel" or "A+ panel" monitors use AUO ones. My VP930b has no stuck or dead pixels to this day (going 7 months), whereas my Samsung 710T (roughly 1 yr. 7 mos) has at least a couple stuck/dead. Backlight bleeding on the other hand is infamous with ViewSonics and I'm not sure why. Maybe it is for all AUOs.

All of the AUO P-MVA monitors tend to have an overbrightness problem which I've noticed myself and also have read other reviews implying that. I'm going to make some dark test images to expose that problem.

Sure. I have to take apart my other computer anyway so I can temp. use that monitor and hook it up to my computer.

I can run that same program twice for 2 monitors on the same computer right?

The backlight bleeding really doesn't become a problem once you adjust the gamma and digital vibrance. Reducing the gamma and increasing the digital vibrance brought the black levels to were they should be.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Sure. I have to take apart my other computer anyway so I can temp. use that monitor and hook it up to my computer.

I can run that same program twice for 2 monitors on the same computer right?

The backlight bleeding really doesn't become a problem once you adjust the gamma and digital vibrance. Reducing the gamma and increasing the digital vibrance brought the black levels to were they should be.

Actually just take a close-up of the program on each monitor. It would be hard to see imperfections with them side-by-side and each having a small area in whole scheme of the photo.

I guess you could say that lowers the perceived black level (in other words it raises the contrast), which is only a good thing. I try to avoid digital vibrance because it clips off part of the gradient (and thus can adversely affect image quality).

Example:

• Normal gradient: http://xtknight.atothosting.com/tools/normalscale.png
• Gradient w/ Digital Vibrance: http://xtknight.atothosting.com/tools/digitalvibrance.png

 

[pcmodem]

Is the VX2025WM HDCP compliant?

Read the specs at the ViewSonic website, nada.
-PCM

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Sure. I have to take apart my other computer anyway so I can temp. use that monitor and hook it up to my computer.

I can run that same program twice for 2 monitors on the same computer right?

The backlight bleeding really doesn't become a problem once you adjust the gamma and digital vibrance. Reducing the gamma and increasing the digital vibrance brought the black levels to were they should be.

Actually just take a close-up of the program on each monitor. It would be hard to see imperfections with them side-by-side and each having a small area in whole scheme of the photo.

I guess you could say that lowers the perceived black level (in other words it raises the contrast), which is only a good thing. I try to avoid digital vibrance because it clips off part of the gradient (and thus can adversely affect image quality).

Example:

• Normal gradient: http://xtknight.atothosting.com/tools/normalscale.png
• Gradient w/ Digital Vibrance: http://xtknight.atothosting.com/tools/digitalvibrance.png

I don't have the digital Vibrance that high. It's only a few clicks up from 0.

 

[TheRyuu]

Alright, hope the pictures arn't too blurry. I'll take them again tommorow (since it's 1:30 in the morn).

Anyway, here they are. If I took them wrong please tell me so I know how to take them right next time

VP930b Gradient ("show pic to friends" so that it's not as big)

VX2025wm Gradient ("show pic to friends" so that it's not as big)

The pictures are 2592x1944 with my Digital Camera. I then opened them up in Photoshop and use almost max quality jpeg compression (to get it below 1.5mb) so the compression shouldn't create any issues with the pictures.

If I did anything wrong, please tell me

 

[xtknight]

Great photos. It looks like the VX2025WM has slightly more banding at the lower part. The cyan looks richer on the VX2025WM though.

 

[Chasim]

Looking at this monitor for my first home LCD monitor. I play WoW (which has widescreen modes) and would otherwise use it for "general" use. One concern is that I've heard that if you don't run in the native resolution, lower resolutions don't scale? I'd most likely run WoW in the native resolution but I'd run windows in a much lower resolution. Anyone have any experience with this issue?