The 2405 has to go, help me with a (some) replacement(s)!

matt100 · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:53

Right.. the expense of getting a sensible framerate when gaming on a 2405 is ridiculous considering the amount I use it for gaming.

I do however love the size of the thing when browsing etc and I am a multi window junkie soo.. I figured out with the daftly expensive 24" and in with the dual monitor setup. 2 for browsing, 1 for gaming. Easy.. well, no because I know jack about monitors.

Can you suggest decent setups for me? I want dual 17s or 19s (opinions please) decent for gaming but not so that it bumps the price up (I was happy with a 25ms 19" 2 years ago). Height adjustable would be nice, DVI is a must (I think? unless something non DVI really shines) and the more inputs the better and I suppose a card reader would be pleasant having gotten used to the neatness of the 2405s reader but not essential.

Hades · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:07

If response time is the important factor then Viewsonic VX924's (or the VX922's if you want to spend a bit more).

matt100 · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:16

mmm, I don't think I have the need for either 2 or 3ms, in fact I'm happy with the 12 I believe the dell is.

Al Vallario · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:23

Have a look at the Samsung SM-930BF. It's got both analogue and DVI-D inputs (Unfortunately you're not going to see all the inputs the 2405FPW has on 17-19" monitors) and is widely regarded as the best 19" monitor for gaming. at £240 it's a steal, too

matt100 · 14 Mar 2006 at 00:21

they certainly look nice, how about 17's?

would I be suicidal going from a 2405 to 2x17s?

Nixeh · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:10

how the hell are you having trouble with framerates on your dell2405fpw with the rig you have in your sig link? :confused:

fish99 · 14 Mar 2006 at 16:10

Nixeh said:
how the hell are you having trouble with framerates on your dell2405fpw with the rig you have in your sig link?

Because 1900*1200 is a heck of a lot of pixels, even for 7800 GTX SLI. You don't get double the performance from SLI either. Pixel shader effects, as their name suggests, are per-pixel effects, so they become dramatically more demanding as your screen res increases. And the latest games like Fear have just tons of pixels shader effects.

PieEater · 14 Mar 2006 at 16:18

Personally I think you'd be daft going for 17" when there is little to no price difference between them and 19" and manufacturers are concentrating on their 19" plus models in terms of overdrive advancements etc.

If you were planning on using both monitors for one application at any time I would try to spend more on the non TN film models with the better viewing angles otherwise you'd probably find the edges distorting depending on how far away you sit and how you have the monitors positioned.

My thoughts anyhow.

Kamakazie! · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:25

why not keep the 2405 for browsing and get a smaller 19/20" for gaming? i personall love WS for gaming so would get a WS version of something.

Things change I've changed · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:35

This whole thread has put me off getting a 2405/2407 altogether now

, if a 4400+ running 2x7800gtx in sli is'nt enougth for this screen then what is, aaaarrrrgghhhhhhh I'm so confused at the moment, basicly its either the 2405/2407 or dual 20"ws TFT's.

moogie · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:39

only using a 7800gt and opty 146 clocked to 3ghz

play at max with good framerates on my 2405
nearly always over 120fps on css
fear with no probs either

daresay itll change with newer games mind
though your rig should be safe for awhile

AWPC · 14 Mar 2006 at 18:36

Try to get a compromise with the 2405 for gaming. I know exactly where your coming from with regards to getting high FPS but it is possible.

I only have 1 x 7800GTX512 so have roughly the same gfx power as you and can happily game @ 1920x1200 with full settings except for AA as not really needed @ this high a res. FEAR (with 84.20 beta drivers is a lot quicker), NFSMW never drops below 30FPS, Quake4 rarely drops below 60FPS even with the Ultra Gfx settings (8xAA brings it to its knees though). SWEAW is a steady 30FPS with all the gfx settings on. HL2 is very smooth even in 16:10 @ 1920x1200 with HDR + 8xAA + 16xAF. FarCry with SM3.0 + 16xAF & all HDR settings on is always 30-45FPS.

Only way I can game @ 1920x1200 with 8xAA + 16xAF is to get another 7800GTX512 which I am not prepared to do when in 6 months time newer cards will have more power in a single card solution.

Best thing to do is:

1: Enable Vsync always as it gets rid of the nasty tearing effect.

2: Disable AA in all games unless they can run smoothly with it.

3: Tweak the soft shadows in games which utilise them as the difference is minor but the performance hit is huge.

4: Try to get a constant steady 30FPS in whatever games you play via tweaking. Should be possible.

5: Consider gaming @ 1280x960 as this leaves 2x small 1" black bars top & bottom of the screen (add a custom resolution in the nvidia control panel) or even 960x600 as the 2405 scales better to a lower res when it is an exact amount as the downscaling is 1:2.

6: Another real easy solution is to game @ 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 with black borders or use monitor scaling to stretch the image to fill the screen.

This site has lots of tips n hints of how to get the most out of widescreen monitors and in one of the forums mentions lots of solutions to getting higher FPS from a huge number of pixels.
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/

In a year hardware to give smooth FPS @ 1920x1200 will be a lot cheaper so worth hanging on if you can as a 2405 secondhand is only worth around £500-550 so you will be losing a lot of money on it and can only get maybe 2 cheap TFTs or how about the Dell 2001 (used to have one and it is amazing although only 4:3 aspect ratio).

Not sure if the 2005FPW is worth it as lots of problems reported although 1680x1050 is obviously a lot less pixels to power.

If you really want to sell maybe wait a few days to see what the reviews for the 2007FPW are like as that should be another 1680x1050 panel.

matt100 · 14 Mar 2006 at 19:46

no no no, you're not listening..

2 7800GTXs give a perfectly acceptable framerate for this monitor, however £700 worth of gfx cards and presumably a similar sort of cost when I want to upgrade again for my hour here and there of gaming is ridiculous. As is such an expensive monitor for nice browsing. This is part of a lifestyle change for me, I have pc games I've never played, I have an xbox 360 I barely touch.. its all going

Hence I'm thinking.. sell the 2405, get 2 19s=even more browsing space with change left over from sale of 2405, sell 1 gtx or maybe even both and buy a 7900/x1900 series and use that on 1 monitor for gaming.

I won't even have to go top of the range, I have no doubt a 7900GT will be absolutely fine for 1280x1024.

I wind up with about £300 in my pocket, 2 shiny new monitors and 1 shiny new gfx card.

Oh yeah and I'm not stuck with sli motherboards, sli watercooling and if everything gets too much I can just jam it all in a shuttle and forget all about building for a while (very unlikely but possible).

Just to confirm.. 2 x 7800GTX more than ample, well.. just about ample for FEAR tbh which is a nonsense..

danderson · 14 Mar 2006 at 21:19

matt100,

I understand your dilemma mate. I wanted a 2405, but I couldn't justify the price really, and like you I don't game much, so I opted for a dual Acer AL1916WS setup for a little under £330 altogether, which is less than half the price of the 2405 on its own and has more pixels overall (2880 x 900).

But that's because after much deliberation I re-evaluated my requirements to suit MY needs...and I guess that's what it boils down to really...your needs.

We all know how wonderful the 2405 is...I'm not denying that it is a capable monitor. But for my NEEDS the dual setup seemed more worthwhile.

HTH,

D

PS: I've always felt that when you buy a game like FEAR, the real cost of the game is the price of the game PLUS the price of a decent gfx card, which goes into the hundreds if you want to play it the way it is meant to be played. That is of course until the gfx card becomes more or less redundant for new games 6 months down the line :rolleyes:

matt100 · 14 Mar 2006 at 21:39

I like those Acers, I always loved Acer kit when I sold corporate IT (great laptops, wicked warranty support) my concern is no DVI.

Do you consider that to be a problem? Anyone?

Is there an image quality difference?

danderson · 14 Mar 2006 at 22:02

Erm...I disagree with the warranty support (in my case anyway)...had probs with them on one of my monitors - took 4 weeks to swap out a monitor cos it was sent to Swindon by mistake and they almost lost it...only when I chased them every other day did they do summink about it. Then 4 weeks later it was sent back to me in the same condition with the same problem :mad:

. Oh, and there was that time when they never collected or logged a ticket to record a fault with one of the Acer laptops I was using a while back...anyway, enough about that.

All this slagging of Acer and I have two of their products :eek:

Tbh, I find that the VGA quality is excellent. I suppose if you really want a premium signal (and to put your mind at rest) invest in a decent VGA cable.

Things change I've changed · 14 Mar 2006 at 22:02

Personaly can't see any real difference between vga and dvi so if your intrested in the Acer's then why not go for 2xAL2016Ws 20", thier on special atm so they only come to £552.14 for a dual screen setup and tbh out of all the reviews i,ve read on widescreen tft's these (and the 19" model) seem to have the least complaints, suprising since they are the cheapest, I,ve been contemplaiting buying them for a while now.

matt100 · 14 Mar 2006 at 22:07

2x20s is bonkers and anyway I'm right back at resolution issues for gaming and I'd end up spending money on top of what I can shift the 2405 for which is completely the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve here.

I've seen some Sonys at a competitor for £220 each, they're 16ms but I don't think that really bothers me that much and I am a major Sony beatch, They have DVI too.. ooh decisions decisions.

Cashman · 14 Mar 2006 at 22:31

this is not the right forum for this but id love a little 24" action... and could happily lay my Viewsonic 19 incer (VX912B) 12ms on the table plus a wedge of her majesties finest?

email me if you wanna talk

matt100 · 14 Mar 2006 at 22:36

Cashman said:
this is not the right forum for this but id love a little 24" action... and could happily lay my Viewsonic 19 incer (VX912B) 12ms on the table plus a wedge of her majesties finest?

email me if you wanna talk

got msn? add me, I'm on now.