carman594 :
Currently I have a 19" monitor. I was wondering if I should uprgade my performance and get sli 8800gt or should i get bigger display with one 8800gt? I will be buying in May. Is there another upgrade I should make instead?
I'm saddled with good eyesight and I find I don't like most LCD screens. The problem I have w/ most LCD's is I can see individual pixels which makes the images look grainy....not so noticeable with moving images but text and still images is annoying. While everybody generally worries about inflated advertised response times and brightness levels which you will invariable tone down, (both which never seem to be equaled in independent testing) no on ever seems to look at:
Color Depth - Most consumer panels are TN types with 6 bit color. 3 dots x 6 bits = 18 bit color. Look at your machines display settings .... if the number is 24 or bigger, the number between 18 and that number is "dithered". Note 32 bit color is not really 32 bit, it's 24 bit color with 8 bits of "non color data".
Your typical consumer level LCD has only 262,144 combinations. This comes from 6 bits x 6 bits x 6 bits (2 to the 6th power) or 64 x 64 x 64 to produce the 262,144 different color combinations. Now 8 bits sounds like it's only 33% better off the bat. But 2 to the 8th power is 256 and 256 × 256 × 256 = 16,777,216 colors.
So 8 bit color has 64 times as many color combinations as 6 bit color. Eizo produces very expensive 10 bit LCD displays and these are what you find in photo editing shops....these cost as much as an entire hi end gaming system.
Display Type - As indicated above, TN is the typical panel type which is found in most consumer level monitors. A good number of S-PVA types can be found at affordable prices. Wikipedia writes:
"The TN display suffers from limited viewing angles, especially in the vertical direction, and most are unable to display the full 16.7 million colors (24-bit truecolor) available from modern graphics cards. These particular panels, with 6 bits per color channel as opposed to 8, can approach 24-bit color using a dithering method which combines adjacent pixels to simulate the desired shade. They can also use FRC (Frame Rate Control), the less conspicuous of the two. FRC quickly cycles pixels over time to simulate a given shade. These color simulation methods are noticeable to most people and discomforting for some. FRC tends to be most noticeable in darker tones. Dithering has the tendency to appear as if the individual pixels of the LCD were actually visible. Overall, color reproduction and linearity on TN panels is poor. Shortcomings in display color gamut (often referred to as a percentage of the NTSC 1953 color gamut) can also be attributed to backlighting technology. It is not uncommon for displays with CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps) based lighting to range from 40% to 76% of the NTSC color gamut, whereas displays utilizing white LED backlights may extend past 100% of the NTSC color gamut – a difference quite perceivable by the human eye."
"PVA (patterned vertical alignment) and S-PVA (super patterned vertical alignment) are alternative versions of MVA technology offered by Samsung. Developed independently, it offers similar features to MVA, but boasts contrast ratios as high as 3000:1. Value-oriented PVA panels often use dithering/FRC, while S-PVA panels all use at least 8-bit color and do not use any color simulation methods. Some newer S-PVA panels offered by Eizo offer 10-bit color internally, which enables gamma and other corrections with reduced banding. PVA and S-PVA offer good black depth, wide viewing angles and S-PVA also offer fast response times using modern RTC technologies.
Color Gamut - As seen above, TN offers 40 - 76% of the full color gamut. The S-PVA tpes hit well into the 90's.
Dot Pitch - This is how close the pixels are put together and affects the "grainy-ness" of the image that I referenced above. The bigger the screen, generally the wider they are....in general. But look at a laptop with a 17" screen and compare the image with a 24" screen and you will see a huge difference. That's cause one has a dpi in the 80's and the other has a dpi in the 130's.
Viewing angle - TN is usally about 160. S-PVA is 170 - 80
So after all that background, I wouldn't think of just buying either one.....I'd save my money until I could buy both or I'd buy the monitor 1st and add the 2nd card later. I'd look to grab a S-PVA monitor with > 100 dpi, > 90% color gamut and given a choice between 2 sizes both with 1920 x 1200, I'd take the smaller one. OK, so your probably thinking, it be years before you had enough buckaroos to grab that. The thing is that S-PVA pricing is coming down. For example the Lenovo L220x ....Comparing it to the Samsung 245bw
-Lenovo L220x / Samsung 245bw
- 22” S-PVA display panel / 24" TN Panel
- WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution / Same
- 325 cd/m^2 brightness / 400 cd/m2
- 1200:1 contrast ratio / 1000:1 contrast ratio
- 92% NTSC color gamut / Not published
- +/- 89° horizontal and vertical viewing = 178° / 160°
- 6 ms response time / 5 ms
- DVI-D and VGA inputs
- Dot Pitch 106 / 94
- portrait/landscape pivot function / not available
- Cost $462 / $469
Don't get me wrong, the Samsung 245bw is a great display....but for the same money, I would grab an S-PVA monitor. Neither has an HDMI port if that is important to you.
You can see a list of Samsung's S-PVA monitors here:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/lcdpanel/productList.do?upper_fmly_id=603&fmly_id=609
And a review of the Samsung 245T S-PVA here:
http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=3221&p=1
And pricing here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001246&Tpk=Samsung%2b245T