Given the picture quality needed for games.....a decent TN panel is fine. They have advertised response times as low as 2ms (don't believe advertised specs BTW) and even the most critical eye won't have lag or ghosting issues. Unfortunately the downside of TN is poor color accuracy. In addition to design shortcomings, many TN panels are purposely factory set to have over saturated color so that they look good on store shelves under blaring flourescent lighting.
That makes the pretty poor for work that requires accurate color. Since the wane of CRT's, manufacturer's like Eizo have produced IPS panels and PVA panels stepping in to fill the accurate color but w/ a flat screen niche. Unfortunately these are out of the budget range of most gamers ranging as much as 2 or even 5K, and they also suffer from noticeable lag due to slower response times.
The holy grail of LCD's is therefore a monitor that can produce a workable compromise between the wide viewing angle and accurate color of IPS / PVA panels with the faster response of TN panels. As a result various "hybrid" designs have come to market, most till now, being S-PVA panels. The Lenovo L220x ($450) made a big splash with it's 1920 x 1200 resolution on a 22" screen using an S-PVA panel. Do to the high dot pitch, the screen was exceptionally sharp, very accurate color and wide angle viewing....most importantly response time was acceptable....probably not good enough for a professional FPS gamer, but well more than enough for us average joes. The Dell 2408WFP ($470) became the next model to settle into this niche.....the 1st batch had quality uniformity issues but the later revisions were consistently solid performers. Dell's latest U2410 moves from an S-PVA to a H-IPS panel.
For more info on the various panel types see this:
http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
The U2410 runs about $599 US or, if I'm guessing right at exchange rates, is about $640. Dell has "specials" every 3 weeks or so in which they have $70 (US) coupons and even double coupons which knock prices down to about $560 Can or 490 Can. If the color aspect is important to you for photo work then, I'd advise to watch for one of these specials and grab it while you can. My son jumped at a $70 discount and then two days later he found it for a $100 discount. He didn't cancel the 1st order which he is very glad about as he received a unit with no dead pixels. The screen simply has astounding color....I played thru Crysis warhead on it and found myself continually turning down the brightness. White screens are blazingly white (even w/ brightness setting at 30%) and black screens are just that ....black. Very uniform and amazingly natural colors. I didn't mention that the reason an 18 year kid sprung for the extra $300 is that he is minoring in photography in college. He's not regretting it and now I'm jealous
.
BTW, I'd opt for a 1920 x 1200 model over a 1920 x 1080. Very convenient playing a game in 1920 x 1080 in window mode and having system access on the screen bottom.
So, if you can wait for the "special deals" (watch / subscribe to sites like fatwallet.com and techbargains.com) , and can stretch the budget a bit, I'd say get the U2410. if ya can't, look at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020%2050001315&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=N82E16824236046%2CN82E16824236047%2CN82E16824236048%2CN82E16824236049
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram