Opinions on Dell 3008

[anoa]

Just wanted to get people's opinions on this screen. Getting back into PC games after a long stay with the PS3 and 360.

Guess i want to go with a 30", otherwise I would go with 3 smaller ones, but I don't want to mess with all that. I like the idea of having one giant screen. I also like it that this screen has a Display Port which might come in handy down the road. The one thing I'm concerned with is the response time of 8ms. I mainly play FPS games and the 8ms makes me a little worried. The last time I really played PC games was with a little CRT 15 years ago, so lag will be something new to me.

Another thing I'm a little concerned about are the frame rates since it will be running at 2560x1600. I'll initially be running a single 5870 and probably add another one or possibly a 5970 in the distant future. So hopefully the single 5870 will have enough juice to get me by for awhile.

So if anyone is using this screen I'd appreciate it if you let me know your experiences with it. Or if this is just a bad idea I'd like to know that too.

thanks,

 

[anoa]

How about this, is a 30" to big for games. Hard to keep good frame rates?

 

[tortnotes]

It'll really depend on what kind of quality you want and what kind of games you'll be playing. The 5870 will run Crysis at 2560x1600 with high settings and 4xAA at around 20fps, which is pretty unplayable. If you were to lower the resolution you play at until you get some more graphics muscle... at 1680x1050 with the same settings, the 5870 gets almost 40fps. Or just lower the eye candy a bit.

Don't let the 8ms response time put you off, there won't be enough of a difference between that and the ~5 advertised for gaming panels for you to notice that much.

As for the other aspects of that particular display... It's a very nice looking IPS panel. The colors should be gorgeous and the viewing angles should be spectacular. Keep in mind that it's going to use a large amount of electricity though... think 165w normal usage and 250w max. Something to keep in mind especially if you have a battery backup system.
And, of course, this graphics power and new display assume that you'll have the CPU to back it up.

Eh... anyway.. If you're really set on the massive screen, go for it. But for my money, I'd buy two or three 22-24" displays and a second 5870 right now.

 

[dougie_boy]

i just took the plunge today and ordered mine.

as i use my pc for alot of media i decided to get one big screen rather than 3 smaller ones.

shall post some feed back once its running

 

[microterf]

I'm using a 3008WFP right now. I love it. I use it for gaming, Web design, programming. I've never had a problem with lag, and the picture is gorgeous.

The only problems I have had was every so often when the monitor would get a signal after going to sleep, it would have a garbled image. Idk if it's the monitor, or the signal, but I would turn it off and then back on and it worked fine, and doesn't happen often.

The other issue I had was the plastic cover that covered the cables seems a bit cheap, but no big deal.

Overall, it's about the best monitor you can buy.

 

[dougie_boy]

@ microterf

this makes me happy.

just got my delivery date for the screen and cannot wait. i have spent most of my afternoon at work looking for opinions and reviews about the monitor. this will be the single most expensive thing i have ever purchased for my system, and my girlfriend will KILL me when she finds out how much it cost.

 

[microterf]

lmao. yeah, my sister thinks mine cost "A couple hundred dollars" We own a duplex together, so when she comes upstairs and sees new stuff, she always gives me a speech.

 

[dougie_boy]

i made the dreadful mistake of telling her how much it cost before ordering it.

i can sense the argument all ready...

whats the deal with the dual link DVI? do i need to use both DVI ports on the back of my 4890 to driver the screen at full res?

Also, do you know what the best way to hook up a 19" dell next to it would be? Do i need another GPU in the system with additional ports?

 

[anoa]

I ended up getting a 3008WFP and I have to say I love it. At first I was a little overwhelmed at how big it was. It's a monster, but after a week or so it seems normal now. It would be hard to go back to a smaller screen now. It's nice that you can have 3-4 windows open and they are all almost normal size, at least from what I was used to.

The only bad thing I have to say is that it came with a bad display port cable. I ran it on DVD-D for awhile then got another Display Port cable and now everything works. Microterf, if you are using Display Port I would try a new cable. That kind of sounds like the problem I was having except I never noticed it coming on out of sleep.

 

[dougie_boy]

sounds awesome. seems like thursday is FAR to long away.

 

[anoa]

You just use one DVI-D cable, but the card and the cable have to be DVI-D. DVI-D has more pins in it.

I have a 19" TV sitting right next to my Dell and since my card has two DVI-D, HDMI, Display Port I just used the HDMI port and ran it over to the TV. I've also used the DVI with a DVI to VGA converter. As long as you have an extra outlet on the card you could use it to connect to the tv.

 

[dougie_boy]

cheers.

what GPU do you use to play games on it? is running at 2560*1600 a real killer? I have a 4890 and most benchmarks show that it can push the pixels fairly quickly at this res.

last time i really looked into this sort of size monitor was back in 2005/6 when it took two 9800GX2 to drive the display.

 

[microterf]

I have 3 5870s, it runs everything fine at 2560, can max everything including AA at that except crysis (2x runs, but nothing higher than that is playable), I also have 2 26" VP2650wb monitors that I have started to become fond of playing games in eyefinity @ 5760*1200.

@ anoa, it was hooked up to DVI-D before, now displayport with the 5870s, the problem I'm having now, is that it will go black for a few seconds, like it lost signal but it seems that this has to do with a voltage problem with the dp port on the 5870, and there is a flash for the bios that supposedly fixes it, haven't tried it yet though.

 

[dougie_boy]

not sure i can afford the 3 5870s, dont get me wrong. i would dearly love them but my PC needs a new CPU before a GPU upgrade.

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Me also likes a big single monitor insted of small 3 displays, the only prob is that make sure u have the best video card setup as its very hard to have good framerates at that resolution!

 

[anoa]

Microterf
I get the 1-2 second blackouts as well using DP. To me it seems like a handshake issue, I haven't heard about the reflash. Of course I haven't looked into it that much. It's not really a problem just annoying. When I was using DVI-D I didn't notice it as much.

I'm running a single 5870. With COD4 I'm running everything maxed out and I am getting fps in the 100 range. With WoW I am running everything maxed and get fps in the 90 range. If i'm in a highly populated city that might drop to 50-60 though.

 

[microterf]

Yeah, you don't need 3 5870s, 1 should be good, 2 will be plenty, I don't see very much improvement at all going from 2 to 3.

@ anoa
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035215467#post1035215467

Here's the link talking about the bios flash.

 

[dougie_boy]

got it today.

so impressed with the screen, not blurring, no input lag, can be viewed from about anywhere in the room.

amazing quality too. metal edge is very classy and the glass stand is beautiful too.

now need a bigger desk tho because it is HUGE

 

[z06psi]

I just ordered mine today as well. I have a single OC'ed GTX260. Wonder how it will perform at 2560? Well if it doesn't perform well I will go buy a GTX295 or wait for the Fermi card.

 

[anoa]

Yeah, it even looks good when it's off.

 

[dougie_boy]

I just ordered mine today as well. I have a single OC'ed GTX260. Wonder how it will perform at 2560? Well if it doesn't perform well I will go buy a GTX295 or wait for the Fermi card.

i was amazed at how well my 4890 handles 2560x1600. Fear 2 is smooth and so is GRID.

the screen is so good that even running at 1650x1080 in some games looks fine, surprisingly good even. im questioning my need for a new GPU.

getting used to only using browsers in window mode is a bit strange but full screen its crazy.

 

[z06psi]

I have a 2407WFP now in 1920x1200 (native) and have CODMW2 in full settings and it runs it without even trying. Hoping that wont change with the 2560x1600 setting.

 

[anoa]

One of the good things about the 3008 is it's built in scaler. If your card is having trouble then you can always turn down the res and the screen will take care of it. I did it a couple times with COD4 just to see how it looked and couldn't really notice a difference.

 

[z06psi]

2560x1600 or bust for me. I will buy another video card dammit.....LOL

 

[dougie_boy]

One of the good things about the 3008 is it's built in scaler. If your card is having trouble then you can always turn down the res and the screen will take care of it. I did it a couple times with COD4 just to see how it looked and couldn't really notice a difference.

completely agree. have tested it at 1650 4xaa, 1920 2xaa , and 2560 and the difference between them is marginal. so happy i didn't just purchase a mid range 24". so impressed with the ips panel too. no colour distortion at all.