Viewsonic announces 3ms 20-inch Vx2022, 2ms 19-inch VX922 LCDs
posted Oct 24th 2005 4:30PM
We follow these intra-industry competitions much like sports fans follow obscure statistics such as "highest slugging percentage for a switch-hitter during a leap year," so we were excited to learn that Viewsonic has once again raised the bar in the battle for fastest LCD response time with the 20-inch, 3ms VX2022. When this model hits shelves, Viewsonic will have snatched the crown in the 20-inch category from BenQ, whose FP202W seems positively limp in comparison, with its foot-dragging 8ms response time. The 1680 x 1050 VX2022 will be joined in November by an even speedier little demon, the 19-inch, 1280 x 1024 VX922, whose 2ms response time makes us wonder what the next yardstick after millisecond is. Stay tuned for pics when we can find them (not that response time is all that impressive in photos); until then, take one last look at the soon-to-be-dethroned champ.
Errr... Acording to standard scientific notation after milli you should use micro as the next smallest scale (then nano, pico and femto)
can you really notice the difference between 8 ms and 2 ms? My hyundai monitor has an 8 ms response time, and my brother has an el-cheapo acer monitor with 20 ms response, and you can barely tell the difference. Also, does any one know how fast the response time is for CRT monitors?
-bryan
In answer to #2 Bryan,
An LCD's response time is how fast a pixel takes to change colours (more or less, without getting complicated). A CRT works differently, and doesn't use response time. Instead you need to look at the refresh rate in a CRT - how quickly the electron gun paints the picture on screen. It's measured in hertz, and can be changed from within windows xp by going to display properties > settings > advanced > monitor. The higher a monitor supports the better (meaning the screen will be "painted" that many more times a second"). Higher values also mean less eye strain and let you work in front of a crt more comfortably for longer periods of time.
Just a word of warning - don't set it higher than your monitor actually supports at a given resolution or you could physically damage the screen (you'll hear a pop and see horizontal lines in a few places on the screen that will never go away - yes I've done it).
Enough tech talk - I'm going back to my dell 24.1" widescreen until these companies get to pico.
Bryan
-- to turn that question on it's head, I can see flicker at 60hz (16.6ms) on my CRT monitor but not at 85Hz (11.7ms) so anything better is wasted on my eyes.
However, we all know that LCD responce times are a bit like PMPO Wattage ratings for Hi-Fi's , It is all marketing and they measure it in duboius ways (grey level - gray level change time).
1ms = 1000hz
2ms = 500hz
75hz = 13.3ms
Hrm. The next battleground will most likely be the color correctness. It's amazing how many different shades of blue, green and yellow you can see on LCDs in BestBuy, all running the same picture off a splitter...
True color is where it's at...
Response times that monitor makers advertise can't be trusted, because there is no real standard for measuring them. Every manufacturer can test every monitor they produce differently to come up with the best response time possible - on paper - so it basically doesn't mean anything. If you can find a review (anandtech, tom's hardware...) in which they do their own unbiased testing, that would be more accurate.
Some companies quote white to black, others use white to black to white. Just like thread count in sheets, there are often "special counting methods" used, and a healthy helping of lies.
"The next battleground will most likely be the color correctness. It's amazing how many different shades of blue, green and yellow you can see on LCDs in BestBuy, all running the same picture off a splitter..."
This is why I always ask if these panels are 8bpp or 6bpp. All of the lightning-fast models like this one that I know of are 6bpp panels.
There already is a battleground in color accuracy in the professional arena. But these guys don't care that much about speed. This is why you still see 25ms screens on the market even though 6ms models are even cheaper in a lot of cases - it's because of the gamut and color accuracy. Some of these screens are better than CRT's in color accuracy and gamut now (though not in contrast, but most people seem to be able to live with that, given LCD's other advantages).
The pro market is a whole other market than the "gaming" or "home" market... although a lot of so-called "pros" really are being these slower, more accurate screens just for their amateur photo work or whatever.
(I'm in that category.)
Let's be clear: the 2ms or 3ms Viewsonic puports is not the same measure as the 8ms seen on other brand-name displays. Viewsonic is measuring their panels on the gray-to-gray scheme, not the white to black to white (what's known as rise-and-fall) scheme. What this means is that these panels, while probably optimized to perform faster in some parameters, are not 2 or 3 times faster. By doing this, you end up surrendering color quality.
nemi,
Flicker isn't a problem with LCDs the way it is with CRTs because the backlight isn't switching on and off the way it does with tube monitors. On an LCD, the refresh rate describes a pixel's time resolution, but you wouldn't see flicker even at 60 hZ because the backlight's always on.
I would also love to see some improvement in the colors on these - and how about some bigger ones?
I think the real question here is: will it come in white, so it can match the Mac mini?
Hahaha you crack me up Reid,
Match at 20inch 3ms response time with a Mac mini is like puting a bose stereo system inside a Pinto. The monitor probably costs more than 5 times the computer.