16 Feb 2009, 05:24
#28
Let me start off by saying that this review is for the avid FPS gamers. If you're one of those people that insist the human eye can't see anything faster than 60hz or you simply like to crap all over any thread discussing a TN panel, then please move right along - there's nothing to see here.
With that out of the way, I have some good news for FPS fans. The Samsung 2233rz is a gigantic leap better than any other 'gaming LCD' I've ever tried. The jump from 60hz to 120hz on the LCD is every bit as dramatic as the difference between 60hz and 120hz on a CRT. That silky smooth player movement is there in all it's glory. There is no interpolation or frame insertion tricks going on here. It is a real 120hz refresh. Finally!
The average input lag came out to 9.8ms, with a low of 0ms and a high of 24ms. Most were around 10-12ms. I took ~25 shots. The test was done using cloned output from an Nvidia card set to 1680x1050@100hz. I do have a VGA splitter here that would have guaranteed a synchronized refresh, but the 2233rz doesn't have a VGA input...so the cloned output is as good as you're going to get. In any case, the input lag numbers are respectable.
The 'ghosting' of the latest model TN's is still present, although it is minimal and I found it to be less distracting than usual due to the high refresh. The tearing with vsync off at 120hz is barely noticeable - very impressive! There is some mild backlight bleed along the very top and very bottom of the screen. I wouldn't have even mentioned it except that I know someone will ask. No dead pixels.
I suppose the final question is...is it as good as my FW900? The fact that I even have to think about the answer speaks volumes to how impressed I am with the 2233rz. The FW900 is a monster of an opponent. I've spent years bashing every LCD that I've tried to use for games. I'd frustrate myself with it for a couple of hours, kick it to the curb, and lift the CRT back onto my desk.
If I'm looking purely at raw performance - and I was playing a 1v1 deathmatch with a million dollars on the line, I'd still have to go with FW900 due to the fact that the FW900 doesn't ghost at all, it has 0ms of input lag versus ~10ms on the 2233rz, and it can push higher than 120hz refresh at lower resolutions. It's a superior piece of hardware.
Of course I'm not usually playing with a million dollars on the line so there's a flip side to consider. The 2233rz is much brighter then my aging FW900 and it's even faster than the FW900 at 1680x1050. It also has all the other benefits of any LCD - sleek, efficient, pixel perfect output, etc.
For now I'm planning to keep the 2233rz on my desk and the FW900 in my closet. I can say with a straight face that this is the first time I've ever considered replacing my CRT with an LCD. It's just that good.
Right now the availability is pretty limited. The only place you can buy one is from Tigerdirect or Compusa, and they're only available as part of a $600 'bundle' that includes the $200 Nvidia 3D Vision glasses. No doubt that $400 is a lot of dough for a 22" TN panel, but the premium is money well spent if you're a serious gamer.
---
I played with it for a few more hours today. I would describe the scaler as 'tolerable.' As with most LCD's, everything looks soft and fuzzy when you move away from the native resolution. Personally I didn't find it enjoyable gaming on it at non-native resolutions. I also tried pushing the refresh higher than 120hz without any success. The bandwidth is there so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I put the 2233rz and FW900 side by side and flipped my gaming sessions back and forth between them for a while to try and get a better subjective comparison between the two. I'd say the gap between the 2233rz and the FW900 is now slightly wider than my initial impression. Don't get me wrong, it still blows the doors off of any other panel. But the FW900 is perceptibly smoother to me in fast FPS games (Quake, UT). In slower FPS games (CS, TF2) the difference was still present but less noticeable. If I had to subjectively rate the monitor using the FW900 as the gold standard, it would go something like this:
FW900: 10/10
2233rz: 8/10
60hz TN (e.g. 226BW): 4.5/10
So in summary, it's much better for FPS gaming than the best 60hz TN gaming panels - almost twice as good - but it's still ~20% worse than the best CRT ever created.
I also tossed Vista onto a spare HDD so that I could take the 3D stereoscopic glasses for a spin. In short, it's cooler than I thought it would be. If I were really into single player games or online RPG type games then I could see myself using these. However for online multiplayer deathmatch, they're pretty much useless. Everything looks amazing, but you're back down to 60hz and vsync is required so the resulting input lag is nasty.
- dr.Doze
With that out of the way, I have some good news for FPS fans. The Samsung 2233rz is a gigantic leap better than any other 'gaming LCD' I've ever tried. The jump from 60hz to 120hz on the LCD is every bit as dramatic as the difference between 60hz and 120hz on a CRT. That silky smooth player movement is there in all it's glory. There is no interpolation or frame insertion tricks going on here. It is a real 120hz refresh. Finally!
The average input lag came out to 9.8ms, with a low of 0ms and a high of 24ms. Most were around 10-12ms. I took ~25 shots. The test was done using cloned output from an Nvidia card set to 1680x1050@100hz. I do have a VGA splitter here that would have guaranteed a synchronized refresh, but the 2233rz doesn't have a VGA input...so the cloned output is as good as you're going to get. In any case, the input lag numbers are respectable.
The 'ghosting' of the latest model TN's is still present, although it is minimal and I found it to be less distracting than usual due to the high refresh. The tearing with vsync off at 120hz is barely noticeable - very impressive! There is some mild backlight bleed along the very top and very bottom of the screen. I wouldn't have even mentioned it except that I know someone will ask. No dead pixels.
I suppose the final question is...is it as good as my FW900? The fact that I even have to think about the answer speaks volumes to how impressed I am with the 2233rz. The FW900 is a monster of an opponent. I've spent years bashing every LCD that I've tried to use for games. I'd frustrate myself with it for a couple of hours, kick it to the curb, and lift the CRT back onto my desk.
If I'm looking purely at raw performance - and I was playing a 1v1 deathmatch with a million dollars on the line, I'd still have to go with FW900 due to the fact that the FW900 doesn't ghost at all, it has 0ms of input lag versus ~10ms on the 2233rz, and it can push higher than 120hz refresh at lower resolutions. It's a superior piece of hardware.
Of course I'm not usually playing with a million dollars on the line so there's a flip side to consider. The 2233rz is much brighter then my aging FW900 and it's even faster than the FW900 at 1680x1050. It also has all the other benefits of any LCD - sleek, efficient, pixel perfect output, etc.
For now I'm planning to keep the 2233rz on my desk and the FW900 in my closet. I can say with a straight face that this is the first time I've ever considered replacing my CRT with an LCD. It's just that good.
Right now the availability is pretty limited. The only place you can buy one is from Tigerdirect or Compusa, and they're only available as part of a $600 'bundle' that includes the $200 Nvidia 3D Vision glasses. No doubt that $400 is a lot of dough for a 22" TN panel, but the premium is money well spent if you're a serious gamer.
---
I played with it for a few more hours today. I would describe the scaler as 'tolerable.' As with most LCD's, everything looks soft and fuzzy when you move away from the native resolution. Personally I didn't find it enjoyable gaming on it at non-native resolutions. I also tried pushing the refresh higher than 120hz without any success. The bandwidth is there so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I put the 2233rz and FW900 side by side and flipped my gaming sessions back and forth between them for a while to try and get a better subjective comparison between the two. I'd say the gap between the 2233rz and the FW900 is now slightly wider than my initial impression. Don't get me wrong, it still blows the doors off of any other panel. But the FW900 is perceptibly smoother to me in fast FPS games (Quake, UT). In slower FPS games (CS, TF2) the difference was still present but less noticeable. If I had to subjectively rate the monitor using the FW900 as the gold standard, it would go something like this:
FW900: 10/10
2233rz: 8/10
60hz TN (e.g. 226BW): 4.5/10
So in summary, it's much better for FPS gaming than the best 60hz TN gaming panels - almost twice as good - but it's still ~20% worse than the best CRT ever created.
I also tossed Vista onto a spare HDD so that I could take the 3D stereoscopic glasses for a spin. In short, it's cooler than I thought it would be. If I were really into single player games or online RPG type games then I could see myself using these. However for online multiplayer deathmatch, they're pretty much useless. Everything looks amazing, but you're back down to 60hz and vsync is required so the resulting input lag is nasty.
- dr.Doze