Help with choosing a monitor

[John Wilson]

Im really confused as to what to look for, it for gaming. Evrywhere i look i find reviews that seem to contradict each other and its driving me crazy, needs to be high end to play the best games smoothly. Again i dont know much about pcs its for my brother. I heard it needs to be 120 hz i dunno what this is haha, low responce time, widescreen ect. Please help me.

Budget is around £500 i can go above or lower.

Cheers

 

[LNCPapa]

120 Hz is a very nice feature, though it adds quite a bit to the price. Pretty much all of them are widescreen now so you shouldn't have to "look" for that feature and most of them have a relatively low response time. If I remember correctly for a 120 Hz screen you want to make sure the response time is 4 ms or lower. Now it comes down to the size - I think with a £500 budget you can probably get a 27" 120 Hz screen which would be excellent for gaming and make all his gaming buddies jealous (including me who doesn't even know him.) Most people spend 1/3 to 1/2 that on their display but you can aim for the higher end with that amount of money.

 

[John Wilson]

do you know of any links to compare products? im finding it hard comparing specific things like most monitors ive seen it doesnt say 120 hz or 60 hz or does this come under somthing else which = 120 hz just in another format?

cheers

 

[LNCPapa]

Here are a list of monitors that support 120 Hz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007617 600030155 600255030&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=20&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

You can tick the little compare buttons at the bottom and they view a semi-detailed chart. You'll see this feature often with 3D capable monitors because running in 3D essentially cuts your refresh rate in half.

 

[mike1959]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/monitors

 

[John Wilson]

cheers guys many thanks much help!

 

[John Wilson]

This might sound stupid but can you turn 3d off so it doesnt half the refresh rate?

 

[slh28]

The BenQ XL2420T seems a popular choice for 120Hz, it's £270 on Amazon.

This might sound stupid but can you turn 3d off so it doesnt half the refresh rate?

Not a silly question at all... yes is the answer. If you run it in 3D the monitor's refresh rate effectively becomes 60Hz because it's producing one image for each eye. For hardcore gaming it's definitely recommended to play in 2D for the extra smoothness above 60fps. Obviously to get the benefit of this you have to make sure your graphics card can push 60+fps in your games.

 

[LNCPapa]

Yes! Many folks do that for the super smooth 120 Hz. I've never used one but I hear once you go that way you never go back.