Looking for new monitors

[D_Brown]

So I've been thinking about getting some new monitors for a while now and I'm not quite sure on which monitor to choose price vs quality that sort of thing.

I enjoy gaming when I have time but I also do a lot of work on my home pc as an automotive engineer I use cad tools and other programmes a lot so I'm looking at 3 monitors to run in surround.

So any monitor suggestions that come to mind that are great quality and a fair price would be appreciated

Cheers

[GoodBytes]

You need an IPS panel for your needs.

I assume you want 3x 23/24inch monitors. In such case, for your needs I recommend a 16:10 monitor, so 24inch, so 1920x1200 each monitor.

 

What is your budget in mind? I ask because prices can vary quiet a bit, and in large steps.

Also, how much do you care, for your work, on color accuracy?

[TPS_REPORT]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009483

 

The Acer H236Hlbid might be a good place to start? 1920 x 1080, IPS, very thin bezels!

 

Just a suggestion :)

[D_Brown]

You need an IPS panel for your needs.

I assume you want 3x 23/24inch monitors. In such case, for your needs I recommend a 16:10 monitor, so 24inch, so 1920x1200 each monitor.

 

What is your budget in mind? I ask because prices can vary quiet a bit, and in large steps.

Also, how much do you care, for your work, on color accuracy?

You are completely correct on the size of the monitors im looking at.

 

Also my budget is set around the $300-$400 mark for each monitor but if i can find a good deal on a better monitor for my needs im willing to pay more.

 

I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to colour accuracy and the design being to the exact specifications that i want.

[GoodBytes]

For your budget it is a bit difficult to find something that you need. It's definitely half the price of a professional grade monitor, so those are out, obviously.

We have to look at high-end consumer grade monitors. So you have to forget programmable Look Up Table, uniform back light, and not as great color accuracy, but still good. It will depend on how accurate wise you need the monitors to be.

 

My suggestions are:

 -> ASUS PA246Q. It is a 16:10, 1920x1200  monitor, of course. It features a High-grade CFL back light for way better whites than white-LED backlight. It uses a true 8-bit P-IPS panel, comes with 2 pre-color calibrated profile with report: sRGB and Adobe RGB profile (this is great if you don't have a color calibrator, while there is no denying it's a quick calibration and you can get better results with you own color calibrator, if you don't have one, it's better than nothing). Has VGA, DVI and DisplayPort as input. Has a 10-bit Look UP Table, and 10-bit color processor, if I am not mistaken. It supports 10-bit colors via AFRC (emulated, as it is a 8-bit panel). Fully adjustable stand, and nothing glossy (maybe the red stripe is glossy, I am not sure). 0 wobble

 

 -> Dell U2410. It is a 16:10, 1920x1200 monitor. It uses an H-IPS panel from LG, It is an old one. Its being sold until stock is empty, as the U2413 replaces it. Because of this, it makes the U2410 quiet a good price (U2413 is too expensive). The response time of the U2410 is excellent for an IPS panel, and really competes close to high-end 60Hz TN panels. It uses a 12-bit color processor, and 10-bit Look Up Table (The 2 extra bit for the color processor over the Look UP Table is useless sadly, as the Look UP Table is only 10-bit, but I guess they got it for performance reasons when processing less colors). The monitor uses high-grade CFL back light instead of white LED. And as inputs you have everything: DisplayPort, VGA, 2x DVI, HDMI, and Component and Composite. You can plug anything on it, pretty much. It also, comes with 2 color calibrated profiles with report, (again, quick calibration, it's consumer grade monitors): sRGB and AdobeRGB color profiles. It uses a true 8-bit panel, and able to produce 10-bit color via AFRC (emulated 10-bit). Fully adjustable stand, and nothing glossy. 0 wobble.

 

 -> Lastly, the ASUS PA248Q. It is a 16:10, 1920x1200 monitor, however it uses white LED back light, so you'll definitely get a blue tint on your white and colors. If you have a color calibrator, you might be able to fix the color tint shift, but I don't know as well. As it uses white LED backlight, it can only do "standard" gamut, so sRGB. And it comes with a pre-color calibrated sRGB profile with report (again quick calibration). As inputs you have HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA. It uses IPS panel, however I don't know for sure, if it uses a 8-bit panel, but I have not seen any reviews that actually open the panel, get the panel model, and see if it's a true 8-bit panel or a 6-bit panel using AFRC to emulate 8-bit.  As it comes with a color calibrated profile, I tend to guess its a 8-bit panel, as I never seen a 6-bit+AFRC with calibrated profile.

 

 

After those, you really fall with out of your budget, or 6-bit+FRC (eIPS) panels, like the Dell U2412 - 1920x1200 - 16:10. Great monitor, but I don't think you'll like the panel. And of course, all the lower end ones uses white LED back light.

 

Note:

To use 10-bit colors with the supported monitors above (for the first 2 I mentioned), you need to use DisplayPort, with no adapters or converters, and of course, you need to use a support GPU and drivers. You probably know this, but I just mention it for those who don't know.

 

And again for those who dont' know, FRC and AFRC,mean Frame Rate Control. This means that to emulate a color that the monitor can't produce, it picks 2 colors, and switch between them back and forth, up to the speed of response time of the monitor, to fool your eyes in seeing the correct colors. While this method is perfectly fine for most people, even here, when you need some level of color accuracy, you want a true 8-bit panel, so that the monitor doesn't need to do this.. at least not for 8-bit per channel colors. If it support it will use it for extended colors: 10-bit color per channel, for example. However, while 10-bit color per channel sounds cool to have, 99% of the content on the web, games, movies, etc, are all in 8-bit. So unless you specifically work with 10-bit colors, this feature is useless to you.

The A in FRC is: "Advance". It just means it uses a color processor and its Look UP Table to help out.