Buying a New Monitor For Graphic Design

Pancakes

What do you suggest, I don't want to go much over $250-ish

Basically I just want it to be able to display the truest colors possible. Any advice?

ericdigital

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101860


This is on the front page currently!

Pancakes

How important is IPS if I'm going to be sitting in the same spot while using it?

What sort of contrast ratio should I go for the $300 price range?

What brightness?

thanks


Do these specs look any good for graphic design or is it more of a gamer model?: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254052

ZacD

brightness and contrast ratios are just inflated numbers that don't mean much for the actual quality of the display.

I'd look at Dell's U2312HM or U2212HM.

Also 1920 x 1200 would suck at 27in for being a computer monitor.

Pancakes

ASUS 24" $174 ($55 off) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049

HANS-G 26" $189.99 ($60 off) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254099

DELL UltraSharp 23" $239.99 ($20 off) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260055

Hans-G 27.5" $269.99 (50 off) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254052

Price is not the real issue between these.

I've been researching monitors all day, having previously known very little. Please help me to decide if you know anything about these. I recognize that the DELL is *probably* the best image quality, though I'm not sure if it's higher priced only due to brand recognition or not. Each of these monitors is 1080p full HD, but I would like as big of a monitor as possible without sacraficing too much image quality.

Personally I would have chosen the HANS-G 27.5" already, but I want to know if dat DELL is so good that I should go with it. Halp.

Pancakes

If I don't get a second,third, whatever, opinion on this I'll basically be reduced to flipping a coin. :poly122:

None of you guys have a strong feeling one way or the other about any of these brands? I've never used a Dell or a Hans-G. Asus looks great, but the fact is that I'm buying another monitor because MY Asus gave out after a year and a half. The review sights aren't definitive.

Jason Young

Out of those, buy the dell. IPS(or any of the other quality panel types) is still important even if you're sitting in one spot. Just do a search and listen to whatever Earthquake has said on the matter.

Pancakes

Thanks for that - it was the final push to move me off of that Hanns-G that I wanted. Even though it is disappointing in a way I will give up on the 27.5 inches =( and do the proper thing and purchase an IPS monitor. It's the right thing to do I now believe.

Therefore atm, it is between the DELL and this ASUS - they are both IPS. There is something inside of me that is a little uncomfortable with buying DELL, my fear is that they are banking on their brand recognition while other brands actually push further giving added value as they try to compete... so I'm steering toward Asus. My old non-IPS ASUS that went bad is still covered by warranty, so I am essentially upgrading to a dual screen setup: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236287

Any issues with this decision? Is DELL just so much better that I shouldn't chance image quality on an Asus?

I will interpret your silence as tacit approval :poly142:

Jason Young

ASUS makes good stuff as well, but I have no first-hand experience with that monitor so I can't make any sort of recommendation. Specs look good, though.

I wouldn't worry about Dell as their mid-higher end monitors have always been good purchases. They seem to be one of the few companies pushing better panels in the past few years, and they provide decent support.

There's not a lot of reviews out there for the ASUS, but if you're more comfortable buying that brand, it looks like a solid choice.

Overlord

The reason you want an IPS over a common TN panel is bit depth. You really want a panel that produces 8 bit color, which is 16.7 million colors. TN panels only produce 6 bits, which is 256K colors. TN panels will dither images to simulate certain colors and can have a lot of color banding in gradients. That's not something you want if you're in to graphics work. On an 8 bit panel, you'll get greater color representation than a 6 bit panel.

EarthQuake

Overlord wrote: »

The reason you want an IPS over a common TN panel is bit depth. You really want a panel that produces 8 bit color, which is 16.7 million colors. TN panels only produce 6 bits, which is 256K colors. TN panels will dither images to simulate certain colors and can have a lot of color banding in gradients. That's not something you want if you're in to graphics work. On an 8 bit panel, you'll get greater color representation than a 6 bit panel.

Bit depth, color gamut, viewing angles, generally better on your eyes(less eye strain), there are a lot of reasons to get a better-than-tn-panel.

To the Op re; viewing angles: Yes viewing angles are still important, on low end(tn) monitors a shift in your chair one or two inches can cause changes in color/contrast etc, and TN panels tend to have a permanent "gradient" across the screen, which is a huge pain when texturing. Good viewing angles are great if you ever want to show anyone else something on your computer too, they don't need to sit at just the right angle to actually see it.

Pancakes

Hello, thanks for the help guys. Ultimately I decided against the 24.1" ASUS and instead got the 23" because it was nearly just as good quality for roughly 40% less money *bad math warning* ($340 vs $190)

Anyway they both get pretty good reviews and I have to say the colors are amazing. This is my first IPS and I never noticed how much the color would change when I shifted around in my chair in the old monitors until now.

So, yeah, I now know what the rest of you probably already knew ( even those of you who kept quiet :poly117: )

IPS all the way bro'~

Not sure what else to say other than my wall paper that I've been using for years now, seems to have COME TO LIFE. The old, cold, hard looking black lines seem to be drawn by charcoal now, nice and "flowly" looking.

And then the big news about how my 3dCoat colors were soooooo off all this time. I mean, I think that was the biggest thing so far for me. Also the fact that I have a higher resolution 1920x1080 vs 1680x1050 is extremely nice for blender in particular which seems to have a UI designed for higher resolution monitors.

Well once again thanks to JMYoung, Overlord, and Mr. Earthquake. That helped me to navigate the weird waters of graphic designer monitor speak.

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236288

Oh yeah other things, the base is a little bit wobbly and there is a little light bleeding, I think it's called, in the bottom right and top right corners. Of course I can't see it unless the screen is totally black in those areas. No dead pixels that I can see.