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They just made me a counteroffer of $299 for this monitor with free shipping. Is S-IPS as good as IPS for image quality and gaming.. Please let me know if what you guys think of this monitor. The price is definately good.. No responses from anyone yet????

I will be using it for gaming. Far cry 3 etc
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... OR:US:1123

As far as I'm aware, all of these Korean S-IPS models use reject (A-) panels that would otherwise go into the Ultrasharps and iMacs, and the cheapest ones are the ones without an OSD or scaler.

That's a particularly ugly, chunky variant but at $300 shipped it's a slightly lower-than-usual price;
Normally the cheapest is an Achieva Shimian QH270-Lite for around $315.

Seeing how they "may have dead pixels", I would never buy it. Especially since these monitors also are sold with a pixel guarantee for a premium. Ie, these didn't make it....

And I could never stand a monitor with even one dead pixel.

Monoprice has two 27" IPS monitors, and both use the same LG panels that make the Apple Displays. The first monitor only uses DVI-D (no HDMI, DisplayPort, etc.), but it's selling for $365.50. If you sign up for Monoprice's email newsletter, you should be given a coupon for 20% off. If you can live with no USB ports on the monitor, no HDMI, etc., it's a steal. A good friend of mine just got one and has had no complaints with dead/stuck pixels. His only complaint is that the monitor stand doesn't seem to be the best.

Though it's currently out-of-stock, Monoprice has another 27" display, but with more inputs. That one sells for $450.18.

I would be far more comfortable buying from Monoprice than I would someone off of eBay, but that's just me.

S-IPS is a type of IPS panel. One of the better types. Without a scaler and OSD, the response time should be swift, but totally bereft of any control besides a general dimmer. It brings you the typical IPS package; good horizontal viewing angles, decent vertical angles, a bit of backglow, good color range. As said before, it lacks hardware calibration features, so it isn't the best monitor for image production.

While these panels aren't the top grade panels you might get from the ZR27w and such, keep in mind that doesn't necessarily mean you get one with dead pixels. If it's anything like the Shimian I've ordered, the stand should be replaced.

Just make sure that your graphics card can handle it. I stepped up to 2560x1440 and my 6850 could no longer cut it.

Do you mean in games, or in general (ie, the resolution wouldn't go that far up) ?

Because such a card should have no problem displaying that resolution, provided that an DP, HDMI or dual-link DVI cable can be/is used. And the cards can do scaling as well, so you can always game in a lower resolution, even if the monitor does not have a scaler.

I have bought two of these A- panels so far and neither have dead pixels.

According to this thread about 1 in 6 screens may have a dead pixel somewhere, those aren't terrible odds and the dpi is high enough that you probably won't notice too much as long as it's dead (black) rather than a stuck (lit) pixel. Since stuck pixels are much rarer than dead pixels I'd expect that 99% of these screens do not have stuck pixels, which is what matters.

Warranty/support is the main concern - since they need returning to Korea unless you buy them from a US retailer.

matdem1 wrote:

They just made me a counteroffer of $299 for this monitor with free shipping. Is S-IPS as good as IPS for image quality and gaming.. Please let me know if what you guys think of this monitor. The price is definately good.. No responses from anyone yet????

I will be using it for gaming. Far cry 3 etc
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... OR:US:1123

Let me answer this question directly: YES.

Be sure you can deal with a lower quality cabinet, a less than ideal stand (might just mount it to the wall), and the possibility of imperfections in the panel and backlight.

On the upside, having only a DP and/or DVI input means that there's no scaler, which means that input lag should be well controlled. If the panel is even of decent quality, you're still getting reasonably fast response time with little motion blur and excellent colors and viewing angles. No other panel type does all of this right.

On the downside, IPS (all types) have worse blacks than *VA/PLS (mostly Samsung) displays and slower response times than good TNs. People prefer the *VA/PLS panels for movies and TNs for high-speed/competitive gaming.

I prefer IPS for a combined gaming/photo work solution, and watch movies on a TV.

FubbHead wrote:

Do you mean in games, or in general (ie, the resolution wouldn't go that far up) ?

Because such a card should have no problem displaying that resolution, provided that an DP, HDMI or dual-link DVI cable can be/is used. And the cards can do scaling as well, so you can always game in a lower resolution, even if the monitor does not have a scaler.

I meant in games and if I've got 2560x1400 pixels then I plan to use every single one of them!

If you play FPS's, IPS panels experience smearing in high speed scenarios (even 120hz IPS panels). I wouldn't advise buying a IPS if you value picture clarity in high action scenes, that's like their one downside.

I'll disagree with Bensam123's blanket statement.

My old Hitachi CML-170SXWB IPS LCD monitor was slow. Ghostly trails were present in any fast-moving images. That was more than a decade ago. Newer IPS monitors are plenty fast enough for gaming. As others have pointed out, input lag is more of a consideration than the speed of the pixel transitions.

I'd also like to confirm that the 6ms grey-to-grey response times is plenty fast enough for gaming. You have to really work hard to find even synthetic situations where the blur is visible, and the aggressive overdrive used on many of the TN 'gaming' screens is actually more distracting than any IPS blur from the Philips 6ms S-IPS panel we're talking about here.

I think 'plenty fast' is extremely relative. I hope TR gets a 120/144hz 1ms TN panel in and does a high speed comparison to a IPS. They only seem to look at IPS monitors.

Also keep in mind there is a big difference between someone that plugs in a FPS once in awhile and messes around with it (the type that plop down on a couch and see no downside in a giant TV compared to a monitor) and someone who plays FPS's regularly and may be sensitive to lag. Easiest ways to test these monitors is simply spinning in a circle. They may be fine when you're pointed one direction or in largely static settings, but not when it comes to reacting and giving you data as fast as possible when it matters.

TN and IPS panels can have input lag. That's not a IPS or a TN only thing.

6ms response time should be fine for all but the most hardcore gamers. The ones you have to worry about are older and more business-focused panels that have 15-20ms as that can be very noticeable even to a casual user.

NovusBogus wrote:

6ms response time should be fine for all but the most hardcore gamers. The ones you have to worry about are older and more business-focused panels that have 15-20ms as that can be very noticeable even to a casual user.

I guess I'm among "the most hardcore" gamers, then!

I have two IPS alongside a 144Hz TN, and the difference is stark. I didn't mind gaming on the IPS monitors when they were all I had -- and I do LOVE the still picture reproduction. Still, really, compared to the smooth-and-clear motion on my VG248QE, the IPS displays look unbelievably blurry in motion.

My girlfriend has a CATLEAP (not 2B, sadly), and it looks amazing, and gaming on it is fine. I wouldn't trade my VG248QE for it, though.

Good article that talks about IPS and then compares them to faster 120/144hz TN monitors (a couple of the IPS monitors being compared use the same Catleap panels).

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/con ... htm#gaming

I really think once you get used to something, it seems like something better doesn't matter until you're exposed to it again. The same thing can be said about sound and making things look better in games. Console games are considered 'good enough' by, of course, console gamers. And then you're exposed to PC gaming and everything that entails and all of a sudden you realize console games are pretty much eight years behind the times.

Without new experiences to base your subjective views on you can only assume that something newer and 'better' wont matter, because what you have already is 'good enough'. It meets all your expectations and exceeds them because you don't have anything better to compare it to.

Smearing is a common term used to describe IPS panels among those that can see the difference. It's like taking a oil painting on a canvas and smearing the paint around. The picture is amazing when you're standing still, but terrible in motion.

Bensam123 wrote:

I think 'plenty fast' is extremely relative. I hope TR gets a 120/144hz 1ms TN panel in and does a high speed comparison to a IPS. They only seem to look at IPS monitors.

Also keep in mind there is a big difference between someone that plugs in a FPS once in awhile and messes around with it (the type that plop down on a couch and see no downside in a giant TV compared to a monitor) and someone who plays FPS's regularly and may be sensitive to lag. Easiest ways to test these monitors is simply spinning in a circle. They may be fine when you're pointed one direction or in largely static settings, but not when it comes to reacting and giving you data as fast as possible when it matters.

TN and IPS panels can have input lag. That's not a IPS or a TN only thing.

The most important thing is the overall delay; Input lag + pixel response time.
The lack of any scaler makes these Korean models extremely well suited to gaming. Their 6ms pixel response is added to a barely measurable processing lag to give a typical delay of only 9ms, competetive with fast, gaming-specific TN panels at 6ms.
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/hazro_hz27wa.htm

What you can see there is that a scaler adds far more lag than the difference between IPS and TN, with the scaler tripling the overall response time.
Sure, a 120Hz panel will be quicker still, but I sold mine to fund a second Korean 27", because it's fast enough for me. 8.8ms total response time (measured) is still new screen data in 1/115th of a second, which is absolute overkill for a 60Hz screen. To my eye the motion blur is minimal and even my 120Hz SA750 wasn't immune to visible blurring when I did the moving-text test (black text on a white background gets either lighter or darker when you pan it) - that's just the nature of LCDs versus CRTs.