We also note that before purchasing such a monitor, you need to take into account a number of nuances. Firstly, to work with 3D, you will need a fairly powerful video card, especially when it comes to modern games. So before buying, it does not hurt to clarify whether the system will “pull out” the planned 3D content. Secondly, the mentioned 3D glasses may not be included in the package (there are screens that do not require glasses, but they are extremely rare). Thirdly, the 3D picture must be seen with both eyes at once; in case of binocular vision disorders (strabismus, missing one eye, etc.), normal viewing of such content will not be possible.
HP 2311 gt | Entry level polarization stereoscopy
Today we are talking about stereoscopic 3D, which can be found in the living rooms of wealthy citizens and in the multi-display stands of our laboratory. Judging by the offices around the world, we can see that this technology is taking root in our country. But outside of our laboratories, friends and acquaintances who plan to buy 3D can be counted on the fingers.
We're not at all surprised that stereoscopic 3D technology hasn't become as popular as manufacturers had hoped. Prices for screens, sufficiently powerful graphics cards and active shutter glasses are still quite high. And if you are not amazed by what you see on the screen, then there is no reason to fork out for significant amounts.
However, we try to keep up with the times. We initially published the first introduction to Blu-ray 3D on PC, and more recently delved into a thorough comparison 3D Vision by Nvidia and HD3D by AMD. However, so far we have not touched on the two most popular stereoscopic 3D technologies: active shutter systems and polarizing passive systems.
When Hewlett-Packard told us they wanted to send their new monitor HP 2311 gt for review, we had the opportunity to evaluate HP products and compare the passive solution with the active 120Hz display we used earlier.
HP 2311 gt 3D Monitor
Over a year ago we released a review of the HP 2311x Monitor "Three-Way 23" LED LCD Roundup: Dell, HP, And Samsung". The budget 23-inch TN-matrix LCD had a native resolution of 1920x1080, a plastic case, and perpendicular connectors on the back of the monitor provided easy connectivity.
HP 2311 gt modeled after 2311x, which means that HP 2311 gt targeted at entry-level consumers. And its price is a confirmation of this: at the time of writing the review, it cost about 11.5 thousand rubles. This is one of the lowest prices we've seen for a 3D monitor.
For that price, you get a case similar to the HP 2311x - they're both plastic and lightweight, with a molded base that doesn't allow you to change the height or rotate the LCD panel. The tilt can be set from 90 to 65 degrees from the table (tilt is a critical setting for Film-type Patterned Retarder 3D, but we'll talk about that later). Despite the limited adjustments, the monitor is quite stable.
In our opinion, the perpendicular arrangement of the HDMI, DVI and VGA connectors on the monitor HP 2311 gt makes them easily accessible and easy to connect. But, it will interfere with the installation of the monitor not on the wall, although this model does not imply this, so this is not a problem.
Navigation through the main menu is carried out by four buttons in the lower right corner of the monitor. It includes basic contrast and brightness settings, but provides more subtle color management settings where you can adjust red, green, and blue levels. It is also good. According to the Spyder 2 Pro calibration utility, our sample has high levels of blue and green, which is why we received a recommendation to set the colors to R255, G195 and B160.
Included with monitor HP 2311 gt you will find a power adapter and cord, an HDMI cable about 1.8 m long and a CD with documentation and software. This disc contains the CyberLink PowerDVD media player for Blu-ray 3D playback and DVD video output in 3D, as well as TriDef 3D for playing games in stereoscopic mode. That's all you need to watch videos and games in stereo, of course, except for the content itself. Naturally, it also contains the rest of the components, such as the monitor driver, the HP Template Adjustment Utility, and 25 3D demo photos.
In addition, the box contains two pairs of passive FPR goggles with protective covers and a cleaning cloth. It is important to note that these lightweight, simple and cheap polarized glasses are the forte of passive 3D displays. HP 2311 gt also works with RealD 3D glasses you might see in movie theaters and branded LG FPR 3D glasses.
| HP 2311 gt Monitor Specifications | |
| Model number | QJ684AA |
| Matrix type | TN |
| Screen dimensions, mm | 509 x 286.4 |
| Dimensions, mm | 558 x 159 x 416.5 |
| Weight, kg | 3,7 |
| Viewing angles | horizontal 170o, vertical 160o |
| Brightness, nit | 200-250 |
| Contrast | 1000:1 |
| Response time, ms | 5 |
| Color Range | 72% |
| native resolution | 1920x1080 @ 60GHz |
| Pixel pitch, mm | 0.265 x 0.265 |
| Pixels per inch | 96 |
| 3D | Film-type Patterned Retarder (FPR) |
| Power consumption, W | 45 |
| Guarantee | limited, one year |
HP 2311 gt | 3D Display Technologies
Regardless of the display you're using, stereoscopic 3D technology sends a separate image to each eye, presenting two different perspectives. Your brain connects them and you get the effect of depth.
There are currently only two commercially successful 3D display technologies available to PC users: active shutter systems, which use an alternate frame sequence in which images are alternately blocked for one eye and then the other. And passive circular polarized systems that allow you to tilt your head and still maintain a left/right eye separation. To achieve stereoscopy, HP uses screen circular polarization technology, or FPR (short for film-type patterned retarder).
We considered the basic concepts of active and passive systems in the review "Games in stereoscopic 3D on the whole wall: building a home theater on two projectors with polarization" in 2010 year. However, for today's article, it makes sense to revisit the most important differences between passive polarized FPR displays and active screens with alternative frame rates and sequences.
Passive 3D (Polarizing Film-Type Patterned Retarder)
This type of display uses the wave qualities of light to control the image that each eye sees. Such a display relies on a polarizing filter covering the screen. This filter has two orientations, one for even lines and one for odd resolution lines. Each line displays an image intended for one eye. The viewer must wear polarized glasses to experience the illusion of three-dimensionality. The glasses do not use electronic components, just a thin layer of material is applied to each eye, which serves as a polarizing filter. The filter in front of the right eye blocks lines intended for the left eye and vice versa. Thus, each eye receives its intended perspective, even though the image is displayed for two eyes at the same time.
This diagram describes the principle of FPR technology in the HP 2311 gt monitor. Passive polarizing displays are also installed in most theaters, but they use a different method that does not halve the resolution.
Benefits of passive 3D
Now let's look at the features of FPR displays. First, the glasses do not use active electronics, so they are cheaper and less bulky than active shutter glasses. In fact, they are so cheap that they give you one for free to watch movies in the cinema. As we said, you can even use glasses from the cinema equipped with RealD technology.
Secondly, many people find polarized displays more comfortable for extended viewing because there is no 60Hz flicker, which is less eye-tiring. There are people who are greatly disturbed by this, there are those who are not tired of the active shutter at all.
Also, passive FPR displays allow the user to see the light from the display at all times. In glasses with an active shutter for each eye, it is closed half the time, which negatively affects the brightness.
FPR displays operate at 60Hz, so a standard HDMI cable is sufficient for stereoscopic operation. However, active systems require 120 Hz for output to provide 60 frames per second per eye. As a result, on active shutter technology via an HDMI 1.4 cable, you will only get 60 frames per second at a maximum resolution of 720p. This does not mean that you can use any old 3D TV with polarized glasses. However, like a polarized monitor HP 2311 gt, passive 3D technology is definitely more accessible.
Disadvantages of passive 3D
The benefits of polarizing stereoscopy are impressive, aren't they? But there is one important nuance. Speaking of FPR displays, each eye only sees every second scan line, in other words, half the frame. Most of all, this affects small details, for example, small text in a computer game can be difficult to distinguish. The closer you are to the screen, the more obvious this effect becomes. It significantly degrades the image quality. Thus, the loss of resolution will be much more noticeable if you are in front of a PC monitor than sitting on the couch in front of a 3D TV.
In addition, the polarizing filter on the screen implies an optimal viewing angle. If you deviate too much from it, various anomalies, such as halos, will begin to appear, which will spoil the perception of the image.
Active 3D (shutter, alternate frame sequence)
Shutter type systems with alternative frame sequence use active shutter glasses. As you might guess from the name, the image output to each eye is blocked in turn. The display must run at 120 Hz, which means that each eye sees 60 frames per second.
The infrared emitter is responsible for signaling the goggles to block the appropriate frame, so each eye sees one frame and the next intended for the other eye is blocked. At 120Hz, this happens so fast that you don't notice the flicker. Most of all, this process affects the brightness of the image, which drops noticeably.
The glasses in an active system play a major role, and the shutter needs power to operate. This means that they are sensitive to batteries that need to be charged or changed. The glasses also have wireless triggers and transparent LCD screens, which is why they are so expensive ($50-$200). Multiply that by a family of five and you have the deciding factor in terms of purchasing this technology. In addition, the loss of half the brightness in each eye is very noticeable. And finally, due to the active circuit, the glasses are very bulky.
Active displays can deliver true 1080p resolution to each eye at 60Hz. Unfortunately, the HDMI 1.4 standard cannot offer enough bandwidth to support this amount of data. Therefore, a typical 3D TV is limited to 24 FPS at 1080p. This is suitable for a Blu-ray movie, but for smooth gameplay it is no longer acceptable. To do this, owners of GeForce graphics cards need to select a monitor that supports 3D Vision. And if you have a relatively new Radeon card, then it is better to find a monitor with AMD HD3D. AMD Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards support the new "fast HDMI" standard, which delivers 60 FPS at 1080p over HDMI. But due to the lack of an appropriate monitor, this technology will not appear in today's review.
HP 2311 gt | Polarized Displays: Compatibility with Standards
One of the biggest potential benefits of polarized monitors is full support for Nvidia's 3D Vision standard (via 3DTV Play) and AMD's open HD3D standard. HDMI is suitable for gaming at 60 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution on a passive display, as the visual information required for both eyes is served in one frame. That is, for 60 FPS, a monitor with a screen refresh rate of 120 Hz is not needed. However, the vertical resolution is reduced by two.
Testing confirms our theory, AMD HD3D delivers 60 FPS stereoscopic 3D at 1920x1080 via HDMI on the monitor without issue HP 2311 gt. On the other hand, the Nvidia 3D Vision/3DTV Play technology didn't work for us.
We mistakenly assumed that Nvidia 3DTV Play would correctly detect an HP monitor and work on it. However, the latest 301.42 driver didn't want to enable the feature when we plugged in the Nvidia 3D Vision transmitter. After doing a bit of research, we found out that Nvidia's drivers are quite picky about the monitors that need to recognize 3DTV Play.
When we started writing this review, Samsung S23A750D could be found for 13 thousand rubles, but the model may soon disappear from sale. However, it has an analogue - Samsung S23A700D, which differs only in the absence of DisplayPort.
| Test configuration | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E), LGA 2011, 3.3 GHz, 15 MB shared L3 cache, Hyper-Threading enabled, overclocked to 4.25 GHz (42 x 100 MHz) |
| Motherboard | ASRock X79 Extreme9 (LGA 2011) Chipset: Intel X79 Express |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LP PC3-16000 4 x 4 GB 1600 MT/s CL 8-8-8-24-2T |
| video card | reference Radeon HD 7970 925 MHz GPU, 3 GB GDDR5 @ 1375 MHz |
| Storage device | Intel SSDSC2MH250A2 250GB SATA 6Gb/s |
| Net | built-in Gigabit LAN controller |
| Nutrition | ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200W ATX12V, EPS12V |
| Software and drivers | |
| operating system | Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Service Pack 1 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics driver | GeForce: 301.42WHQL Radeon: Catalyst 12.6 Beta |
| Monitors | |
| Passive (FPR) | HP 2311 gt |
| Active (AFS) | Samsung S23A750D |
HP 2311 gt | Stereoscopic 3D Image Quality Comparison
Let's compare the image quality of the monitor HP 2311 gt with circular polarization and a Samsung monitor with a frequency of 120 Hz. While we cannot accurately describe the differences in stereoscopic 3D imaging between these monitors, we can take photos through the glasses to show the strengths and weaknesses of each system in terms of brightness, ghosting, and clarity.
Brightness
According to the brightness of the image on HP 2311 gt looks much better than on an active type monitor. This is because polarized glasses let light through all the time, while active shutter glasses block it half the time for each eye.
Looking at the image in GIF format, you will immediately understand everything. The photos of each display through the glasses were taken with the same camera with the same manual settings. Here at HP 2311 gt undeniable advantage.
Halos and viewing angles
The operation of 3D filters on a passive polarizing screen is effective only when viewing the image from an ideal position. If you move from it, then, perhaps, the images for different eyes will be confused and you will see the so-called halos. Also, polarizing filters are not 100% effective. So halos can be encountered even in the optimal position. An active shutter system does not have this defect, and you can view the screen from various angles without ghosting.
Similar to HP 2311 gt The ideal viewing distance is approximately 75 cm, where the 3D effect is at its best. Each user has their own comfortable distance to the monitor, but, on average, for a 23-inch screen, it is about 45-50 cm, which means that you will have to sit further from the display than usual.
Offset to the right or left of the monitor HP 2311 gt it practically does not affect the quality of the picture, but moving up and down at a distance of 75 cm causes significant anomalies in the form of halos. The monitor has an adjustable tilt, so it's not difficult to set the desired angle. But, nevertheless, you are forced to look at the monitor from one position. And if several people are looking at the monitor, they should all be on the same level with you. This is illustrated in the image below:
Even in the optimal position HP 2311 gt suffers from slight ghosting, while the Samsung panel does not. By the way, if you look at the screen a little from a height, the picture becomes brighter, and on both displays.
Definition
Polarized displays are best for watching movies while sitting on the couch, for example. But, as usual, you sit much closer to the PC monitor. In this case, the lack of clarity can be a serious problem.
It is easy to see that on HP 2311 gt only every second line is visible, especially if you look at small details or text with small print. The TriDef 3D driver has an option to programmatically scan lines to increase the clarity of hard-to-read text in games. Still, what you see on the screen of the HP 3211 gt is hard to come to terms with.
Compare HP 2311 gt with Samsung 120Hz, which delivers flawless 3D clarity.
We should note that the shots for the animated image were taken through one lens of each 3D glasses. It is logical to assume that when the image from the display is perceived by both eyes, you will surprise all 1080 lines of aggregate resolution. However, in practice, the situation is even worse than in the GIF image. Clarity is the monitor's biggest problem HP 2311 gt in 3D games.
Windows desktop image quality
Polarizing filters applied to the screen HP 2311 gt, have a subtle effect on the displayed image even in 2D mode without glasses, especially if the screen has a uniform fill of one color. It is not significant, and for some people, it is not noticeable at all. However, if you look at the background white color of a sheet in Microsoft Word for a long time, your eyes will notice the difference between Samsung's 120Hz panel and HP's polarized screen.
Photographs do not show this visual effect very well, so we do not have an image to demonstrate this. But we can assure you that non-polarized monitors don't have this problem because they don't have the appropriate filters applied.
HP 2311 gt | Entry-level 3D display at a reasonable price
At a trade show recently, we saw several people playing Battlefield 3 on a large screen TV with passive stereoscopic 3D. Participants stood behind the line about a meter from the display. The spectacle was magnificent, and later we asked one of the players whether each eye sees the full resolution of 1920x1080 or only half. He replied that the picture looked like full HD. It turns out that in this game from such a distance it is almost impossible to see the difference.
However, you won't be using a 3D-enabled monitor at a distance of three meters. The distance to it on the table will be much less. And in this case, the polarized FPR monitor will have a hard time, since each eye will only see half the resolution. But HP 2311 gt must work in such difficult conditions. Luckily, 3D movies look pretty good from the right distance and orientation. The visuals in games are also bearable, although the lack of clarity can be quite annoying, especially when fine environmental details and text play a major role.
HP's pricing policy reflects the position HP 2311 gt On the market. It costs around $11,500, which is $1,500 cheaper than a similarly sized 120Hz display, which is a fair price for an FPR-based 3D monitor. It has several advantages over active shutter systems, such as very affordable glasses, higher brightness, and no 24 FPS cap in games over HDMI at 1920x1080. This is a great option for people who want to immerse themselves in stereoscopic 3D without spending a lot of money. It also performed well when working in 2D on Windows.
For more discerning gamers who crave a stereo image on a PC, a 120Hz monitor and active shutter glasses are a better option, if the budget allows, of course. Passive polarizing screens are more suitable for the living room where there is more distance between you and the display. When watching movies, you are unlikely to notice fuzzy text. In addition, families with restless children will appreciate the low cost of glasses.
3D is now fashionable and cool. We must pay tribute: with the support of NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses, ViewSonic guessed right. Despite the fact that a year and a half has passed since the announcement, there are only five models in the list of monitors that support this technology. Two of them are from ViewSonic. Moreover, only ViewSonic gave Belarusian journalists a 3D demonstration. However, the official presentation is one thing, and the test at home is another. I would like to clarify whether "the game is worth the candle." To this end, we turned to the Minsk representative office of the company, received a set of a monitor and glasses, and went to play.
How it works?
To create a 3D effect, the monitor generates two images in turn - separately for the right and left eyes. NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses use special lenses that darken when voltage is applied. When the monitor is imaging for the left eye, the glasses automatically cover the right eye and vice versa. The deceived brain "sees" a three-dimensional picture.
The picture on the screen is synchronized with the glasses via the infrared port, which comes with the glasses.
Monitor
Externally, the VX2268wm differs from a regular monitor only in the 3D Vision Ready badge on the box and the Dual Link DVI cable inside. When buying, be sure to check the availability of the cable in the kit. Without it, you will not see any 3D.
Matte monitor. This is good. Especially after glossy laptops, in the screen of which the user sees mostly himself. The appearance of the display is glamorous - shiny black plastic, smooth lines of the stand. Of the advantages, we also note a thin frame and convenient, although hidden from the eyes of the owner, control buttons.
Among the shortcomings, the main one is potentially low stability. The display could use a more secure support.
Viewing angles, color reproduction and contrast are above average, but the imagination is not amazing - a regular high-quality monitor based on a TN-matrix. But in the 60 Hz mode, you can choose the response time: in Advanced mode - 3 ms and 2 ms in Ultrafast mode. Speed directly affects image quality, so artifacts are visible on the screen in Ultrafast mode. When switching to a refresh rate of 120Hz, the monitor automatically switches to Advanced mode.
Full specifications of the ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm monitor can be viewed.
Glasses
NVIDIA 3D Vision may not boast cutting-edge design, but for a pioneer in the market, appearance is not the main thing. In addition, the gamer should be much more interested in comfort. And everything is in order with her: a pair of rubber pads for the “saddle” are included with the glasses. Thanks to them, the gadget can be adapted to any face, regardless of the size of the nose - it will not rub. Also, NVIDIA 3D Vision is perfectly normal to wear over glasses with diopters. People with poor eyesight do not have to spend money on contact lenses. The glasses are charged via a USB port, weigh 50 grams and work on a single charge for almost two days.
The setup is very simple. The IR transmitter is plugged into the USB port, a special version of the graphics drivers is installed. Then, in the NVIDIA control panel, the stereoscopic mode and the depth of the stereo effect are set (10-15% is enough for a start). Also, if Windows didn't figure it out, the monitor's refresh rate is set to 120 hertz. Then a button is pressed on the left temple, the glasses are synchronized with the monitor - that's it, you can play.
We had problems with the installation. Firstly, Windows 7 stubbornly tried to replace the drivers that came with the glasses with “the same ones, but their own”. I had to download a fresh version of the firmware for our GeForce GTX 275 896 MB from the NVIDIA website. Secondly, at each reboot, the IR transmitter had to be removed from the USB port and plugged in again so that the OS could identify it as a “USB device”, at first the system refused to do this by default.
Recall, by the way, that only single video cards and 2-way SLI mode are supported by 3D Vision technology. If you have 3-way SLI, then the system will not work.
Full specifications of NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses can be viewed.
Glasses are on sale for $200.
Security and update frequency
Naturally, a high refresh rate is useful not only for 3D. In the usual flat world, it also affects the picture for the better.
All monitors flicker, but the human eye and brain react to this flicker in different ways. The upper threshold flicker frequency perceived by the brain is individual, but on average it is 40-50 hertz. Therefore, the minimum acceptable refresh rate for monitors is 60 hertz.
But the eye is more sensitive. The eye sees flickering, which the brain no longer perceives and, accordingly, gets tired. Experienced typesetters can easily distinguish a monitor with a frequency of 75 hertz from a monitor with a frequency of 120 hertz. The higher the refresh rate of the screen, the less likely it is that the eye will notice the flicker and respond to it. Therefore, in old CRT monitors, for safety reasons, it was recommended to set the refresh rate to 100 hertz or higher.
There is no beam in LCD monitors, it is more comfortable for the eye, so a refresh rate of 60-75 hertz is enough. But, as mentioned above, 60 hertz is the minimum acceptable frequency. Updated at 120 frames per second ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm in this regard is better and safer for the eyes.
Actually, the whole strategy of ViewSonic is based on the fact that the main line at a sane price provides performance above the average level, but no more. But some models “shoot” with technological achievements for real. So it was when the company launched the world's first monitor with a response time of 2 ms, so it was when LED backlighting appeared for the first time in monitors, so it happened with the ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm.
Let's play!
Everything is bad with the qualification of sellers in Minsk. The request "We need a game with 3D support" led to the "freeze" of the managers of several popular outlets. In this regard, we recommend not to repeat our mistakes and first get acquainted with the list of games that support stereo mode, and only then go and ask the store for a specific disc.
In the end, we settled on Call of Duty: World At War, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Medieval 2 - Total War Kingdoms and King Bounty: Armored Princess (promo videos included). The first pair is pure action, the second, respectively, is a turn-based strategy with tactical real-time battles and an RPG with tactical turn-based battles a la Heroes of Might & Magic.
What happened? In a nutshell, 3D Vision is perfect for running and shooting games, but it doesn't make much sense in turn-based combat and RTS.
Call of Duty: World At War- The stereo effect is great. The picture gets depth, and the player gets the desire to move their head to "look around the corner." The last time we experienced such sensations was 16 years ago, when we sat down to play the first three-dimensional shooter - Quake. There are minor flaws. First, in the settings you need to turn off some "pretty things". Secondly, the sight unpleasantly leaves somewhere behind the back cover of the monitor and is present not only in the game itself, but also in the menu and settings.
Batman: Arkham Asylum- a very beautiful game, a wonderful stereo effect. However, there is a global minus associated with the drivers of our video card - it is impossible to adjust the image so that it is 100% clear in stereo mode. Because of this, the picture in the glasses looks slightly blurry.
Medieval 2 - Total War Kingdoms– there is a stereo effect, but it is not very inconvenient to control the game on the strategic screen in 3D. Icons move into the distance, as does the crosshair in COD. But if you can still adapt to the sight, then there is no desire to adapt to the changed control in TWK. During battles, if you zoom in on the camera to the maximum, you can see how three-dimensional hussars are chasing across the field for no less than three-dimensional crossbowmen. Nice. The problem is that usually the player is watching the battle from a bird's eye view - three-dimensionality in this case does not give any advantages.
King Bounty: The Princess in the Shell- at the first start, the stereo effect appeared only in the form of decomposing the image into red and green components. When restarting, the game crashed into a blue screen. After that, it was necessary to reinstall the drivers for the glasses again, and only then the process started. To be honest, there was little sense in this, since the toy is turn-based, and the models of monsters, trees and rocks are rather simple.
Playing in stereo takes some getting used to - the eyes get tired faster than usual at first. But on the second or third day, the brain gets used to the new picture and a couple of hours of the game are no longer tiring at all.
Total
The final set of a monitor and glasses "pulls" $700 in total. Does it make sense to buy a good monitor on a TN-type matrix and an interesting, but somewhat unfinished product for this money? The tentative answer is yes. But the final one depends on how often and what exactly you play.
Considering the monitor sells for almost $500, for casual gaming it might make more sense to buy the popular ViewSonic VX2260wm home monitor. Fans of strategies and RPGs should buy the ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm just because of the more comfortable 120Hz scan. Glasses in this case are a nice addition, but not mandatory. Moviegoers should pay attention to the ViewSonic VLED221wm with LED backlight, and finally, for working with graphics, the most justified choice would be the ViewSonic VP2365wmb based on the e-IPS matrix.
ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm and NVIDIA 3D Vision specialize in action games and car/flight simulators. And here this bunch is out of competition. We agree with the manufacturers: after having tried stereo once, playing a good shooter without 3D is no longer interesting.
More than two and a half years have passed since 3D Vision technology was first introduced as a mass and inexpensive solution for obtaining a three-dimensional image on a PC screen, and a review “NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision stereo glasses - long live the volume!” was published on the pages of 3DNews. . By the way, if we talk about the generations of NVIDIA's stereo 3D technology, the version of 3D Vision presented today with an index of 2, by and large, should be called the third. If you remember, for the very first 3D Vision glasses, monitor manufacturers were able to present 120-Hz models with a maximum screen resolution of only 1680x1050 pixels, mostly with a diagonal of no more than 22 inches.
Only much later did LCD displays appear, the matrices of which had a full Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 (1920x1200) and a diagonal of 23 or 24 inches. It was at this second stage in the development of 3D Vision technology that the second, more ergonomic and economical generation of 3D glasses was introduced.
The prevalence of stereoscopic content in recent years has also grown by orders of magnitude, and the variety of games, videos, applications and, most importantly, their quality are now able to satisfy even the most sophisticated demand. Suffice it to say that if at the beginning of this journey many popular games were actually converted from a two-dimensional format to a pseudo-volumetric format, then recently most development teams in one way or another try to initially develop 3D game engines, taking into account the requirements of stereoscopic perception by the viewer. By the way, it was NVIDIA that did a gigantic job of adapting hundreds of modern games to work optimally together with 3D Vision technology, and today there are more than 550 such games.
And would you know what awesome stereo 3D toys are waiting for us in the coming months!
This is not to say that NVIDIA's competitors have not been doing anything all this time. You've certainly heard of the Intel InTru 3D and AMD HD3D stereoscopic technologies, but take a look at the slide below: to be fair, no other company in the PC market has done as much to popularize stereo 3D gaming as NVIDIA did, score The number of different computer systems supporting 3D Vision (laptops, desktops, nettops, etc.) has long been in the hundreds.
Strictly speaking, all this protracted introduction is necessary in order to emphasize one very important fact. The reality is that for some of us, a stereoscopic computer and related stereo content in the form of games, videos, movies, photos, and the like has long since become commonplace. We play, shoot and edit videos, enjoy movies, but ... we are all human, and sooner or later we want a serious upgrade. And if more powerful video cards with support for more and more new technologies and effects come out with enviable regularity, stereo 3D fans on the street are less likely to have a holiday.
But it happens.
So, get acquainted: 3D Vision 2. The key differences from the previous generation of technology are as follows:
- Brand new design of active-shutter 3D glasses with improved performance;
- New generation of 27" monitors with built-in emitter;
- NVIDIA 3D LightBoost technology.
First of all, about the new glasses: the size of the eyepieces in the 3D Vision 2 version has grown significantly, by about 20%. The developers took this move taking into account several considerations at once.
First of all, due to the increase in the size of the "glasses", the field of view of the player increases, which, in relation to the new 27-inch diagonal monitors, is not without meaning. For those who play computer games on 3D TVs with a diagonal of 40 inches or more, the increase in viewing angle will also be a welcome change.
In addition, the increase in the size of 3D glasses will make it much more convenient to use them together with conventional diopter glasses.
The new glasses are made of modern composite materials, so the increase in size did not affect their weight at all, the glasses are still quite light and comfortable for long-term use. However, now the control has changed somewhat: the button for turning on the glasses in the new version has been moved from the upper edge of the left arm to its side plane. The button itself has also become much larger.
What should be especially emphasized: for glasses and devices with support for 3D Vision of the first and second generations, full reverse interchangeability is guaranteed.
But that is not all. A really serious change in the technical performance of the glasses was an additional optimization of the algorithm for switching between the LCD shutters of the right and left eyes. The optimization is performed in such a way that the open time of each curtain is minimized and synchronized as accurately as possible with the signal coming from the emitter, as a result of which it was possible to further reduce the side effect of "flicker".
Thanks to the help of the employees of the Russian division of NVIDIA, for which I am very grateful to them, I was one of the first to try out the new 3D Vision 2 3D glasses in action. I confirm from personal experience: putting on new 3D glasses over regular diopters is now much more convenient than in the case of more compact, but at the same time less "deep" glasses of the previous generation.
No matter how I tried, replacing the previous generation of glasses with a new one and back, to catch the difference in the light transmission of LCD screens, I could not find one. The fact is that the picture on the monitor screen seemed unusually bright to me, and the first thing, of course, was the thought that it was the new glasses.
A few words about monitors with support for NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 technology. At the time of the announcement, two such options were presented. The first is the 27-inch ASUS VG278H LED-backlit monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080, support for 2D and 3D modes. The second option is laptops of the Toshiba Qosmio X770/X775 and Satellite P770/775 family, equipped with a 17.3-inch 1920x1080 screen, also supporting 2D and 3D modes. Of course, in both cases, the new 3D Vision 2 glasses are included in the package.
Both options are characterized by the presence of a built-in 3D Vision emitter. Yes, that's right, the same "pyramid" with a USB interface, which was previously supplied separately in the kit, will now be integrated not only into laptops, but also into some models of 3D monitors.
Modern monitors such as the ASUS VG278H can handle both processing a stereoscopic Full HD video stream from a PC (Dual Link DVI interface) and collaboration, for example, with a Sony Playstation 3 game console (HDMI 1.4a interface).
It is interesting to note that the built-in 3D Vision 2 emitter is located on the top of this monitor.
Now it only remains for us to tell about the timing of the appearance of new products in retail and about approximate prices. In the US, deliveries of new 3D Vision 2 kits and separate glasses will start at the end of October. In Russian retail, as I was told in the Moscow representative office of NVIDIA, these new products will appear in the new year, 2012.
Nevertheless, those who urgently want to join the new generation of technology may not lose hope, because it will be possible to purchase new 27-inch 3D monitors (and maybe laptops) even earlier. Thus, the aforementioned 27-inch LED 3D monitor ASUS VG278H, complete with 3D Vision 2 glasses, will appear in world retail in November, so its appearance in Russian stores may well take place before the Christmas holidays. By the way, it is quite possible that it is in November that several more manufacturers will announce the release of new models with support for 3D LightBoost technology. In particular, we can expect announcements of such models as Acer HN274HB and BenQ XL2420T/XL2420TX.
Now about the prices. For North America, the price of the NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 kit (glasses plus USB emitter) and the separate 3D glasses will be exactly the same as it has been for the current generation of devices so far, i.e. $149 and $99 respectively. Of course, it’s too early to talk about prices in Russian retail, but NVIDIA confirmed to me that our pricing will remain approximately the same, that is, a new set and new glasses will be offered at the same price at which current 3D Vision models are currently sold.
Finally, for the 27-inch ASUS VG278H monitor, complete with 3D Vision 2 glasses, the MSRP is set at $715.
A person is given the opportunity to study and perceive the surrounding world through many sense organs, but to a greater extent it is our eyes that allow us to obtain a model of the surrounding physical reality. The amazing advantages of our vision are the ability to see colors, as well as to form a three-dimensional image of surrounding objects. If a color 2D picture on monitors and TV screens has long become commonplace, then the ability to make an image three-dimensional turned out to be not such an easy task. The development of technologies for creating 3D images has been going on for quite a long time. Many people remember 3D films in stereo cinemas, where the three-dimensional image was achieved through the use of red and blue anaglyph glasses. The main principle of a person's three-dimensional perception of the surrounding world is a slightly changed angle of objects for each eye. Therefore, to create a 3D image, each eye is given its own picture. Different approaches do this "deception" of vision in different ways.
Modern 3D cinemas use several different 3D systems (Xpand, RealD 3D, IMAX, masterimage, Dolby 3D, etc.) with varying degrees of quality. In Ukraine, Dolby 3D and IMAX are the most widespread. We will not delve into the details of their implementation, we will only say that in the computer world the implementation of a 3D image has other technical solutions. The simplest and cheapest, but not the highest quality of them, remained the principle of anaglyph glasses. To obtain a 3D image, the user needs a modern video accelerator (AMD or NVIDIA) and its direct support by anaglyph scene drivers.
The resulting picture, although it becomes voluminous, but the contrast of colors and its brightness suffer greatly, which significantly spoils the impression of watching a movie or gameplay. Quite a long time ago, solutions were proposed with glasses that have two small screens instead of lenses, they became helmets for virtual reality. But this approach significantly increased the cost of the final solution, which prevented it from achieving mass use.
Another direction of development was the acquisition of a 3D image through the use of glasses with dynamic "curtains", when one of the "lenses" of the glasses is darkened in turn, and as a result, each eye sees its own picture. The video system of the German company ELSA was the first to use such a principle, but ASUS also had similar developments. The main reason for their low distribution was the limited support by video accelerators (only the accelerators of these companies supported such a 3D principle), the high cost of quite unique accelerators bundled with 3D glasses, and the almost complete absence of applications that support 3D images.
3D imaging technology using shutter curtain glasses requires a monitor that can display an image at double the frequency. A frequency of 60 Hz is considered a more or less comfortable screen refresh rate. To create an image for each eye separately, twice the frequency is needed, i.e. 120 Hz. This is the frequency that the latest generation of the fastest TN matrices can provide. This made it possible to use TFT monitors based on them for 3D VISION systems with shutter glasses. We want to talk about one of these monitors in this review.
A fairly inexpensive, and therefore "mass" model of a 3D monitor with a screen refresh rate of 120 Hz and a .
According to the manufacturer, the main features of this model are:
Support for stereoscopic image technology (NVIDIA 3D Vision) in Full-HD 1080p;
The presence of HDMI and YPbPr connectors, allowing you to connect the ASUS VG236H monitor to a wide variety of video devices, including Blu-ray players and game consoles;
Screen refresh rate of 120 Hz - providing support for NVIDIA 3D Vision and making the image better overall;
Color Shine technology, which makes the image clearer and improves color saturation;
Splendid Video Intelligence technology that allows you to quickly configure the monitor in accordance with current tasks and conditions (games, viewing photos, working at night, etc.)
Improved ergonomic stand that allows you to adjust the angle of inclination, screen height and easily rotate it horizontally.
Let's try to understand and analyze the official ASUS VG236H specification.
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Manufacturer |
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Matrix size (diagonal) |
23”W (58.4 cm) |
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Panel type |
TN+Film (with Dual Side), CCFL backlight (fluorescent lamps) |
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Aspect Ratio |
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Max. permission |
1920x1080 (up to 120Hz), 1080p |
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Screen coverage |
glossy, anti-glare |
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Brightness (max.), cd/m2 |
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Contrast ratio (max.) |
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ASUS Dynamic Contrast Technology (ASCR) |
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Angle of view (CR=10) |
170°(horizontal) ; 160°(vertical) |
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Color saturation (NTSC), % |
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Number of colors, mln. |
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Response time |
2ms g2g (gray to grey) with Trace Free Control |
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Compatible with NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology |
Yes (Suitable for playing 3D PC games and videos) |
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Trace Free II Technology |
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SPLENDID Video Intelligence video enhancement technology. |
Yes (five preset video modes) |
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Aspect Control Technology |
Yes (Full screen and 4:3) |
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PC Login |
DVI input (supporting NVIDIA 3D Vision technology) |
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Video input |
HDMI, DVI-D, YPbPr |
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Operating mode, W |
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Energy saving mode, W |
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Power off mode, W |
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Altitude change |
Yes, up to 100 mm |
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Rotation around the axis of the stand |
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VESA mount |
Yes, 100x100 mm |
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VESA Wall Mount |
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Dimensions (WxHxD), mm |
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Packing dimensions, mm |
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Net weight (approx.), kg |
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Gross weight (approx.), kg |
11.1/10.3 (without NVIDIA 3D Vision) |
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Voltage range, V |
AC:100~240 (built-in adapter) |
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Additional features |
NVIDIA 3D Vision 120Hz |
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Accessories |
DVI-D cable, power cable, manual, brochure, warranty card, CD, NVIDIA 3D demo DVD, NVIDIA 3D Vision kit. |
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VG236H (included with 3D VISION glasses): $499 |
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Products webpage |
The case and the monitor screen itself have a glossy surface. According to the developers, a special anti-reflective layer is applied to the screen, which reduces the visibility of reflected objects and light sources. However, when visually inspected, glare of light and reflections of light objects interfere quite strongly with the gameplay or watching a movie. In the 3D mode, any picture on the screen that is not split in two, namely the reflected objects, leads to severe discomfort, causing eye fatigue. Although there is still a slight dimming of glare, by and large, this situation is typical for all glossy monitors. It uses the fastest TN sensor, which is quite logical for obtaining the shortest possible response time, ensuring operation at the image refresh rate of 120 Hz necessary for the 3D effect. Modern TN panels have already achieved quite good color quality with sufficient refresh rate, which is used by ASUS engineers in the VG236H model. The most important advantage of this monitor is the ability to work with an image refresh rate of 120 Hz through the use of proprietary ASUS Dual Side technology. The aspect ratio of the screen corresponds to the 16:9 standard, while the resolution is 1920x1080. This formula for aspect ratio and screen resolution can be called the best choice for both gaming and movie viewing. Modern models of monitors with just such screen characteristics can be called the most massive solutions with support for the Full HD standard.
Box and equipment
To underline the uniqueness of the ASUS VG236H model, the developers packed it in a rather attractive colored cardboard box. It labels this model as a 120Hz 3D monitor and highlights all the main features of this product:
- Full HD 1080 support;
- The presence of an HDMI connector;
- Response time 2 ms;
- Support for Color Shine technology;
- Improved stand ergonomics;
- Support for stereoscopic image technology (NVIDIA 3D Vision);
- Availability of the NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit.
There is a plastic handle on the top of the box that is easy to carry. There is enough information on the box to get a general idea of its contents, and it will also be easy to transport the monitor to the place of installation and assembly.
The complete set of the ASUS VG236H model cannot boast of a wide variety of adapters and connection wires. The kit contains everything you need:
- Removable monitor leg base;
- Power connection wire from the mains;
- DVI-D cable;
- CD with drivers and paper documentation;
- NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit.
NVIDIA 3D VisionKit
In the cardboard box of the NVIDIA 3D Vision kit, there are shutter-curtain glasses and an infrared transmitter in special foam niches. There are two mini-USB cables in a separate compartment: one is needed to connect the infrared transmitter to the USB port of your PC, and the second is for recharging the battery built into the glasses. There are also interchangeable nose bridges of various shapes, a small set of paper instructions for quick installation and configuration of the NVIDIA 3D Vision kit.
Synchronization of the glasses with the image on the 3D monitor is provided by an IR transmitter, which must be connected via a mini-USB cable to the USB connector of your PC. On its back side there is a wheel for adjusting the image to the user's vision, as well as its removal from the monitor. Turning this slider changes the depth of the 3D image. Such adjustment can also be carried out through the key combination assigned in the driver. Just below the 3D image depth adjustment wheel is a mini-USB port for connecting this transmitter to your PC's USB port. A little to the left there is a connection indicator. There is also an input for "3D Sync In" for connecting Mitsubishi TFT TVs and projectors that support NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
Externally, glasses can be mistaken for ordinary sunglasses, inexpensive design with a plastic frame. But the temples of the glasses themselves have rubberized light green inserts, which should mitigate the consequences of their long-term use. The glasses have an average universal size, and adjusting them to the user consists only in changing the rubber pads on the bridge of the glasses.
The NVIDIA 3D Vision kit glasses themselves have LCD screens instead of lenses, providing alternate dimming at a frequency of 60 Hz. For their work, a special chip is used, hidden in a slightly enlarged left arm of the glasses. Next to the chip, the developers placed a lithium-ion battery that provides up to 40 hours of continuous operation. There is also a standard mini-USB connector that allows you to recharge the glasses and change their firmware. On the upper edge of the temple there is an LED charging indicator and a button to turn off the 3D mode of the glasses. A full charge of the glasses battery takes 2.5-3 hours.
The rather detailed instructions that come with the NVIDIA 3D Vision kit describe all the nuances of using this kit and the modes of indicating the diode that indicates the state of charge of the glasses battery.
- Green - the battery is fully charged;
- Red - needs recharging;
- No indication - the battery is completely discharged.
If the ASUS VG236H bundle itself does not have a complete set of wires or adapters for all monitor connectors, then an additional NVIDIA 3D Vision box can completely smooth out the first negative impression of the bundle.
ASUS VG236H 3D monitor
The completely glossy surface of the front panel of the monitor "monolithically" passes into the gloss of the screen, which creates the impression of integrity and completeness of the product. The glossy detachable base, with a stylized cube-shaped "3D" inscription, immediately draws attention to the 3D support of this monitor model.
The ASUS logo adorns the central part of the frame, slightly to the left of it there is a NVIDIA 3D Vision technology support sticker, and the HDMI emblem is in the far left corner. On the right, the manufacturer placed a sticker with the logo of the proprietary technology SPLENDID Video Intelligence. The right corner is occupied by image control buttons. The rightmost of them, the power button, is highlighted with a special red stripe and is highlighted in blue during operation.
There are six control buttons in total, and the scheme of working with them and their designations are standard for all monitors from this manufacturer. The small size of the keys and their angular arrangement do not spoil the overall design of the monitor, but they create a little inconvenience when using them, although you can get used to it. They are pressed clearly only in the center, and the search for the desired key has to be done according to the tactile sensations of the number of gaps felt when you slide your finger along the line of their location.
Let's move on to the functions for which the control keys are responsible. The rightmost of them, as we have already said, is responsible for nutrition. The second on the right is responsible for switching between video inputs, and the leftmost one gives a choice between five preset modes of Splendid technology. Buttons with arrows and corresponding icons allow you to quickly adjust the brightness and contrast without calling the main menu, and they are also responsible for surfing through the menu windows after calling it by pressing the "MENU" button.
The rear cover of the monitor is made of slightly rough matte, but no less black than the front frame, plastic. Behind the whole structure looks quite angular. The leg is attached to a standard 100x100mm VESA mount.
Assembling the monitor consists in screwing the base to the monitor leg. As shown on the sticker - first you need to put the monitor face down on a flat table surface, and then screw the stand to the monitor mount with a special lamb screw.
The height of the monitor is adjusted using a special locking ring. When it is pulled, the spring-loaded base extends telescopically. By selecting the desired height of the monitor, you can return the shutter ring to its place, which will fix the length of the leg in the desired position. It is worth drawing the reader's attention to a fairly elastic spring that pushes the telescopic leg apart. Most likely, this is done for the convenience of adjusting the height of the legs in the working position of the monitor. Then the stiffness of the spring is compensated by the weight of the monitor panel. When adjusting the length of the legs on the table, you should beware of a sharp “feed” from the leg when removing the retaining ring. What is eloquently evidenced by the last picture on the sticker, just above the retaining ring.
In the assembled state, the design of the monitor stand can adjust the position of the panel both in height by 10 cm and in the vertical angle of inclination (from -5 to +15 degrees), as well as rotate the panel around its axis at a fairly wide angle of 150 degrees.
Even when the telescopic leg is fully extended, the monitor is held quite stable, the stand is well balanced and easily allows you to change the height, angle or rotate the monitor screen itself.
Most of the exterior parts are made of glossy plastic. The only exception was the back of the monitor panel and the inner “knee” of its telescopic leg. On such a surface, fingerprints and small dust particles will be clearly visible. The back side of the monitor panel, made of matte plastic, most likely will not draw attention to itself when using this model in the vast majority of places. Wires can be laid behind the monitor legs by fixing them in a special guide.
Positioning the ASUS VG236H as a gaming monitor forced the developers to additionally equip the new product with component HDTV and HDMI inputs. This allows you to connect to the monitor as a PC via DVI-D, and game consoles. For the transmission of a 120 Hz signal and, accordingly, support for 3D, only the DVI-D output is responsible. A little disappointing is the lack of sound transmission via HDMI and the lack of a DisplayPort connector, although the latter drawback should not become significant when choosing this monitor model.
The OSD menu of the ASUS VG236H monitor and the functionality of this menu are very similar to those of other ASUS TFT panels. Depending on the selected Splendid technology mode, the availability of various settings changes. In the standard mode, you can change the brightness, contrast and degree of activity of the Trace Free technology, which reduces the effect of trails when contrasting objects move quickly. Trace Free provides direct control of the LCD Overdrive from 0 to 100 in 20-unit increments.
In all other modes of the Splendid menu, you can adjust ASCR (dynamic contrast), sharpness and saturation.
An exception is the 3D mode. In it, the OSD menu is blocked and the picture quality settings fixed by the manufacturer are set. It remains only the possibility of manually changing the contrast, and the brightness in 3D mode is set to the maximum by the manufacturer. This is due to the fact that the NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit glasses are designed to only let half of the light through, resulting in a dimming effect in 3D mode. Even the maximum brightness of the panel will most likely not be enough for a comfortable gaming experience or watching a movie with dark scenes.
The menu has a fairly flexible adjustment of the color gamut with the ability to control each of the three colors in manual mode.
Through the menu, you can switch to input images from any of the three connectors (HDMI, DVI-D, YPbPr), which provides the flexibility to connect this monitor to various devices.
The menu also contains a section for adjusting the display parameters of the pop-up menu window itself.
There is a large selection of languages in which menu item labels will be displayed.
On the second tab of the language menu, you can also find the Russian language.
You can also choose the location of the settings window on the screen surface, set its position vertically and horizontally.
It is possible to adjust the transparency of the menu window.
There is even a tab for monitor display options.
It specifies:
- involved input,
- screen resolution,
- screen refresh rate,
- directly the model of the monitor itself.
The provided options for controlling the monitor image through the internal menu cannot be called outstanding. Ease of control of a gaming monitor has always been a priority in relation to its functionality. Most of the functions of adjusting the monitor to different modes of its operation are performed by automatic driver adjustment or semi-automatic adjustment through the Splendid menu modes. This approach for watching movies or visualizing the gameplay is quite justified and convenient.
NVIDIA 3D Vision in action
Below is a table of test applications that we used to test the 3D mode of the ASUS VG236H monitor. The right column indicates the degree of compatibility with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology, according to the classification proposed on the NVIDIA website.
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Application |
Degree of support for NVIDIA 3D Vision |
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Unigine "Heaven" DX11 Benchmark 2.1 |
Not on the list |
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Stone Giant DirectX 11 Benchmark |
Not on the list |
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Metro 2033: The Last Refuge |
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Alien vs Predator 2010 |
Wonderful |
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Colin McRae |
Wonderful |
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Wonderful |
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Wonderful |
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Satisfactorily |
This is not to say that our testing fully confirms this classification, but let's talk separately about each test application that ran on the following system.
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CPU |
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (LGA 1366, 6 core, 3.33GHz, L3 12MB) @4.1GHz |
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Motherboard |
MSI Big Bang-XPower (LGA 1366, Intel X58 Express, DDR3, ATX) |
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Cooler Master V8 (LGA 1366, 69.69 CFM, 2.94 mm H 2 O, 17-21 dB) |
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video card |
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 AMP! 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI-E 2.0 |
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RAM |
3x 2GB Kingston DDR3-2250 (KHX2250C9D3T1FK3/6GX) |
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Hard disks |
2x 128GB Kingston SSDNow V+ (SNVP325-S2B/128GB) |
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power unit |
Seasonic M12D-850 (850W, 120mm, 20dB) |
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Antec LanBoy Air Yellow (MidiTower, Transformer) |
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operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit |
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Drivers |
NVIDIA ForceWare 263.09 |
All test applications were launched at maximum settings and at the resolution recommended for ASUS VG236H monitor 1920x1080. All additional effects of the game scene were included, which also affected the quality of the split image for NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
We included the first two synthetic tests in the description of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology for their full compatibility and high-quality reference visualization of the volume of a 3D scene.
Unigine "Heaven" DX11 Benchmark 2.1
Stone Giant DirectX 11 Benchmark
Of course, we cannot convey in the article the stereo effect that is formed by the ASUS VG236H monitor and the NVIDIA 3D Vision kit. We showed earlier how such a three-dimensional image is perceived on the monitor with the “unaided” eye. Note that the three-dimensional image with the presence effect achieved by NVIDIA 3D Vision technology is worthy of editorial approval.
Now let's talk about gaming applications, arranging them in our order according to the quality of support for NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
Metro 2033: The Last Refuge
Lost Planet 2
Our testing of the games Metro 2033 The Last Refuge and Lost Planet 2 passed without any complaints or problems with the resulting volumetric image. However, if Metro 2033 The Last Refuge really impressed with the depth of volume and the mass of volumetric effects, then the game Lost Planet 2 did not look so impressive .
The next two games are not perfectly optimized for 3D VISION modes, but they can be described as quite "playable", and small rare 3D mode artifacts can be considered insignificant.
Far Cry 2
Call of Juarez
In Far Cry 2 and Call of Juarez, shadows were out of sync with some loose objects. This was quite rare, but it was impossible not to pay attention to it in the gameplay. Otherwise, the picture was with a good volume in perspective and high-quality rendering of foreground objects.
Colin McRae
Playing Colin McRae: DiRT 2 in NVIDIA 3D Vision mode impressed with the depth of the volume of objects located in the foreground. But the shadows from the side barriers and the embankment greatly spoiled the overall impression of the gameplay. Their complete desynchronization "beat" in the eyes. Of course, few people will pay attention to such nuances in the gameplay, the main thing here is not to “fall out” of the track and come first.
Alien vs Predator 2010
Alien vs Predator 2010 left a very controversial impression about the ability to enjoy the gameplay in its three-dimensional form. All foreground objects (located less than a meter behind the screen) were completely out of sync (double), which is in no way acceptable in a dynamic gaming duel.
The last two games turned out to be completely unoptimized for the NVIDIA 3D Vision mode. The game scene was heavily out of sync, which made it impossible to focus on the game itself and caused rapid eye fatigue.
Crysis Warhead
In Crysis Warhead, literally half of the large foreground objects were out of sync and severely distorted the game scene.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
The game scene in S.T.A.L.K.E.R turned out to be more voluminous, but all the shadows and lights were out of sync, which made it impossible to focus on the gameplay.
Our conclusions about each of the games cannot be called unambiguous. For example, if you remove additional effects from light sources and shadows cast by objects in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R, then the 3D picture will become quite “playable”. It is quite possible that with the release of a new generation of drivers for NVIDIA 3D Vision technology, all the above shortcomings will also be corrected.
In general, when using the 3D Vision mode, some applications impress with the novelty and quality of the 3D image achieved. Fully supporting this mode, Metro 2033 The Last Refuge provides a truly new immersion in the gameplay and leaves the impression of being in the game.
There are also negative aspects of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. The glasses shutter frequency is 60 Hz per eye, which is similar in visual effect to the flickering frequency of the cathode ray tube of old monitors, causing eye fatigue.
conclusions
The ASUS VG236H monitor turned out to be an ergonomic and functional solution. The design and ease of execution of the stand will provide maximum comfort when choosing the location of the monitor panel that is convenient for viewing. The fully glossy front of the monitor body and the base of its leg give this product a sophisticated look, but also require care for a surface that gets dirty easily. Very good, above average for a TN + Film matrix, the viewing angle is able to provide family viewing of 3D movies. True, to immerse yourself in the 3D world of not one, but several people, you will have to buy additional glasses for everyone who wants to. The ASUS VG236H monitor is equipped with component HDTV and HDMI inputs, which allows you to connect both a PC via DVI-D and game consoles to the monitor. The fast matrix not only ensures that the monitor operates at a frequency of 120 Hz, but also allows even fast-moving elements of a dynamic game scene to remain clear and contrasting. The latter will be appreciated by professional gamers.
Buying an ASUS VG236H monitor, the user will certainly want to use NVIDIA 3D Vision technology, glasses for which can be included in the package, and the TFT panel itself supports image refresh at a frequency of 120 Hz. It remains to provide the system with an NVIDIA GPU-based graphics card and you can enjoy 3D reality in most modern games and when watching 3D movies. Unfortunately, not all modern games are fully compatible with the 3D Vision mode, but many of them can be configured correctly, and most problems will most likely go away with the release of new drivers for modern video cards from NVIDIA.
We express our gratitude to the Ukrainian representative office of ASUS for providing the monitor for testing.
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