Testing & Results

Testing Methodology

I've owned this monitor for almost a year now. When I got it, I immediately tested it for dead and stuck pixels using simple online color swatches that help you identify stuck and dead pixels. To this day, I have not one dead or stuck pixel. If you need to perform this test yourself, just search for something like "LCD pixel test" and you should find more than enough information to do so.

I also own a 23" AOC TF 16:9 monitor and a 23" Philllips IPS 16:10 panel that I use side by side in a multiple monitor set up. What can I say? I used to use the Phillips IPS panel as my main display. Now I use the ASUS for my main display. It's that good. Out of all three of my monitors, one costing over 1200.00 USD, this is now my main display. The text is nice and crisp, games look brilliant, and for normal computing, it's nice to have a bigger picture and text too. I don't process images on it, though, when I'm processing for clients. That activity is reserved for the IPS panel, but for everything else, I use the ASUS. I would use it for processing if I had to, though, since as demonstrated, after calibration, it's color accuracy compared to my IPS panel was extremely close. I'd just need to be careful about positioning myself in front of the monitor, since TF panels shift contrast and color when moving in front of them.

Last, LCD panels are native resolution only really. In other words, the "native" resolution (1920x1200 for this monitor) is how the monitor should be used. Otherwise, text become somewhat blurry. Again, I was surprised by the ASUS at how well it scaled text when set to 1600x1200. It's almost indistinguishable. Still, you can tell the difference and will want to run the monitor in its native 190x1200 resolution. What's nice about this finding is that if you need to run your games in 1600, you can with hardly any text degradation.

Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte UD5 ver2
• System Memory: 12GB OCZ Gold Triple Channel: OCZ3G1600LV2G
• Processor: Intel Core 920
• Video: BFG GTX295
• Primary Drive: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB
• Monitor:ASUS VW266H
• Operating System:Windows 7 Ultimate
• AOC 23" TF 16:9 panel
• Phillips 23" 16:10 IPS panel

Results

There isn't one thing I can list that is a negative, except what was already discussed (and those items were not negatives but simply factual information about TF panels and resolution). As stated above, all TF panels suffer color shift and contrast washout when viewed from extreme angles, and some of the same even at marginal changes in viewing angle. On the other hand, if you view your monitor in front of you, you won't notice it, that is, unless you're doing high level graphics/photography work. This is the same phenomenon that you get when you flip open your laptop and move the screen forward and backwards. You can see the screen change color and contrast. It's no big deal. It's normal. Deal with it (or pay a lot more for an IPS panel with the same 16:10 aspect ratio).

Actually, I do have a gripe, also mentioned above. The navigation buttons frustrate me. That's it. Seriously, this monitor is that good. The OSD is well laid out, even if the button navigation isn't so hot. It comes with all of the cables you need, plus a power cord (believe it or not). When playing Crysis 2, Eve Online, and Mortal Online, plus watching videos, I see no ghosting at all. That's pretty much a thing of the past, though, but worth mentioning.

One other thing to remember is the resolution in relation to your graphics card. If you have an older video card and are using a resolution below 1920x1200, you may run into problems. Suddenly games you are playing at say 1680x1050 become choppy due to the extra load of 1920x1200 resolution on the old graphics card. So is this going to be a problem today? Probably not since even three years ago a 9800GTX card would push a resolution of 1920x1200 under most gaming conditions (You might have to lower options, but you get the picture).

All of this is speculative, however, because there are games out there that will tax even the most modern of cards, and do it at 1600 resolution. Games are now, thankfully, highly scalable and so you shouldn't have any problems finding a setting that will work for you. The point is that if you're stepping up in resolution, check your video card to make sure you can run the software you want to run. The higher the resolution, the more it will tax your video card. Mainly, this only applies to games, and the game specifications should tell you what type of card you will need to run at any specific resolution. Everything else you run, web browser, business apps, watching movies, and so on will most likely be fine.

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