Best monitor for Mac Pro?

[TheStrudel]

If colour is really important to you, don't even look at cheap displays in the $400 range. ALL of those displays use TN panels, regardless of their backlighting. TN panels are crap, especially for colour critical work. Even the slightest movement of your head will change the colours dramatically due to the very poor viewing angle of TN panels.

Do yourself a favour and buy a IPS or PVA panel. Believe me, they are worth it.

Very true, except that your price number is more like "Under $300". Thankfully, you can now actually buy a PVA or IPS panel display under or around the $400 mark. Here's a list of decent (but not amazing) PVA/IPS monitors that are more than enough for most people, but not up to the $1000 NEC Wuxi standards:

Samsung F2380
NEC EA231WMi
Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA
Dell Ultrasharp U2410
HP ZR24w
HP ZR22w
HP LP2475w

You may notice that none of these are LED backlit. You don't need LED backlighting; it has advantages but it does not confer a noticeable advantage to color accuracy, which is your main objective. Generally speaking, in the computer monitor space, the advantages conferred by LED backlighting do not yet justify the price premium. The exception to this is RGB backlighting, found in extremely expensive displays such as the HP Dreamcolor - but now we're talking about the $1800 range.

There are more monitors, but these probably hold the price/performance crown at this time. Certainly one of those will meet your needs, since you don't seem to be well versed in computer monitors. I'm kind of surprised you don't already know what you want, given the software packages you say you use.

If you tell us what your budget and requirements are, we can advise you better.

 

[Murray M]

Sadly not an LED but the NEC 24/2690 wuxi2 line have hardware calibration and my (26in model) is the best screen I've ever owned.

+1

I love my NEC 2690--and researched the fool out of it before getting it--but it's probably MUCH more than your budget. That said, a $400 monitor is not gonna come anywhere close to color accurate.

 

[nanofrog]

+1

I love my NEC 2690--and researched the fool out of it before getting it--but it's probably MUCH more than your budget. That said, a $400 monitor is not gonna come anywhere close to color accurate.

I've the NEC 2490, and am extremely happy with it.

But even as a refurbished model, it went for a bit under $800USD with an extended warranty, so NEC's pro models will be well out of a $400 budget, and Eizo Nanao's ColorEdge series will absolutely terrify someone that's never seen their prices before.


NEC does offer a really good cost/performance ratio compared to most pro units. The others TheStrudel mentioned would be worth looking at IMO as low cost alternatives, but they'd likely require a calibrator to go with them OTB as they're not likely accurate enough, and would require additional funds, say ~$200USD for an Eye-1 Display 2 kit (includes software). The HP LP2475w would almost certainly from the user information I've seen, though once calibrated properly, is usable for photograpy work.

 

[strausd]

I did just find a 23 inch LED for a pretty good price. Its the Samsung xl2370. I was even able to find it at Best Buy for $300 so I got to actually check it out and it looks pretty good. It is very thin which I like. The only bad thing is that it is a little on the wobbly side, but for the price it's a good choice for me.

 

[TheStrudel]

It's a TN panel. It's not worth it. The NEC EA231WMi is easily twice as good, LED backlighting be damned. Trust us. LED is not a magic technology that automatically makes displays better than everything without LED.

 

[strausd]

Like I've said before, I'm on a budget and I can get the xl2370 for $270. Plus I was actually able to go check it out and it looked pretty good to me.

 

[Apple Corps]

Several thoughts:

This thread may well belong in Mac Peripherals section - it is about displays waaaaay more than a Mac Pro

The OP's Thread Title / Budget / Mac Pro do not easily fit in the same set.

LED backlighting has a number of issues with it. After considerable research and sampling I just purchased an NEC CCFL backlit 30" monitor - simply stunning

 

[TheStrudel]

Like I've said before, I'm on a budget and I can get the xl2370 for $270. Plus I was actually able to go check it out and it looked pretty good to me.

The NEC I listed comes very close to the same price and exceeds it in performance by a wide margin.

I also wouldn't take store display very seriously, unless you're using the machine to run a battery of image tests.

It's your money, but for your money, IPS > LED.

Can you tell me a specific reason why that monitor would be better or why LED would be?

Because let me tell you, a lot of people have said that the NEC EA231WMi looks very good. $310 at Newegg. More than worth the $40 premium.

 

[strausd]

The 23 inch NEC does look pretty interesting, but its out of stock everywhere...

 

[strausd]

Also, this monitor doesn't need to be crazy good because I will be using an Apple LED as my primary. I just need some more real estate.

 

[nanofrog]

The 23 inch NEC does look pretty interesting, but its out of stock everywhere...

They're available in some places.

Here's 2x at decent prices before Bing cash back (2% is still a savings).
Newegg
NextWarehouse

Others with Bing cashback, and the %'s are listed. But the two I linked are the cheapest deals that have stock (~$320USD including shipping, but before Bing CB).

Hope this helps.

 

[guavadude]

I'd like to find a 23" 1900x1200 to go with/replace my aging Apple cinema display. I've read about the LG e-ips monitors but they have never landed.
They looked like a good solution at a good price.
Any info on those?

 

[strausd]

The thing that worries me is the response time on the NEC. Does anyone have a problem with this?

 

[you39]

The thing that worries me is the response time on the NEC. Does anyone have a problem with this?

Honestly, I'd worry more about the 170/160 degree view angle on the Samsung vs. 178/178 degrees on the NEC if, as you say, color is important to you. That's a huge difference.

That being said, I don't do any video editing or gaming. Just looked it up my Eizo has a similar response time. If Photoshop and Illustrator are your primary applications I'd say "not to worry"...

 

[nanofrog]

The thing that worries me is the response time on the NEC. Does anyone have a problem with this?

I've a different model, but No, it's not a problem (LCD 2490WUXi).

Also remember, a lot of those figures aren't On-Off-On, but Grey to Grey measurements (which is a way to advertise better numbers).

 

[Bocaj]

I do a lot of Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Mudbox, and ZBrush so color is pretty important.

If color is important and you want an LED along with it being a 24" monitor ANNNNNNND you want it for $400 or less, you're asking for the world.
My suggestion, save some money then spend it on good monitor with the specs that you want.

 

[strausd]

well I have found a pretty good 23 inch LED monitor with good response time for 270, but color is also important, which is why I am wondering about the NEC.

 

[reel2reel]

I've got a Dell 3007WFP 30" that I love. Got it for $1000 CDN, less than half the price of the 30" Apple display. I prefer one big display over two smaller. I've used dual displays for years, but for Final Cut Pro and Apple Color, I like the 30" much better for the way I configure my windows.

It's wide-gamut so non-colour-aware apps display colours waaay oversaturated. I've had no problem using Photoshop for my photography, though. In Final Cut and Colour I'm going out to a pro HD broadcast monitor, so the 30" is UI-only.

Love that it has USB ports down the side, too.

 

[you39]

well I have found a pretty good 23 inch LED monitor with good response time for 270, but color is also important, which is why I am wondering about the NEC.

The question is: do you really have a need for that ultra fast response time?

 

[RebootD]

It's a TN panel. It's not worth it. The NEC EA231WMi is easily twice as good, LED backlighting be damned. Trust us. LED is not a magic technology that automatically makes displays better than everything without LED.

+1 to you on that. A TN panel + LED is still worse than a hardware LUT LCD with older backlight. I bought a cheaper $500 LG 24in SPVA panel in 2007 and it stopped working in 2009. I finally saved up and got the NEC and while very expensive it has perfect uniformity, color profiles and thankfully firefox can be made to support wide gamut displays and I'm all set.

 

[strausd]

The question is: do you really have a need for that ultra fast response time?

I'm just wondering if anyone has noticed anything bad about it when it comes to watching movies or playing games on it...

 

[TheStrudel]

I don't own that particular monitor, but according to others, it's not much of a problem. If you really want to see a good forum for monitors, check out [H]ardforum's display section, where they have huge 30+ page threads on all the recent IPS monitors. You'll hear everything there is to hear about there from people who are way more discerning on quality than they are here.

Enough so to make you doubt the quality of IPS displays. But these are people who scorn TN panels and are hard to please, too.

Unless you're trying to game at 60 FPS online at breakneck speeds, it won't matter. These monitors can handle movies just fine.

My IPS display worked fine both for high speed gaming (Wipeout HD) and editing videos and watching movies. And it's an older model less geared towards consumer applications. Pretty sure the NEC can do everything you want it to and make you wonder how you put up with TN panels.

 

[strausd]

I'm pretty sure that if I have the money I'm gonna go for the NEC monitor, I hope it's worth it!

 

[reel2reel]

Who in hell wants to watch a movie in front of your computer? Ugh. After working 60 hours a week, I can't wait to *not* sit in front a computer. I prefer my Sony 46" feeding me some blu-ray eye candy. And getting to the gym.

 

[strausd]

Who in hell wants to watch a movie in front of your computer? Ugh. After working 60 hours a week, I can't wait to *not* sit in front a computer. I prefer my Sony 46" feeding me some blu-ray eye candy. And getting to the gym.

Well... people are different.