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Hot: Need to choose Monitor today! Looking for help.

M

maxmaut

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2011
138
4
Hi everyone!
I have a rush of buying a new monitor, my old one died yesterday, and I have some urgent work that needs to be done, so I really need your advice.

I work as a graphic designer. So color definitely matters. I design games for mobile devices, so fact that my screen is bigger then 1920x1280 would make me happy (but this is not critical).

I don't do games a lot, so I don't care about ms response time, etc.

I spend at least 10 hours/day in front of my monitor, so it's also important to keep my eyes in comfort (I'm not sure if there are any features that have something to do with this).

Another problem - my graphics card is a stock 2009MP card NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB, so I also need to know, if I but a 27'' monitor, would my card be able to handle design (PS, AI, ID) and a little gaming (like diablo3) ?
Or I should also buy a new one?

My budget is around $800-1000, but least is better.

Thanks for your help guys,
I need to decide this today, so any answers would be helpful.
 
If colour is important, go for an ips panel that has been measured for conformity. One of the NEC Spectraviews or Eizo CG range. If you want built in calibration hardware (they both come with software) go for a CG 275 from Eizo. If you already have a calibration device, go for either a Spectraview or an Eizo without built in.
 
If I were you, I'd grab either a single HP ZR30w or two HP ZR2440w. Both use LG-Philips IPS panels and got acceptable input lag.
 
Nec and Eizo are way out of my league. Too expensive.
HP ZR2740w is OK though, and fits my budget. Comparing to Dell US 27'' - wich one I should go with?
I really now nothing about this matters, that's why I'm lookin' for help.

Also - I've read that some cards don't support high-res monitors. Is this correct? Should I also look for some 2gb card for this 27'' monitors?
 
maxmaut said:
Nec and Eizo are way out of my league. Too expensive.
HP ZR2740w is OK though, and fits my budget. Comparing to Dell US 27'' - wich one I should go with?
I really now nothing about this matters, that's why I'm lookin' for help.

Also - I've read that some cards don't support high-res monitors. Is this correct? Should I also look for some 2gb card for this 27'' monitors?
Click to expand...

Ok, since you're in for a 27 inches, I'd pick the HP, same IPS panel as the Dell, but less input lag and I kind of prefer HP's aesthetics and build quality.
And don't worry about the graphics card...
 
Last edited:
Why not use good old Apple Cinema Display 23" - it's matte, colors are great and it matches perfectly for Mac Pro :)
 
Spacedust, I'm from Ukraine. It's like a land where no one knows what a mac pro is. Buying ACD, old one, it's almost an impossible task here. And I needed a monitor quickly.

Btw, I went into stores, and there was nothing better then 24'' Dell U2413M, wich I bought. And my old monitor started working again, so I ended up with a dual monitor setup, wich is kina cool for a graphic designer.

I'm looking for a graphics card now, so I'll start a thread for that too)
 
I work as a graphic designer. So color definitely matters. I design games for mobile devices, so fact that my screen is bigger then 1920x1280 would make me happy (but this is not critical).
Click to expand...

Don't buy a wide gamut monitor.

If your response to that is "why not?", then you should really, really go read about the sRGB colourspace and colourspaces in general. Things are not as simple as they appear, and if you're handling graphics and need accurate colours- you should know what you're getting into beforehand.

The best advice I can give you is this- avoid wide gamut monitors like the plague. Mac OS X doesn't support them properly anymore (the feature that used to handle that- called ColorSync- is currently broken in 10.7 and 10.8). Some applications that run under OS X include their own colour management systems, but that's a hit or miss if they'll actually work.

What you basically want is an sRGB monitor with an S-IPS panel. Chances are that if the monitor doesn't explicitly say it's "Wide Gamut", then it'll be sRGB- and that's what you want, because 99.5% of the mobile devices out there (including all of Apple's handhelds) default to sRGB. If you're designing graphics for an sRGB monitor, then you obviously want to be designing them on an sRGB monitor.

Trust me on this one. I bought a wide gamut monitor by mistake. It was the worst purchase of my life and has been nothing but trouble when dealing with graphics design for mobile/handhelds. Wide gamut monitors make sense if you're into photography, and nothing else. I later landed up buying a monitor with sRGB support built-in afterwards and haven't looked back.

-SC
 
The Dell U2713 comes with a well calibrated sRGB mode (measurement sheet included), has tons of inputs, does 24p movies without judder and has low input lag.
 
PowerPCMacMan Івано-Франківськ.

ScottishCaptain, blanka, thanks, my decision was made before your posts but this info will hopefully be useful for someone else.
 
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