Competitors (cont’d)

NEC MultiSync LCD1970GX

Next up was the NEC LCD1970GX. If you recall from our last article, the winner of the last article was the 1770NX, a 12 ms TN+film panel that seemed to offer it all: "fast enough" pixel refresh rates where the smearing didn't interfere with gaming and good "out-of-the-box" color accuracy (a key feature when watching movies, working with Photoshop, and ensuring that your games look the way the developers intended them to look.)


The 1970GX is NEC's 19" gaming monitor and features an 8 ms panel with "Opticlear" technology. Opticlear is similar to Sony's Xbrite technology that produces a reflective high-gloss surface screen. While this does create a disadvantage of increased reflection, the visual contrast is improved substantially. The 1970GX includes a USB 2.0 hub and has a brightness of 400 cd/m2. It sells for $500 after a $50 mail in rebate.


This monitor was obtained from NEC-Mitsubishi directly and was a non-retail press-sample.

NEC MultiSync LCD1980FXi

Next up was the NEC LCD1980FXi. While the 1970GX was a standard 6-bit TN film panel, the 1980FXi uses a more expensive 8-bit S-IPS technology with an internal 10-bit gamma LUT. This is one of the faster S-IPS panels from NEC, featuring an 18 ms rating. Recall that 25 ms IPS panels maintain consistent pixel refreshes regardless of whether it is a white to black or white to gray transition whereas TN film and MVA panels are fastest with white to black transitions.


What caught our attention from the 1980FXi is that it has been engineered for color accuracy. While it's not at the same level of the $3000 Eizo ColorEdge's, the 1980FXi has a hardware 10-bit gamma and 10-bit internal color correction which should allow superb color, particularly with gradients. Contrast ratio is 600:1 and the brightness is rated 270 cd/m2. This retails for $800 but can be found online for $700.


This is the most expensive display in our roundup, it was submitted for our evaluation by NEC-Mitsubishi, and is a non-retail sample. This was not a press-sample, but instead a unit distributed by NEC via lease programs or 30-day business evaluations.

Samsung Syncmaster 920T

From Samsung, we sought their 1000:1 contrast ratio monitor the Syncmaster 920T. With our Samsung-manufactured Dell 1703FP exceeding 1000:1 on our tests, we were eager to see what a high-end 19" PVA panel with an advertised 1000:1 could do. While these super-high contrast ratios may seem like artificially inflated marketing numbers, contrast ratio is also about the accuracy of your measurements. Reviewers citing 200 or 300:1 contrast ratios for monitors spec'd above 600:1 to 1000:1 simply aren't using sensitive enough equipment to measure the black level. As you can imagine, if you had a monitor with a white of of 200 cd/m2 and a black of 0.2 cd/m2, the true contrast ratio would be 1000:1, but if you were off by 0.2 cd/m2, then 200.2/0.4 would give you half that contrast ratio. Clearly, the accuracy of the black level is important and our colorimeter meets that requirement by identifying 0 cd/m2 with a CRT turned off, and being able to distinguish 0.01cd/m2.


The Syncmaster 920T's base isn't as cool as the LG's, but it does have multi-axis controls and the pivot ability. The 920T is not intended as a gaming monitor, and its 25 ms PVA pixel refresh rate is the slowest of the group. This monitor was submitted to us by Samsung, but appeared to be a retail unit. It is available for approximately $650, but Newegg appears to have it for just $420!