3D Vision Mega Evaluation – Gimmick or Gaming’s Future?

120Hz Displays vs. 120Hz displays – advantages for 2D gaming?

We are already seeing the next generation 27″ 120Hz LCDs that will not only support full 1080p gaming at 60fps using the 3D Vision built-in emitter, but they will also support the HDMI 1.4a standard which has the full 60fps at 720p and 24fps at 1080p.

This is the new breed of 27″ display that supports 3D Vision as well as via HDMI 1.4

Our 23.6″ ASUS 120Hz display is one generation older and supports 3D Vision but not HDMI 1.4

Here are the specifications for the ASUS display:

•  Display Size: 23″ Widescreen
  Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (up to 120Hz)
  Aspect Ratio: 16 : 9
  Brightness: 400 cd/m2
  Intrinsic Contrast Ratio: 1,000:1
  Response Time: 2 ms (Gray to Gray)
  Viewing Angle: 170º / 160º (Horizontal / Vertical)
  Color Saturation (NTSC): 16.7 M
  Connectors: Dual-link DVI, HDMI, Component
  Power Consumption: 60W On / 2W Power Saving / 1W Off
  Speakers: No
  Stand: +15° to -5° Tilt, Vesa Mounts (100mm x 100mm)
  Dimensions (WxHxD): 550 x 420 x 250 mm
  Weight: 15.4 lbs / 7 kg

120Hz displays are particularly well-suited for fast-paced shooters and playing these games on a 120Hz display versus playing on a 60Hz display is almost like playing a different game.  With a 120Hz display, you are getting every single frame at or below 120fps drawn to the display. At that high of a response rate, flicker is gone. The result is a similar kind of, ‘once you’ve experienced it, you can’t go back’

The image on the 120Hz display is not prone to tearing and blurring as on a 60Hz screen.  Look at the same scene from Mirror’s Edge, shown below.  Nvidia captured the left image on a conventional 60Hz display and the right one on the ASUS 120Hz display.  This is perhaps a bit more extreme blurring than this editor sees with live fast-paced action shooters – perhaps a “worst case vs. best case” scene; but the “tearing”, flicker and LCD blurring is completely gone on the ASUS 120Hz display.Unfortunately, these kinds of images are very difficult to capture and it is impossible to show any differences on a 60Hz LCD in a video for our readers.  In fact, most consumer high resolution and high definition digital cameras only capture at 1080p at 60 Fields per second and you will blur both images playing either of them back on your 60Hz LCD.

However, we do know how to capture these images and own a digital camera capable of recording 240 fields per second, and we will work to publish a further 120Hz versus 60Hz display comparison for you and we will post our own images of the differences that we find.

However, if you have a 120Hz display set up next to a 60Hz display, it is really easy to tell the superiority of the 120Hz display just by dragging a Firefox window across the screen very quickly.  The 120Hz display is crisp and there is no discernible motion blur unlike with the 60Hz display.

With a 60Hz display you have to make compromises with shooters – there is built-in motion blur and tearing without Vsync enabled and a 60fps framerate cap with it on. This not an issue at 120Hz.  Using a 120Hz LCD, there is no noticeable frame tearing that this editor experienced as vsync remains on all of the time and the 60fps cap is now gone. Hence the motion blur that everyone everyone else experiences at 60Hz and perceives as normal is also gone at 120Hz.

Of course, one can make a 120Hz LCD also tear or ruin the framerates if you bog your system down enough. However, in a practical way – one will experience a much better fast-action gaming experience with a 120Hz display over a 60Hz monitor, in regard to playing without tearing or severely capped framerates when one has a fast enough PC to keep the framerates well over 60 as a minimum.

To summarize, you have to compromise on a 60Hz display between high framerates with vsynch off and tearing, or no tearing and limited framerates.   On a conventional 60Hz LCD with vsynch on, tearing is eliminated; but the frame-rate is also limited, leaving significant performance on the table if you have a fast videocard.  On the other hand, 120Hz displays are no-compromise and you do get a superior no-tear/no-blur image in fast-paced shooters where your videocard is able to keep the framerate above 60fps.

What kind of 120Hz display is 3D Vision Ready?

3D Vision Ready 120Hz displays are capable of internal refresh rates of 120Hz and are driven at 120Hz via a dual-link DVI connection. This is not to be confused with “120Hz” HDTVs that only accept 60Hz content.   For 3D Vision Ready displays, 120Hz means that 120 frames per second can be driven directly from the graphics card to the display, with the LCD’s pixels being refreshed at 120Hz.

Now that we see the differences between the 60Hz and 120Hz displays and we have our ASUS VG236 23.6″ Pure Vision 3D Ready display, let’s open the box and set up our display.