ViewSonic’s V3D231 – Passive 3D vs. 3D Vision

Unboxing

The ViewSonic V3D231 that we received from ViewSonic comes packed tightly in a sturdy cardboard box which is used to advertise its features at retail as well as serve as a shipping box.  Our box arrived rather beat up but the precious contents were undamaged.

This is the other side of the box again emphasizing the V3D 231 as a 23″ 3D ready LED backlight LCD.

Even the shipping box is narrow.

As you can see from the end panel, the box is very narrow since the display itself is quite thin at about 1.5″.  All of this needs some great packing which ViewSonic provides to get their product to you in good condition.  The box itself was quite battered but the internals were perfectly protected.

Here are the contents out of the box and still in the packing.

And the other side:

Here is everything you get.  Notice that there are two pairs of 3D polarized glasses.  We only used the clip-ons over prescription glasses for our evaluation as they were the most comfortable.

Here is everything out of the ViewSonic box.  The display is quite thin at 1.5 inches wide.  The base is the limiting factor in how close you can put it next to a wall as it is about 7.5 inches wide – so the display itself can be about 4″ from a wall.  Even in a custom situation, the power plug and cables stick out at a 90 degree angle to the display limiting you to about three inches clearance.

There are two built-in speakers that are passable for the audio but lack bass response.  If you use a single HDMI 1.4a cable as we did, you do not have to use another speaker cable to connect the PC to the display. The display only has a rather stiff pivot which moves in only one direction and there is no vertical height adjustment.  The base snaps on relatively easily but is difficult to remove.

To remove it, a screwdriver is needed to push down on the locking mechanism while simultaneously pulling up on the monitor to separate them.

One of the best things that we personally liked about this display is the ease of connecting to it.  One does not have to bend down or reach under to connect – you just plug directly into the panel.  The only disadvantage is that the cables then stick straight out from the display at 90 degrees to the panel.  This is no issue if the display is on its stand but the cables may stick out with other kinds of mounting.  The following diagram shows the 3D connections that are possible.

Connections are basic, using DVI, VGA, HDMI 1.4a, Audio In and Audio Out ports.

The ViewSonic bundle includes two pairs of passive lenses – the full glasses and the clip ons.  Since we generally wear prescription glasses, we used the clip-ons.  They are quite cheaply made and we had to fix the clips several times over the course of our 2 month evaluation.  For a comparison, the Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses are shown in the upper right of the photo below, and the original active shutter 3D Vision glasses are at the bottom right.  Cheap and almost throwaway for ‘passive’ vs. $100-$150 for each pair of active shutter glasses.

The display is stylish and has a very narrow thin profile.  The bezel and the base are made of high gloss plastic which tends highlight fingerprints but are easily cleaned.

The ViewSonic V3D231 is a good looking display, and it is time to plug it in and check out the startup menu common to ViewSonic displays.  Besides the power button, there are 4 raised buttons hidden under the display where you can select the menu and change the functions by using them in conjunction with the others.  The layout is simple but it would be nice to have some documentation in the quick start guide.

After we set up, we naturally install the included TriDef software and we started to play games in 3D.

Test Configuration

Test Configuration – Hardware:

• Intel Core i7 920 (reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8GHz); Turbo is on.
• Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
• 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 18000 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
• Nvidia GTX 580 (1.5 GB, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• AMD HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks), supplied by AMD
• 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drive
• Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
• Noctua NH-U12-P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• ViewSonic V3D231 1920×1080 23? 60Hz passive 3D display, supplied by ViewSonic
• ASUS VG236H 120Hz 3D Vision ready 1920×1080 23? display, supplied by Nvidia
• Clip-on and regular 3D polarized passive glasses, included with the ViewSonic V3D231, supplied by ViewSonic
• 3D Vision Wireless Kit (glasses/emitter) included with the ASUS VG236H display, supplied by Nvidia

Test Configuration – Software

• 80 plus personal PC game library
• TriDef 3D Software especially written for ViewSonic V3D231; latest version
• Nvidia GeForce WHQL 285.26 and betas 290.36 & 290.53
• Catalyst 11-11 and 11-12
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• DirectX latest version
• All tested games are fully patched and updated
• Varying AA enabled; some settings downgraded or disabled to get the best 3D effect
• All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used.

Now that we have our display unboxed and set up let’s check it out and play some games in S3D!