New monitor

[Lenny]

I've been wanting a new monitor. Found this on sale at newegg:

$160 ($30 off thru 3/21)
ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 50000000:1 (ASCR)

It has everything I want and doesn't suffer from the ghosting problem some ASUS LED models do (regardless of response time).

Does anyone have this monitor?

My only concern is the increase of resolution from 1680x1050 to 1920x1080. That's about an 18% increase in pixels count. I currently get frame rates in the 50's in BF3 with a GTX460 overclocked from 715/1800 to 825/2000. BF3 looks and plays fine for me right now.

How much of a frame rate drop do you think I'll see? I suppose I could tweak my video settings if the fps drop is a problem. I could also probably get a higher overclock from the video card as I didn't try too hard to get where I'm at now.

Current BF3 settings:
- Res: 1680 x 1050
- All HIGH video settings
- AA Deferred = OFF
- AA Post = HIGH
- AF = 16x
- Ambient Occlusion = HBAO
- Motion Blur = Enabled
- Enlighten = Enabled
- Transparent Shadows = Enabled

[Activate: AMD]

I've been wanting a new monitor. Found this on sale at newegg:

$160 ($30 off thru 3/21)
ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 50000000:1 (ASCR)

It has everything I want and doesn't suffer from the ghosting problem some ASUS LED models do (regardless of response time).

Does anyone have this monitor?

My only concern is the increase of resolution from 1680x1050 to 1920x1080. That's about an 18% increase in pixels count. I currently get frame rates in the 50's in BF3 with a GTX460 overclocked from 715/1800 to 825/2000. BF3 looks and plays fine for me right now.

How much of a frame rate drop do you think I'll see? I suppose I could tweak my video settings if the fps drop is a problem. I could also probably get a higher overclock from the video card as I didn't try too hard to get where I'm at now.

Current BF3 settings:
- Res: 1680 x 1050
- All HIGH video settings
- AA Deferred = OFF
- AA Post = HIGH
- AF = 16x
- Ambient Occlusion = HBAO
- Motion Blur = Enabled
- Enlighten = Enabled
- Transparent Shadows = Enabled

moving to 1080P I would expect your GPU to be fine if you disable HBAO, AA Post and/or drop AF to 8x. Might need to mess around but an OC'd 460 is plenty to play BF3

[kbohip]

I'll be interested to hear what your thoughts are Lenny when you get your new monitor. I also have a 1680x1050 monitor and have been trying to talk myself into a 1920x1080 too, but I just don't know if it will be worth it for the extra money and performance hit.

As for your 460 being able to run BF3 decently? If worse came to worse you could buy another 460 and go the SLI route like I did. My setup runs BF3 awesomely, of course this is at the lower res.

[Lenny]

I'm happy with the ASUS 1680x1050 monitor I have now. My main motivation is to pass my current monitor to my son and then his 1280x1024 19" LCD to my daughter who is living with a very old 1024x768 15" LCD. Of course having a new monitor for myself won't be bad

My Antec NEO HE 550w PSU (with 3 x 18A rails) has been rock solid for me but I'm not sure if it could handle 2 x GTX460.

[kbohip]

I'm happy with the ASUS 1680x1050 monitor I have now. My main motivation is to pass my current monitor to my son and then his 1280x1024 19" LCD to my daughter who is living with a very old 1024x768 15" LCD. Of course having a new monitor for myself won't be bad

My Antec NEO HE 550w PSU (with 3 x 18A rails) has been rock solid for me but I'm not sure if it could handle 2 x GTX460.

Hehe, I just need to find someone to pass my old monitor to as well, then I can upgrade. It's funny you mention the NEO 550. It's the psu I had before putting together my new system back in October. I almost chanced it and was going to use the NEO to see if it could handle the load. Then I thought better of it and went with the 850w OCZ. I still wonder though if it could've handled the SLI setup. I don't remember ever getting above 500 watts load in games, and for the most part it's at 380-400. The bad thing about the 550 NEO was the lack of pci plugs for the 460's though.

[Lenny]

Using this PSU Calculator and assuming 20% capacity aging the min PSU for my current rig is 450w and recommended is 500w. Add a 2nd GTX460 and it increases to 575w / 625w respectively. If I assume NO capacitor aging, which given this PSU is 5 years old is probably a bad assumption, it's 475w / 525w.

So adding a 2nd GTX460 using the existing 550w PSU would be "risky" to say the least.

I have to check if I have a 2nd set of PCI-E power cables for the PSU.

[kbohip]

Yep, that's the same calculator I used and that's when I decided (after taking into account capacitor aging) that I needed a bigger psu. I figured I was due for an upgrade anyway and after I came across a great price on a really nice 850 watter I went for it.

[Keven]

Best PSU calculator on the web in my opinion. I like how it even handles the voltage on the rails and stuff with the pro edition. But, I think we've talked about that on this forum before.

[kbohip]

Best PSU calculator on the web in my opinion. I like how it even handles the voltage on the rails and stuff with the pro edition. But, I think we've talked about that on this forum before.

Yep, it's a great one, and I have you to thank for turning me onto it! At least I think it was you, it's been over 6 months and I AM pushing 40 now so the memory is not as good as it was before.

[Lenny]

I only have the 2 PCI-E power adapters that I'm already using for the Antec HE550 but I found what appears to be three of these Molex-to-PCI-E adapters so I could connect a 2nd GTX460 to power but I doubt the PSU would handle it.

Also my motherboard supports Crossfire but not SLI so I'd have to gamble on one of the SLI hacks like HyperSLI if I wanted to attempt SLI.

I'm not really sure why I'm thinking about SLI because I probably won't do it but it was interesting to research it anyway.

[Lenny]

So any comments on the monitor? I guess no one has that particular one. The promo code expires tomorrow so I need to decide soon.

[Activate: AMD]

really can't comment aside from the fact that I liked my 2x 1080P asus monitors. they're respectable enough. You probably won't be disappointed

[tjdehya]

I couldnt spot the difference, but I have 3 of the VS248H-P.
They are great for gaming, super bright, but colors are slightly washed out.
At 1080 though your card will scream for mercy when playing BF3. You will have to do some tweaking and find your sweet spot between beauty and performance.

[Lenny]

I ordered the Asus VS247H-P. Should have it tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

[Lenny]

the new monitor is very nice. Bright & sharp. Somehow looks better than my old Asus which wasn't bad either. Text size is similar and it looks a bit but not too much bigger than the old 22". I'm happy

But I still need to do my BF3 "testing"