35ms TN vs. 20ms PVA

[Walker]

After doing some research and reading alot of reviews, I've decided to get a LCD monitor that uses a PVA panel. I've seen some TN monitors like the Samsung 172X and LG 1730B and while I liked their sharpness, the viewing angles bothered me too much. I really like LCDs for text, programming and browsing the internet which is what I do 80% of my time in front of the computer. The remaining 20% is for gaming but if the panel is too slow, it's gonna be too slow for me too, eventhough I'm just a casual gamer.

I was thinking about the Samsung 173P or 193P. I know PVA panels are worse at gray to gray transitions than TN panels but how big is the difference really? I decided to do a test so I tried a 15" LCD with 35ms response time that I use at work and installed some games that I mostly play: Wolfenstein, Operation Flashpoint, Call of Duty etc. To my big surprise there was almost no ghosting or blurring at all, eventhough it was a 35ms panel! So my question is, would a 20ms PVA panel be just as fast as this 35ms TN panel? I've heard some people saying that games on PVA monitors are literally unplayable because of blurring and ghosting. Is that true? I'm perfectly aware that a 25ms TN monitor is faster than a 25ms PVA one but is the difference that big that one ghosts like hell and the other one doesn't eventhough its specified response time is actually higher? I've heard the best about their image quality but not many people mention how they perform in games. I don't game much at all but I'd like to be able to play some games from time to time without too much blurring and ghosting. Is that possible on the 173P/193P?

 

[OPO9]

I'm using an old TN LCD rated at 30ms, and the ghosting is only noticable if you really look for it, i.e. staring at the ground and running in an fps. I laugh everytime I hear people say that over 16ms is no good for gaming. A friend of mine has an LCD rated 25ms, and I cant figure out for sure if its IPS or MVA (cant be PVA since only Samsungs are PVA) anyway the point is the same regardless. His monitor ghosts like a mother, but after playing a game for a few minutes you dont really think about it. So to answer your question simply, the critics might tell you PVA is no good for gaming, but IMO if the game is any good you can easily ignore it and just play.

On the other hand you said 80% of your time is spent with text, the only benefit PVA has is better colors, better viewing angles and maybe deeper blacks from what i've heard. How important are those things when youre programming or browsing the internet? Might as well just get a good TN.

 

[Walker]

Thanks. But like I said, vertical viewing angles are a big problem for me. I saw that pointed out on some other message board so I checked out a couple of LCD's in the store and it's true: all TN panels have VERY POOR vertical viewing angles. Basically, whatever angle you look at them, the top half of the screen is always slightly darker than the bottom. That would annoy me too much. Also, I would like to have reasonably dark blacks which based on what I saw in the store, TN panels cannot provide.

Unfortunetaly, they didn't have any MVA/PVA monitors so I couldn't test them for ghosting. I really don't know what to do anymore. Staying with CRT is probably the best solution