Looking for new monitor (s)

[joe_dempsey]

<p>I have just taken delivery of new high-end pc I had built. I do a lot of Photoshop work, graphic design, websites, and print production, a little video. My current setup, now about eight years old, is two Apple 20" displays which I bought used on Ebay and they have been fine.<br>

I am thinking about perhaps a couple of 24s or perhaps one larger one for the new machine. I have been out of the monitor market for a while and am looking for any advice I can get. I have no objection to good used or refurbished. Overall budget in the 900.00 range. Gentlemen (and ladies), start your suggestions.<br />Thanks,<br />Joe<br /><br />Specs for new machine<br />ASUS X99 Deluxe motherboard<br />GeForce GTX 980 4G video Card<br />Intel Core i7 Hasewell 6 core 3.5<br />G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series Ram 32 Gig<br />Water cooled full tower<br />1200 watt power supply<br />2 ssd<br />2 spinners</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>Overall budget in the 900.00 range. Gentlemen (and ladies), start your suggestions.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Try to raise your budget and get an NEC SpectraView. </p>

[EricM]

<blockquote>

<p>I have been out of the monitor market for a while and am looking for any advice I can get.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> <br>

Perhaps start by going through the dozens of recent monitor threads that are found at the top of this page in the bread-crumb link titled "Monitors" and then ask more specific questions?</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I just got a 27" Dell that is very nice: DELL U2713HM</p>

[peterbcarter]

<p>My criticism here is you have a great gaming machine with little consequence of the photo editing field. You don't need 4g video unless you are exceptionaly quick moving the mouse. Your cpu will be mostly idle (will run cool) and you could have done with 16g ram easy....which would have contributed to better (and important) monitors.</p>

<p>I can say this cause I have a 6 core duel opteron with 64g ram. The plan was I would going to add an additional 64g ram a month later. I'm glad I didn't. Aside from two plugins (noise ninja,focus majic), I have yet to see anything use much more than 3 of 12 cores effectively. </p>

<p>I have a couple of samsung 24' (SyncMaster S24B240) that I am pleased with. They calibrate well.</p>

 

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

<p>4K monitor - LG 31MU97-B - for about $1k.:<br>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Digital-31MU97-B-31-0-Inch/dp/B00OKSEVTY">http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Digital-31MU97-B-31-0-Inch/dp/B00OKSEVTY</a><br /><br /> Here is a review - I did not write it...but copied fromNewEgg web site: (<a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824025007">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824025007</a>):<br /><br /> Pros: (a) Color reproduction is one of the most accurate I've seen on 4k<br /> (b) Thin bezels!<br /> © Extra wide panel is nice to have for editing<br /> (d) Solid metal stand that isn't bulky<br /> (e) A good response time and minimal ghosting for a 4k IPS panel<br /> (f) Good contrast<br /> (g) Perfect white levels<br /><br /> Cons: (a) Some slight color shifting left to right<br /> (b) There is some back light bleed. But unless you are looking at a black screen in the pitch dark, you won't notice it.<br /> © Stand has no swivel <img src="http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/emoticons/sad.gif" alt="[]" width="15" height="15" /><br /> (d) A single button for using the monitor settings, does not work well<br /> (e) Can only modify Kelvin in intervals of 500K... should be able to have much more granularity<br /> (f) Included color correction software is bugged and unusable<br /> (g) Very poor black levels, but this is common for IPS<br /><br /> Other Thoughts: I've been waiting for a good 4k monitor for years. Only now have we finally come into line with the combination of this monitor and recent updates to Windows 8.1. The LG 31MU97 is a solid monitor. But far from perfect. A little bit about my background: I work as a professional designer and programmer, and the CEO of a software development company. I spend most of my time designing UIs in the sRGB color spectrum, programming, or editing photography in Adobe RGB. I also spend a good amount of time on After Effects doing motion graphics. I do put these monitors through their paces up to 20 hours a day, and I like my screens to be flawless. I have used the Samsung UD970, the Dell 24" 4k, 32" 4k, and their 27" 5k. The iMac retina, non retina, and thunderbolt displays. All of the professional offerings from NEC and Eizo. PA328Q, Pro Arts, PBs, Acer's 4k, the TN based 4k panels. I've really used just about every 4k panel there is, and a huge amount of the great 1440p panels out there for professional use.<br /><br /> I'm the kind of person that will run a color calibration suite on 3 different calibrators 6 times each. I'm that OCD about my monitors<br /><br /> This one beats them all, but it's far from perfect. In my opinion, it's the best 4k monitor you can buy right now. I hope that changes, and some day we can enter monitor nirvana with the perfect monitor that does everything we want perfectly. But until that day, this will be my monitor of choice. The most dissapointing part of this monitor is the slight color shifting on the left and right sides. It starts to get a little bit red. It can get frustrating at times. But until there is something better (all 4k monitors color shift a ton and this probably has the least of all, it's just very persistent) this is the one I will use for work that isn't super critical (I'll be sticking with my NEC PA272W for anything that needs to be exactly perfect, although I do love the 4k, until they get a little more accurate we will still need our good ol 1440p)</p>

<p>More info - scroll through this thread: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1338402</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>The con list above (<em>Some slight color shifting left to right, </em><em>Can only modify Kelvin in intervals of 500K</em>) is far more troublesome to me than the silly Pro's (<em>thin bezels</em>). Sounds like a POS. ;-)</p>

[dag_fosse]

<p>+1</p>

<p>"Some slight color shifting" turns it into a doorstop. End of story.</p>

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

<p><strong>Here are comments from FM forums</strong>:<br /><br /> Yes, had mine for about a month. Just fantastic piece of hardware. I would suggest custom calibration and turn off the Super Resolution +. Not sure if this was a default or I accidentally turned it on - but it needs to be off for photographers, for sure. This is a big deal.<br /><br /> The one button menu took awhile to understand. It's really like any other monitor once you figure out this menu.<br /><br /> Another advantage is the brightness - if you need it in a well lit room. Can always turn it down appropriate for printing.<br /><br /> I'm using Windows 8.1, 64 bit with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 with 4GB GDDR5, so the native resolution is great and no problem with speed. DisplayPort as well.<br /><br /> Just a special monitor with unique options. The best monitor I have seen for photography.<br /> =============================<br /> Well, here's my 4k update. Maybe someone can get some inspiration from this. For a few weeks, I've working behind my Dell P2715q (Hackintosh with Gigabyte GTX 760). The transition has been quite smooth. I don't quite understand people complaining compatibility. Maybe it depends what you need (more pixels vs "cleaner" output). I run the monitor in HiDPi mode, meaning I cannot get more pixels, indeed, but this is giving me the crisp text and extremely detailed pictures on the canvas at the same time. So finally got rid of that "blurred" text that has annoyed me for so many years..<br /><br /> As I have Windows machines too then tried the 4k on Win 8 also. Windows applications are much less compatible, I must say. But after making software for Windows for over 17 years I also understand why the scaling is such a pain ... In general I must say that this has been the biggest technology jump I've done in years. Quite affordable too, comparing to other expenses in this hobby (or work for some).<br /> ===============================<br /> Just bought the LG 31MU97-B and started using it last Monday.<br /><br /> First of all - it's flat out beautiful. I only have Dell Ultrasharp IPS panels and the LG 31MU97-B is just a different looking beast. I would say it's other worldly great. Viewing Nikon D800E raw files at 100% is so good (in Bridge) that I may need to reconsider my post processing technique.<br /><br /> The extra wide 4K explains the brilliant detail. I am able to use brighter settings (view only, not for printing) and get a gallery type image. Trying to profile it with my i1Display Pro has been a problem. The single button OSD is a weak option - not to even discuss understanding the menu options. The good news is that setting it on Adobe RGB is working for now.<br /><br /> The OP did a great job in his detailed description and I see the same. Hope I get the profiling figure out, but for now, just really enjoying this viewing experience.<br /> ===================================<br /> I just snagged one of these (31MU97) last night to compare with my (still within return period) Dell UP3214Q and the display itself is gorgeous, but I think it's going back.<br /><br /> There seem to be some weird bugs with the Mac OS X implementation of SST at high resolutions.<br /><br /> If I hot plug the monitor into my machine, I get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz.<br /><br /> If I then reboot, the FileVault unlock screen is retinized full-screen. Unlock that and it boots to the desktop at 3840x2160 @ 30Hz.<br /><br /> Go into system prefs and option click "Scaled" and there's no option for 4096x2160.<br /><br /> Unplug/plug the MDP cable from the Mac and now I'll get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz as an option.<br /><br /> This behavior remains through two cable swaps (three different cables, including the one that came with it).<br /><br /> I also occasionally get "glitches" that range from little flashes of bars of static to a full screen "blink". I'm pretty sure Apple's SST implementation is to blame here... because it's acting like a software issue. This is on a 2014 15" rMBP with the discrete graphics chip. Mac OS X 10.10.1. Lid closed.<br /> =================================</p>