Halp please. I need LCD advice (and have a few I'd like comments on.) & GPU advice too, please ;_;

[Akucaen]

Basically I'm getting ready to do a significant upgrade to my GPU/LCD setup. Right now I'm using a Radeon 3870 with a Samsung 19" LCD with a 1280x1024 native resolution, 8ms response, 700:1 Contrast, 300cd/m2.

Anyway, I'm pushing into widescreen displays finally, and I'm upgrading my GPU first. My allocated budget of ~$300 leaves me with a Geforce GTX 260 (the updated version with 216 shaders, 896mb of ram) (Although I'm still looking into a 1GB 4870.) If anyone has an opinion on the two, please voice it.

I really have no preference between the two cards. I've flipped between both manufacturers before and I've never had any real issues with either. (My 'upgrades' ran V3, V5 5500, GF4, Radeon 9700, GF-FX 5950, GF6 6800, Radeon 3870, so I've seen the best and worst of most of them, especially driver related.) Based on hardocp reviews that I've seen, the GTX260 edges out the 4870, and the 4870 experience is that of the 3870 with better AA and much faster. My 3870 hasn't given me any troubles and the drivers have been flawless for me. I want to get the 4870 based on that experience, but I know the GTX 260 would be slightly faster.

That's pretty cut and dry though: It's either one or the other.

As for LCDs... eugh. That's a while damn basket. I've pulled up three so far that catch my eye price/performance wise.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 2220WM-HAS Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height Adjustment 300 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors
Native:1680x1050
Response:5ms
Brightness:300cd/m2
Contrast:1000:1
Size: 22"
$259
Kinda indifferent. This is my 'baseline' monitor to base everything on since it's comparable to price/specs to my current monitor when I bought it in 2004, relative to tech advances.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG T220 Rose-Black 22" 2ms GTG Touch of Color series Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 20,000:1 - LCD Monitors
Native:1680x1050
Response:2ms
Brightness:300cd/m2
Contrast:1000:1
Size: 22"
$300
I'm liking this monitor for the low ms response time (mine is 8ms and on black background I can see ghosting sometimes when I'm not looking for it), and it's 1680x1050, which obviously isn't 1080, but for the games I play and the cards I've selected to buy, 1650x1050 is the sweet spot for speed/eyecandy.

Newegg.com - ViewSonic X Series VX2260wm Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 20000:1(1000:1) Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors
Native:1920x1080
Response:2ms
Brightness:300cd/m2
Contrast:1000:1
Size: 21.5"
$270
This monitor I'm leaning too, but what bothers me is that it's a league above the others and the exact same price. I'd buy that now, but I'm worried about "What's the catch?" I'm also scared to buy a 1920x1080 monitor for the reason of gaming alone. Yeah, I know the 4870 & 260 will push that resolution without much problem, but I've gotten so used to having an overpowered card for a 'low' resolution (3870 for 1280x1024.) I can turn settings up and not have to worry about FPS too terribly much.

My GPU budget isn't going to budge, so I'm basically stuck between a 4870 1GB & GTX 260 896mb, crossfire/sli isn't possible since I have a DFI Bloodiron T2RL P35 chipset with only one PEGx16 slot. Since I tend to upgrade the CPU/mobo/ram in one go, I'm "stuck" with a C2D 2.66/P35/DDR 1066 4GB for a while, although I may get a faster C2D soon just to offset CPU limitations.

Endpoint being is that I'd appreciate some input on the two cards and monitors that are around $300.

[Calina]

been reading tones of reviews latly while picking out parts and in every review ive read the 260 core 216 super clocked beats out the 4870 tho the normal core 216 not super clocked isent much of an increase

this is what iam going with under $300

EVGA 896-P3-1267-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

this is 279.99 after mail in rebate

as for a monitor this is what i desided on:

Acer X243Wbd Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM with HDCP support
Native:1920 x 1200
Response:5ms
Brightness:400 cd/m2
Contrast:3000:1
Size: 24"
$299.99

[Epical]

We have the T220 Samsung at work and let me say it is a beautiful monitor. Samsung has their Touch of Color series thing going right now between their TVs and monitors, and even leaving out the sexy case aesthetics, the screen is very vibrant and clear. I had someone come in and buy the T240 with a buddy, only for the buddy to come back 30 minutes later and buy one for himself too because he liked it so much.

Video cards are a toss-up on whatever you're comfortable with price-point wise. They're similar in performance, with the 260 having a slight edge, so if you can get a better bang:buck ratio on it, go for it.

[ertyu]

You should look into Dell, they make great monitors and they aren't all that expensive.

24" for $300
1920x1080 res
1000:1 contrast ratio
Has HDMI input, VGA, and DVI

I just got this monitor about 3 months ago and it is wonderful. Everything looks gorgeous on it and have not had any problems yet. Wonderful monitor.

[Spekkio]

i'd heard one should steer clear of 5 ms monitors for gaming as that could cause some nasty ghosting. i'm looking to get a new big monitor in the coming weeks myself and sticking to only 2ms monitors has had a significant impact on the options available to me.

[Epical]

5ms is absolutely fine... back when monitors were 25ms+ then you had issues, and I believe the benchmark for gaming is to stay below 8. I'm using a 5ms monitor myself (LG 204WT) and I have 0% ghosting in gaming, movies, whatever.

The lower the better obviously, but feel safe with 5ms.

[Calina]

my old 19" LCD was 5ms as well and never had any ghosting

5ms and below is fine

[Akucaen]

The panel I'm using now was part of (then) Samsung's line of brand-new 8ms monitors, one of the first on the market. There's nothing wrong with 5ms I know, because unless I'm looking for it, 99% of the time I don't see ghosting (or, rather, have ghosting issues) at 8ms.

Epical, how much would you vouch for that Touch of Color series? The only thing this panel lacked was color vibrance, but I compensated by jacking up the vibrance controls in nVidia's and ATi's control panels respectively. My experience with Samsung panels (both monitor and tv) leads me to lean very heavily and favorably to them.

Also, on the T220, is the standby/power LED obscure when viewing the monitor normally? Like, on my my Syncmaster 930A, it's bright enough you always see it, but enough of an offset angle that it's not in your eyes and grabs your attention/distracts you.

As for the GPU, I think I'll settle on the GTX260. It really is all about the price/performance ratio, and I haven't seen anything related to XI vs them like the XI vs GF8 series.

[Epical]

Epical, how much would you vouch for that Touch of Color series? The only thing this panel lacked was color vibrance, but I compensated by jacking up the vibrance controls in nVidia's and ATi's control panels respectively. My experience with Samsung panels (both monitor and tv) leads me to lean very heavily and favorably to them.

Also, on the T220, is the standby/power LED obscure when viewing the monitor normally? Like, on my my Syncmaster 930A, it's bright enough you always see it, but enough of an offset angle that it's not in your eyes and grabs your attention/distracts you.

I can say with good confidence that you'd be very happy with a ToC monitor. Obviously there are other choices out there and what not, but should you go with a T220, I have no worries that you would not regret your purchase. There used to be a letter-code on the back of Samsung monitors that told you were it was manufactured, and if you got an S monitor, it was not outsourced for manufacturing and you'd have a much better panel than A and C models. Unfortunately I do not see this code on the new Samsungs, so I can't say much about that.

The standby/power LED is a faint white circle behind the power symbol, as well as a longer bar of the same faint white color under the center of the display. Very ambient, nothing intrusive, but yet enough to know the display is on. It's nice.

I work tomorrow night, so if you'd like me to check out the T220 with a bit more scrutiny I wouldn't mind.