The first 120Hz LCD on the market, which is also Nvidia’s choice for bundled-monitor in their ‘3D Vision Bundle Pack’, is the Samsung 2233RZ. The monitor provides for a huge leap forward in your gaming experience, both with and without Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology, thanks to its high refresh rate.
DESIGN
The 22-inch 2233RZ features an all-black plastic body and glossy-black base unit which simply snaps onto the the LCD panel. The panel is a bit spartan from the front, but the back-side features more black plastic, albeit with the Samsung flower embossing – the unit would look great on a desk in the front office. Also included in the box is a DVI-D cable (needed to get the full 120Hz – single link cables only yield up to 75Hz), power cable, and a cable sorter. Installing the monitor onto the base, as mentioned before, is simple a matter of snapping the two together. The monitor is also Energy Star compliant, so go green people!
Samsung has also included their SyncMaster presets for gaming, movie watching, etc which are all easily-accessible via the panel’s control buttons which are located on the lower right area of the side of the unit. These presets make it easy to get the best viewing configuration possible without having to go through the minutiae of setting it all up yourself.
SPECS
* 1680 by 1050 Native Resolution
* 300 cd/m2 Brightness
* 20,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
* 170o/160o (CR>10) Viewing Angle
* GTG 3ms (3D) / 5ms(2D) of Response Time
* 120Hz Dual Engine
* HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
* DVI-D (Digital Interface)
USAGE
After getting things connected up and the panel snapped to its base unit, the only thing left to do is to set the monitor refresh rate to 120Hz in the Nvidia control panel software. Immediately, the effect of the high refresh rate is noticeable. Even something as simple as moving your mouse cursor around the screen takes on new life – the little cursor seems to glide and is far smoother in terms of movement than it seemed in 60Hz. Also offered in the Nvidia control panel software is the ability to run the monitor at 100Hz and 110Hz, just in case any fluorescent lighting in the area is causing some flickering when using the 3D Vision technology.
Starting up Left 4 Dead 2, it is very apparent that, even without using the 3D Vision glasses, games will never be the same again. In case you don’t know, L4D2 is a game where players take on hordes of the walking (and sometimes running) dead as they make their way to safe houses on the road to escaping whatever area they are in. When the action gets heated, it is not uncommon to have around 40 or more zombies on the screen at one time. On my previous display, even while playing at 1920×1200 resolution at 60Hz, the undead’s frantic movement never seemed realistically smooth – even while getting good frame rates. With the 2233RZ, this is no longer an issue – the undead move far more smoothly than before, giving the game a whole new visual quality. In fact, in subsequent tests with Crysis and even Dragon Age: Origins, everything looked smoother. 120Hz is my new refresh rate of choice for gaming – on-screen motion is just so much more natural it has to be seen to be believed.
The biggest issues with the panel are its lack of an HDMI port and low native resolution. Even at 1680×1050, it would have been great to get video input via an HDMI cable. The screen is generally very crisp and I, for one, would have loved to watch some Blu-Ray disks on the unit. The second issue is that while Samsung’s 2233SW is their non-120Hz monitor offering, it supports a native resolution of 1920×1080 – while the 120Hz 2233RZ has a native resolution of 1680×1050. The 1920×1080 resolution is far-crisper for gaming but, more importantly, is a high-definition video resolution (as in 1080p). The 2233RZ would have blown my head right off its shoulders if it offered both of these features and would be a hands-down must-buy monitor.
When moving into the third-dimension of gaming, the monitor works flawlessly with Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology. There were no issues to speak of in terms of compatibility or performance when using the 3D system. If you choose to purchase the 3D Vision Bundle Pack, you should not be disappointed.
OVERALL
Unfortunately for Samsung, some new 120Hz displays have been released to market, from companies like Acer and Alienware, which feature larger panels, higher native resolutions, and higher dynamic contrast ratios. While this gives the 2233RZ some serious competition, one thing that the 2233RZ has over these competitors is that it is cheapest option in terms of price point. Currently the 2233RZ retails for about $300 dollars while the competitors go for at least $100 dollars more. I suspect that, at some point in the near future, Samsung will reduce the price even more to capitalize on this while eventually releasing their own, newer 24-inch 120Hz solution.
The Samsung 2233RZ is a fine 120Hz gaming monitor that offers good performance at the lowest price on the market. However, it does lack some features which are present on higher-priced monitors out there, so the choice is yours as to how much these features are worth to you.
