Asus VG236H + 3D vision at a glance

[ToXic]

Blurb

So just today I was at memory express swapping my 570s (long story, gonna keep the other 580 SLI stepup.. Bla bla) and I noticed a Acer 3D vision setup, that honestly got my eye and didn't let it go, so I went home and began to read about 3D vision, and after a lot of thinking I decided to pick up a Asus VG226H kit (vs the Acer + glasses), and was very enthusiastic to get it home and test it on the new 580.

Apron getting it home I eagerly ripped it open to reveal a Nicky boxed set of nvidia glasses and recover, and the wonderful Asus monitor. I quickly threw in the 580 and got it up all and running, and had Blackops running in 5 minutes, Iv also tested it on TF2, and BFBC2. My experiences:

Requirements for optimal 3D performance

Nvidia recommends no less then a SLI setup to run 3D vision properly, but this is not truthful. The setup can be effectively run off of one higher end card (470,480,570,580) on most games at 1920x1080, however you will notice a massive FPS difference if you hit the toggle button and are monitoring, keeping in mind in 3D your FPS is per eye. According to some reviews even Metro 2033 may be ran on a single 580 with a average FPS of 30, and with a SLI FPS of 59.

Quality of the monitor

In my life iv owned 3 LCD monitors, and iv got to say this one ties for best (the others being a Acer H233H and a old Dell 20.5 inch ((cant remember model, it was older)). The move from the 23" Acer to the Asus was monumental, with the massive difference of boot times, the Acer took 5-8 seconds to actually boot up (I was stuck mashing delete the second I powered on if I needed BIOS) where as the Asus has a immaculate ~3 seconds (I can actually see the ROG symbol for once on boot!). The display itself is certainly pretty, with the only downside being that it is a glossed screen (preference thing), but that only serves to make 3D more enjoyable somehow...

Setting up

These glasses had a very quick setup to them requiring you to install the drivers, then go to your Nvidia control panel and configure them. On a side note, ensure your resolution on windows is set to the 120Hz refresh rate. This was a seamless ~5 minute process, that ended with a nice 3D showcase.

Game preformances

1. Blackops

Blackops looks very clean and polished in 3D mode, with weapons seamlessly making the switch. I found it to be a bit hard to use the acog on my commando at first try, due to it actually having depth to it. The game feels at home in 3D, and not that it was quickly pooped out, overall out of my testbed it has the best 3D feel. (this is probably due to it being developed for 3D on consoles...)

2. Bad Company 2

BC2 felt like it had decent 3D support, and weapons popped out at you, and felt as if they where in your hands. My only major complaint is the weird glitches I encountered with BC2, aimly the whiteout (mentioned above).

3. TF2

I dont even know what to say about TF2, probably that cartoons should never be 3D. The game felt like it had just been darkened and stretched, and didn't have that in the zone feel of the above games. Nonetheless it is still a very fun game.

This is sofar the only game iv gotten solid FPS info on, with a average of 40FPS per eye in 3D mode and 120FPS in 2D (vsync on however).

Comfort notice

If you use earphones to game these glasses WILL get uncomfortable, as the headphones will push them against the side of your skull (at least with mine).

You may also begin to get sore eyes, I found it takes a hour or so to start to notice the mild burning sensation, and would definitely not use these in long runs.

If you own a Logitech G19 keyboard, prepare to turn the LCD off, it will distort and turn funny colors wile the glasses are active. If you own any backlit keyboard please relies due to the lenses being polarized some colors do not come through as well (i.e my G19 is red, its very hard to read, so I set it to blue).

End blurb

This is my first mini-review and im more then happy to add anything you think iv missed, or would like to see provided I have the means to do so (i.e I cant test a game I don't own), pictures will soon be added, though I dont know much more then the monitor that I can photograph, seeing as without the glasses 3D looks like a mess. If my review was helpful in any way please comment, so I can consider doing more in-depth ones in the future.

Thanks for reading, ToXic

[vohiep84]

Thanks for the review, I always considered going 3d but the cost is quite a bit plus the hardware demand is crazy. I probably won't adopt 3d gaming yet until it becomes more developed..

[On the Lam]

Thanks for the review - I've been long contemplating getting the VG236H bundle, but since I have an AMD video card, I'd need an Nvidia video card to utilize 3D Vision - all of that will cost close to $1k.

How is 120Hz 2D gaming compared to 60Hz gaming or even 76Hz gaming? I ask about 76Hz because I've been running 76Hz on my Dell 2209WA monitor for the past week or so. A small improvement in smoothness, but I'm wondering is 120Hz will be even better than 76Hz?

[JMCD]

Originally Posted by On the Lam

Thanks for the review - I've been long contemplating getting the VG236H bundle, but since I have an AMD video card, I'd need an Nvidia video card to utilize 3D Vision - all of that will cost close to $1k.

How is 120Hz 2D gaming compared to 60Hz gaming or even 76Hz gaming? I ask about 76Hz because I've been running 76Hz on my Dell 2209WA monitor for the past week or so. A small improvement in smoothness, but I'm wondering is 120Hz will be even better than 76Hz?

120hz will be exactly like 60hz or less. The glasses you were will alternate in blocking your left and right. So in the 120 frames it will provide you per second, each eye will receive 60, so it'll be as smooth as 60hz.

Why I say it might be less is to achieve the 60fps per eye mark, you actually need to hit 120, so if your pc can put out 90FPS, on 3D it would be 45FPS per eye.

Now I could be wrong on this, but this is my understanding of active shutter glasses. If you could run a 120hz monitor next to a 60hz monitor, I don't think the difference would be too much, definitely noticeable though.

[schwartz]

Good review man -- savings have begun now for a proper 3D setup and others impressions have me getting impatient already