Customer Reviews

ViewSonic VX924 Xtreme Gaming 19-inch LCD Monitor (Black/Silver)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been reading all about the LCD vs. CRT battles - that is, what are the pros and cons for each type. Which is better? Well, that depends on your uses. I have used CRTs all my life, and I am accustomed to how they represent colors. At work, we use CRTs for everything - color correction, desktop publishing, video editing, etc. At home, I type papers, browse the internet, and most importantly, play games. For the average consumer who does not need to worry about colors, brightness/contrast and performance, a LCD is an attractive option, but I still think the CRT monitors are better for everything else.
That is, until I read about Viewsonic's VX924 and it abilities. I needed a new monitor at home, so I started to read several hardware reviews of this monitor online. It sounded promising. I walked through a few stores (this monitor is not available in stores according to Viewsonic - you can only buy it online) and I noticed how vivid and dynamic the new LCD screen looked. They looked fantastic! So if the VX924 was supposed to be better than these, then surely it would be good enough to meet my criteria as a monitor for color correction and game playing.
The Viewsonic VX924 is better than I imagined. It is easy to set up and my computer found the DVI connection to the monitor in less than a second. The colors on the screen are indeed vivid and strong. At a setting of 1280x1024, everything was clear and still easy to read. Instantly, everything look better than my older CRT monitor . Setup was easy and I was on my way to testing some games. I played the following: Half-Life 2, Psychonauts, GTR Racing, Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas, Knights of the Old Republic, and a few others. Each game looked fantastic...better than before. Except Half-Life 2. The game looked great, but you can tell that when you are moving fast there is some blurring to the surroundings. Even a monitor at 4ms still has to keep up with the speed of the game. The other games, non first person games, played great. But some of the fast first person shooters will push the limits of the monitor. Again, this is the main difference between a CRT and LCD.
I also opened images in Photoshop (images I knew to be color corrected) - photos of people, places and things. I was very impressed how faithful the monitor showed these colors. Because LCDs are normally more rich in color settings, it is hard to tell if what you are looking at is exact. The Viewsonic does a good job at keeping them close without going overboard in saturation. For the average consumer, this monitor is perfect for looking at photos and making minor adjustments for their printer.
There is a mode on the monitor called sRGB (which I recommend you use) which simulates a true CRT work environment. It is close to accurate. However, by using this mode, the monitor's brightness/contrast modes is disabled. Keep this in mind - if you want to change the brightness or the contrast, you will have to do it through the operating system and your graphics card and make sure it is applied at startup. This is a bit frustrating at times because some games use their own color setting and the monitor is forced to change back and forth. You can change the mode in the monitor to a different setting which returns the brightness controls, but I don't think it looks as good as sRGB.
Overall, this is a great monitor for the price. For a 19" it is compact, lightweight, and easy to operate. By far, it is the best LCD monitor on the market. At 4ms, most games will play and look better than your old CRT. It has good color representation and displays the grey scale accurately (including a real black!). Viewsonic is a reliable company, so you should be confident in your choice. I am happy with my purchase and recommend this monitor to anyone who is looking to upgrade at home from a CRT (or an old LCD) to the latest and best technology. In this case, the winner in the battle is this LCD by Viewsonic.

I received my VX924 today, and all I can say is wow! This is really my first foray into flat-panel territory, however this one is amazing. The only direct comparison I can make at the moment with this flat panel to any others is a 19" Gem bargain panel which of course doesn't come close to this one.

Originally I was looking at 8ms panels, however upon hearing of the arrival of a 4ms panel I jumped on it. The glowing preview from Hardware Zone certainly helped. However, the review from Tom's Hardware that brought into question this panel's response time had me question whether or not it was a good purchase. Looking around at other new VX924 owner's comments, my fears disappeared. If anything, my experience with this monitor only reinforces the need to see it for oneself to create a subjective rating, versus one built on specifications.

The contrast is excellent, the brightness perfect, not the super bright glare produced by many flat panels. I have yet to find any dead pixels. The one area that Tom's review seemed to bring into question was this monitor's video response time capability. Playing several DVD's during high action sequences (as well as normal sequences) I did not see any motion blur issues. The blacks on this monitor are the best I have seen on a flat panel, and I really cannot tell that much of a difference from my old Nec 19" CRT.

So far I have only played Need for Speed Underground 2 on the monitor, however everything rendered excellently. Being a dark game to being with, NFSU2 is great to check the black levels with.

The construction of this monitor is superb- it is very sturdy and has an excellent cable management system. The retail box came with both VGA and DVI cables, as well as what appears to be calibration software although I have not installed it.

Overall, this is a great buy for $450-500, I could not be more pleased with this monitor.

I got my VX924 today and just hooked it up. Compared to my 20.1" 16ms Dell 2001FP, this LCD is a little bright, black is not a really deep black but after playing CS:Source with this baby really showed me the difference between a 16ms and 4ms LCD.

No dead pixels (thank god) here. One minus is the lack of height adjustment. If you like your monitor at eye level, you'll have to use a book or a monitor stand.

Very nice design, nice silver/black frame. I'm very impressed so far and I'm happy to have chosen this one over the Samsung's 4ms LCD.

Saw the refresh rate on this baby and then saw the price and jumped at the chance to get one. On most websites it says the refresh rate is 4ms and on the box it actually says 3 ms. I'm a pretty heavy gamer and i had an old CRT monitor that just wasn't cuttin it anymore. This thing produces images so crisp and clean that i can read from the monitor a couple feet away at max resolution where i couldn't on my old monitor. I play mainly World of Warcraft and the game looks great on this thing. I play Counter-Strike as well and for those that are warey of ghosting, you don't get any with this monitor. I actually had to turn down my Gamma and fix my contrast lower to make things darker cuz everything was so bright. Brings a whole new light to the gaming world. Very impressed.

I got this LCD monitor to replace an NEC Diamondtron CRT that failed after two years. I read the reviews about how good this looks when gaming. The monitor does look really good, has sharp colors and looks crisp. The shortcomings are noticed when there is a lot of high speed motion during games such as BF2 and UT2004. The best way to describe the problem is "blurring". I'm not sure if the cause of the blurring is a pixel response time or ??? Whatever, this monitor is great for everything but gaming in my opinion. I would suggest a CRT for hardcore gamers.

Bought one a month ago, turned up with a bright red stuck pixel in the middle of the screen. Returned it to Amazon and was shipped a replacement. Replacment has a blue stuck pixel to the left of the screen. Apart from the dead pixels it's a great monitor. From now on I won't be playing russian roulette with LCD manufacturors that don't provide a 0 dead pixel guarantee. Viewsonic will only replace the monitor if there are 7 dead pixels. Can you imagine paying hundreds of dollars for a monitor, only to find yourself staring at 6 bright red dots, with the manufacturor unwilling to do anything about it!

This is my second LCD and it is fantastic! I do a lot of video and graphics work and it has not disappointed me. The action games I play also do not show signs of pixelation that I was afraid might happen. The design fits in with my existing system and takes up a lot less space than my last 17" CRT. The screen is clear and pleasing to the eyes, even at full resolution. Unlike the glossy screens I've seen, this matte style does not hinder the quality. I was hesitant at first, but after using it for a week, it has shown me that the LCD's have come a long way.

I have several 19 inch Viewsonic LCD monitors and this is definitely the best so far. This is great for gaming and is tack sharp for reading web pages and word documents.
There is no smear at all on games. I have tried all sorts of games and this is the best monitor I have ever used (including my beautiful old SONY 21 inch CRT). CRT's are dead! Long live CRTS!
The text took some getting used to as the pixels are so well defined that the letters look smaller. Looking at one of the older monitors, I see that the larger pixels kind of fuzz at the edges so the letters look bigger and bolder. This is not scientific or anything (since they both have the same resolution).
There is a little change in the viewing brightness when the monitor is tilted up and down and there is definitely a sweet spot. I see no difference in the side to side view.
The stand is very nice as I can slide the keyboard under the monitor to get it out of the way when needed. Tilt works fine but there is no height adjustment.
Controls work well but I really had no reason to adjust much as it worked great right out of the box. No defective pixels.
If you have gotten this far, check out ZipZoomFly.com for a better price...

I replaced a very nice viewsonic 21inch crt with this model.. NO regrets.. games very very well. VERY bright.. I got 3 of them and NO dead pixels yeeaaaa :) anyway if you get this i dont think you will regret it.. good price here too

The Viewsonic OptiSynch VX924 presents the best colors and most pleasing images of any flat-screen monitor I have ever used. I use it mainly for viewing photographs, and for work-related applications. It is astonishingly pleasing to the eye, and the resolution is razor-sharp. There is not much not to like about this monitor. I am no gamer, but I do watch movies on this monitor via my computer DVD player. This monitor does a splendid job, with little blurring of motion and a true black. The result is an excellent picture.

For photographers (and other applications) this unit comes equipped with an sRGB mode. I have found that this mode very closely reproduces what my printer will reflect as regards the color of digital images. This is a huge help in the post-processing of digital photos. I know that this is not intended to be of the same caliber as the very expensive monitors that are designed precisely for this purpose, but it serves me well in this application and is the first flat screen I have used that has.

The VX924 installed in seconds on my Windows XP machine as a true plug-and-play component. I installed the drivers from the disk afterwords, but truly, I could not tell that this was even necessary. I plugged it in and it worked right away, as we have come to expect in the 21st Century.

The unit's hardware seems very good. Overall, this is the best 19 inch monitor I could find, and it is definitely worth the money. Highly recommended.