Dell 2005FPW 20” LCD Review

[punkrunning]

Dell 2005FPW 20” LCD Review
By Daniel Edelman aka "punkrunning"

Note: Due to the high traffic of this page, my bandwidth has been exceeded on my free photobucket account. Here are the links for the pictures although I am not sure they will work. If you want to see them, plead with Mikhail to host them. ;) Update: cryogenic kindly is hosting the pictures on his site, so you can see them again.


Dell’s reputation is mainly based on its PC business, but for a few years now, they have been branching out into other markets. In October of 2003, they released their first enthusiast level LCD monitor, the 2001FP, to great success within the gaming community. Its image quality was comparable or better than competitors’ 20” models and it had an at the time rare 16ms response time. Most impressive of all, it had a retail price far lower than any other 20” monitors on the market.

One year later, in October 2004, Dell released the 2005FPW. This model is a 20” widescreen LCD with a 12 ms response time. Having heard of the level of quality of Dell’s last major LCD release, I expect a lot from this monitor. Read on to find out whether or not it delivers in a variety of applications.


Specifications (Taken directly from Dell’s product page):

Viewable Size: 20.1"

Display Type: Flat Panel Display / Active Matrix TFT – Desktop

Depth: 9"

Features: Automatic Setup Adjustment, Kensington Lock Slot, 100 mm VESA Mounting, Height Adjustable Stand Included

Height: Compressed: 15.3", Extended: 22.4"

Weight: 17.64 lbs

Width: 18.6"

Image Max H-View Angle: ±88°

Image Max V-View Angle: ±88°

Color Support: 16.7 Million

Compliant Standards: 100 mm VESA®, TCO '99; UL 60950, NOM , CE Mark–EN60950, IEC 60950 CCC , TUVGS , NEMKO, GOST, PSB, TUV–S, SASO; FCC Part 15 Class B, CE Mark–EN55022:1998, EN55024:1998, EN61000-3-2:2000, EN61000-3-3:1995 A1(2001), VCCI Class B ITE, MIC, BSMI, ICES–003, C–Tick; ENERGY STAR®, TUV Ergo

Connectivity Technology: Cable

Device Type: Flat Panel LCD Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand

Dimensions (WxDxH) / Weight: 18.6" x 9" x 15.3" to 22.4" / 17.64 lbs

Enclosure Color: Midnight Gray

Image Aspect Ratio: 16:10

Image Brightness: 300 cd/m²

Image Contrast Ratio: 600:1

Max Resolution: 1680x1050 Pixels

Max Sync Rate (V x H): 75 Hz x 83 kHz

Port(s) Total ( Free ) / Connector Type: VGA / DVI-D / S-video / Composite / 4 x USB 2.0

Power Consumption Operational: 75 W (maximum), 55 W (typical)

Diagonal Size / Viewable Size: 20 / 20.1"

Compatibility: PC


Build Quality

The Monitor is packaged inside a plain jane cardboard box. Upon opening it, the customer is greeted by a large, color installation guide which includes instructions on removing the items from the box in the right order, should one need them. The items that are included are the monitor, a separate stand, a DVI cable, a VGA cable with one end already plugged into the monitor, a USB cable, and a CD with web-based instructions. There are no printed instructions aside from the aforementioned diagram.

Mounting the screen onto the stand is very easy. It slides on and clips into place securely. The stand can be elevated or lowered with ease. Raising it is not as strenuous as actually lifting the 18 pound panel off the ground. On the stand, the monitor can rotate approximately 30° from left and right and approximately 15° up and down. It can also rotate vertically so that the left side of the monitor is essentially placed in the top position. When pivoted vertically or horizontally, the monitor is not completely static. It does not move of its own accord but it can shift left and right when pushed. It would be preferable if it audibly and securely clicked into place in both the vertical and horizontal positions.

On the back and bottom edge (horizontal position) of the screen there are a number of inputs and outputs. From left to right, there are: a USB input, two open USB ports, a VGA Connector, a DVI connector, a composite connector, and an S-Video connector. On the right side of the monitor, there are two more open USB ports. All one has to do is connect the included USB cable into the input on the back of the monitor and Windows detects the monitor as a generic USB hub. On the back of the stand, there is a rubber pass through in which one can easily place cables to route them out of the way.

The buttons along the bottom right of the monitor have self-explanatory diagrams regarding the menus and options they represent. They have a tactile feel to them and the menus are fairly easy to navigate.


Image Quality and Usage

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1270_2.jpg
The increase in amount of screen real estate is very impressive.

General Usage

Coming from a 17” CRT, the amount of space on this screen is astounding. With both monitors off and the 2005FPW vertical, the amount of physical screen space is nearly doubled. In terms of screen real estate with the monitors turned on, there is much more room in width (or height when vertical) than there was before. I can view two word documents at 100% side by side in print view when horizontal. When vertical I can see twice as many Mikhailtech forum posts without scrolling.

To give a more accurate idea of the amount of real estate the 2005FPW has, one can simply multiply its dimensions by each other to find that it has 1,764,000 pixels on screen at a time. A standard 4:3 format monitor with a 1024x768 or 1280x1024 resolution has 786,432 or 1,310,720 pixels displaying respectively.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1272.jpg
The 2005FPW horizontally positioned next to a laptop's 14.1" screen.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1271_r1.jpg
The 2005FPW vertically positioned next to a laptop's 14.1" screen.

[punkrunning]

Movie Test

Watching The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kind Extended Edition was a whole new experience with this monitor. There are still black bars on top and bottom but the picture is actually more seamless and less pixilated than on my old NEC FE771. The colors are more vibrant and of course the wider screen angle displays a larger picture.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1284.jpg
Golem in the dark.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1281.jpg
Golem in the light.

The Emperor’s New Groove filled almost the entire screen with a very slim border surrounding all four sides. I assume that this discrepancy in viewing space between the two films is related to the original format of the DVD’s as they were both viewed using Interactual Player. The bright colors and high contrast and detail were also apparent here.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1294.jpg
Llama in the dark.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1292.jpg
Llama in the light.

[punkrunning]

Game Test

The only game I have that runs in widescreen natively (i.e. without any stretching) is Unreal Tournament 2004. I run the graphics now at 1200x768 (the closest to 16:10 aspect ratio that is available) and normal details. Before, I ran it at 800x600 with all details high. The wider field of vision more than compensates for the lower detail settings. First person shooters were made to be played this way. Instead of just seeing what’s directly in front of me, I have peripheral vision now. I can’t say it helps my game, but the 16:10 format makes the world around me a lot more attractive. I didn’t notice any ghosting when looking for it in the middle of a heated battle.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/113_1301.jpg
Note the large viewing angle.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/113_1305.jpg
No ghosting here.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne does not support a 16:10 aspect ratio. The image was stretched to fill the screen. While the buildings and units didn’t look any worse for it, the interface seemed to fill an unnecessarily large portion of the viewing area. Aside from the stretching, the image quality was just as good as in UT2K4. This game just didn’t create the same “wow” factor without widescreen support.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/113_1311.jpg
Notice the horizontal stretching of the letters in the menu.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/113_1313.jpg
With the wider aspect ratio, the interface seems to take up a disproportionate amount of screen space.

Note: Through the monitor's onscreen options, it is possible to enable "Aspect Ratio" mode in which the monitor will display the exact number of pixels a program is set to. While I opted not to, it is possible to play a game like Warcraft III with no strectching so that it will only fill the middle of the screen with small borders on top and bottom and wider ones on the sides (assuming a setting of 1024x768 is being used).

[punkrunning]

Issues

NOTE: My Canon S230 digital camera is an automatic camera that always tries to increase the contrast to create strong blacks and whites. When interpreting the backlight bleeding, I suggest thinking of it as a little bit more or less bright than it is in the photographs depending on your viewing distance and angle.

If you’ve Googled this monitor and seen the vast number of forum posts on it, then you’ve no doubt encountered the backlight bleeding issue. Most if not all LCD’s have some limited amount of backlight bleeding which causes some or all corners of the monitor to be lighter than the center area. The Dell 2005FPW, however, had some very bad production runs early on and many consumers encountered horrible backlight bleeding. The model I received is a revision A00 produced in December. Watching www.hardforum.com’s 30+ page thread in particular, it seems that the latest revision A01 has had significantly less backlighting issues.

My model has significant backlight bleeding from the top right, top left, and bottom right corners. I didn’t notice this at all until I previewed the “Blank Screen Saver” included with Windows XP in a slightly lit room. In virtual darkness (with the exception of a blue LED in my computer to the monitor’s right), it became very noticeable. Looking at pictures of the issue online, I would say that I’ve received a fairly average backlight bleed. To test for the significance of this, I viewed the monitor in dark and light environments from both close and far away.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1277.jpg
Example of backlight bleeding in daylight. The major glare in the top right is a direct result of the overhead lamp.

http://www.whatthefcuk.info/images/monitor/112_1280.jpg
The backlight bleeding in the dark. Note my comment on the brightness adjustment of my camera.


During web browsing, word processing, and general usage, I didn’t notice the backlight bleeding at all, even if I looked carefully for it. When watching LOTR: ROTK EE, I noticed a small amount on the black bars on the top and bottom in a lit environment, and a slightly larger amount when the room was dark. When dark, I occasionally noticed the bleeding without thinking about it, although it did not detract from the movie-watching experience. When watching The Emperor’s New Groove, which filled practically the entire screen, I noticed no backlight issues in a lit environment and very little when searching for it in a dark environment. During gaming, even in dark areas, I noticed no issues at all.

My monitor arrived with two dead pixels. One is in the bottom right and is red. I never notice it during general usage but I can find it when I make an effort. It is impossible to find during a movie that covers it or while gaming. The other is in the bottom left and it is grayish. I can only view it at certain angles on a black background. These didn’t concern me at all.

This was very likely an ATI driver issue (I am using a 9600 Pro with the latest drivers as of original publishing time), but sometimes, when switching user names in Windows XP, the monitor would revert to a 640x480 resolution.


Conclusion

Despite its faults, I am very happy with this monitor. It performs well during normal day-to-day usage and makes for an impressive experience when watching DVD’s or playing widescreen enabled games. It may not be the best one money can buy, but it has a price much lower than the competition’s. During the holiday season, if one searched around, it was very simple to find this for under $600. For a 20” widescreen monitor, this is an absolute steal. The backlighting problems did not detract that much from the overall value of this LCD. Unless you have cash to literally throw around, I wouldn’t spend the extra few hundred dollars to get a comparable NEC or Samsung model.

Pros

+20” widescreen for movies and widescreen-enabled games.
+20” vertical position for web browsing or typing with long documents.
+Price significantly lower than any competition.
+Small footprint saves lots of space.
+Plethora of inputs and USB hub good for many applications.
+Bright colors and sharp details with strong albeit not absolute blacks.

Cons

-Backlight bleeding.
-Slightly weak support for vertical or horizontal positions.
-Dead pixels (although these are an inherent risk when purchasing an LCD).

[SAMSAMHA]

pretty nice review, from the picture they image looks superb. Man, I wish I had one monitor like that.

PS, so there's not much ghosting with the fast movement in movies?

[punkrunning]

Nope, no real ghosting at all.

[Cloud Strife]

Great review !! I prefer reviews like this over websites as ppl tend to write how they feel and don't fluff up matter. Thx for the pics and giving us a run down. Continue the reviews if you would.....

[Mikhail]

So this monitor has a 16ms response time like the 2001 as well?

[punkrunning]

Nope, 12 ms. I considered mentioning this except that I was giving my unprofessional opinion and didn't think that stat should affect it in any way.

[Mikhail]

The response rate is incredibly important. It's the deciding factor for a lot of people (myself included).

[punkrunning]

I added a line in the introduction regarding the response rate.

[Substance]

Nice review :)

[punkrunning]

Mikhail, I just got an email from photobucket saying that I exceeded 1 GB of bandwidth and that they'll shut down my account if I exceed 1.5 GB. The only photos in the account were for the review. If you want to keep them up, since I think it has generated a decent amount of traffic, I was hoping that you could host them. Thank you.

[Altron]

I would just leave links to them. Having all those pictures in the thread means every time you want to see the thread, you end up loading the pics again. When you post a reply, it goes back to the thread, loading the pics some more. Putting links would cut down on the pictures being needlessly refreshed so they can be there when someone wants to see them.

[punkrunning]

That is a valid point, but I was hoping to see if Mikhail would host them first. Having links instead of posted pictures takes away from some of the visual appeal of a review.

[Altron]

That is a valid point, but I was hoping to see if Mikhail would host them first. Having links instead of posted pictures takes away from some of the visual appeal of a review.

So does having a red x instead of a picture.

[Mikhail]

The images load fine for me.

[punkrunning]

They'll continue doing so until i hit 1.5 gb of bandwidth and it shuts the account down.

[forenplayer]

I am trying to decide which monitor i should buy.I have a choise between DEll 2005FPW, SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 213T OR NEC LCD2080UX. I am buying from Ebay,all the monitors are brand new, diffrence in price is NEC is $100 more than DELL and SAMSUNG is $100 more than NEC.Can anybody tell me if DELL is good enough, i am going to use this monitor just for basic surfing and emailing.

[Thyhammerr]

I am dying to see the pics of tests you posted.. use imageshack.. never had a problem with it..

-Thanks

[punkrunning]

Just because you never had a problem with imageshack doesn't mean they give unlimited bandwidth for free.


Guess my article was just too popular... :rolleyes: Got it on "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google with "Dell 2005FPW Review." I'll post up links to the images soon.

[Mikhail]

How large were the image file sizes?

[punkrunning]

They were fairly small (all under 100 K), all of them resized to 640x480.

[Thyhammerr]

chill dude :D ..

I was just asking .. coz i was gonna do a review on 19" BenQ LCD..
was wondering if there were any tests.. and saw yours.. din't know what monitors tests looked like .. so am a lil excited..

-Thanks

[Mikhail]

You might want to then either create another Photobucket account or attach them to your posts (as thread attachments). There are other image hosting services as well (tinypic is one).

[cryogenic]

That's a real drag about the pics being down.. :( I really wanted to see them. I'm in the market for a new monitor and considing I do mostly web surfing, movies, music and very little gaming, I think it'd be a great monitor to have. In all honesty, I could host the pics as my host gives me 100gb of bandwith and I only use about 2gb of it.

[punkrunning]

Wait? You could seriously host the pics? PM me your email address.

Until then, go to the 30 plus page forum thread at hardforum.com for some pictures as they have a lot of them.

[cryogenic]

I PM'ed you my email... so you can just email them to me and I'll be happy to host the pics for you... your PB account is pretty royally hosed it looks like.. I have yet to see the pics actually come up once so far. lol

[punkrunning]

The pictures are back up thanks to cryogenic. Just letting you all know. Thanks again.

[Mikhail]

Great! You're more than welcome to write more reviews for our reading pleasure :) Glad you got them hosted. If we get enough user reviews going I will consider hosting the images in a guest directory on the Mikhailtech server. We have 600GB/month of available bandwidth.

[punkrunning]

Well I should get to building my new computer by May at the latest. I'll probably post a bunch then.

[Thyhammerr]

Thanks for the Pics .. :) ...

just noticed them posted..

-Thanks

[engelwolf]

Thats a sharp looking LCD monitor.

[flyguy3bua]

Hey that thing is pretty sweet.

And unique choice of desktop too. What's up with them birds? :D

[punkrunning]

Let's just say there aren't that many cool desktops that are natively 1680x1050 lol. I used to get mine from caedes.net as they have some really cool regular posters, but they don't support my new resolution. :sick:

[julius]

Nice monitor, too bad about the dead pixels.

I don't want to believe that you can get one for under $600 in the U.S. because here it costs over $1000. Sigh...

[playahata123789]

lol, it looks funny in portrait mode, so long. wish i could get a 20" lcd, after this review

[cryogenic]

I was actually almost considering getting that particular monitor, but I decided on the 19" LG 1910BK instead. I will say that looks like a pretty nice monitor, though. Might be nice as a second display. ;)

[punkrunning]

Nice, I just broke 10,000 views. :D I feel famous.

[julius]

Wow, that's something when you consider how much views others threads have. Congrats!

[Mikhail]

Yea it is, congrats. Keep those articles coming :) If several people start writing (which probably won't happen until traffic goes up even more) I'll start up a guest reviewer section in the forums and officially host the images at Mikhailtech.

[Waister]

I am using 9800se

can i use DELL2005FPW

is 9800se supoort 1680x1050 Pixels ?

[Mikhail]

Well the 9800 (Pro) supports higher resolutions than 1680x1050, but that resolution in particular isn't listed. It should work though if you install the monitor driver (can anyone confirm this?). I have a Mobility 9600XT in my laptop and that runs at 1680x1050.

[punkrunning]

I'm using a 9600Pro and I didn't have to install any monitor driver. There were some issues with resetting to 640x480 when switching user names after the monitor had been switched from horizontal to vertical viewing mode or vice versa but they were mostly corrected after DLing the latest catalysts. It should work fine.

[Cloud Strife]

punkrunning congratulations on over 12,000 views for this review.

[punkrunning]

Thanks, I hadn't noticed the number went up that high. It probably helps that it comes up on an "I'm Feeling Lucky" Seach for "Dell 2005FPW" "Dell 2005" "2005fpw review" etc.

What was cool was a friend asked me if I had the review online when he found it through google. He called me a geek. :rolleyes: I can't really deny it...

[Mikhail]

Congrats :)

[Thyhammerr]

lol ..

I hear that alot.. :P Geek .. nerd .. even Doodle called me a nerd.. hey i am not a nerd :o .. atleast i don't look like one :) ..

-Thanks

[TyKoN]

is it possible to play games with the screen sideways? i was just wondering what it would look like.

[punkrunning]

By sideways I assume you mean in portrait mode. I haven't tried it, but it would just be stretched vertically and the distortion would be greater than if I played it in horizontal mode. Nothing unusual.

[TyKoN]

darn, i was hoping there was some special feature for games with that.

[Cloud Strife]

stickified for guests...

[punkrunning]

Thanks. :D 14,000 views.

[Cloud Strife]

Moved this to the correct forum.

Note: You are averaging around 7 views an hour on this review. Maybe more as Mikhail has the ability to view stats on threads.

[Mikhail]

I moved it back to Computer Modifications. The reason it was posted in this forum is because it's the only one that allows image code to be used. In any other forum the review ends up having links to the images rather than showing the images themselves.

[Cloud Strife]

Ah.......I forgot about that.

[Forz24]

I have the 2005fpw monitor and i noticed while playing counter strike source when you turn around the background image looks blurry I wonder is the same happens to everybody. with this I don't mean ghosting.

[punkrunning]

I have the 2005fpw monitor and i noticed while playing counter strike source when you turn around the background image looks blurry I wonder is the same happens to everybody. with this I don't mean ghosting.

It sounds like you're talking about ghosting though... I don't notice blurring exactly when playing UT2K4. Sometimes though, when I turn around very quickly, the image almost looks less sharp for that one moment (significantly less than a second). It might be ghosting, but in my opinion it's too slight to really disrupt anyone's game.

[Forz24]

well the background in the game gets so blurry that makes me feel dizzy, even if I turn slowly. but thanks for the info.

I also wanted to know if you have problems using PIP. does de monitor let you select D-SUB as the source for PIP when using DVI-D as primary signal. because my monitor only let me choose between S-video and Composite when im using the DVI or D-SUB signal as primary source.

[punkrunning]

The issue you're talking about sounds pretty strange and I think it might be software based, i.e. in the drivers of your graphics card. You should also make sure you're running in the monitor's native resolution, 1680x1050, for optimal image quality.

Referring to PIP, I only ran it briefly with my gamecube connected through the S-Video port and it seemed to work fine.

20K+ views today. Sweet. :D

[SlimFaBoy]

Not sure where i saw the message that the revision A01 2005FPW does not have backlight bleeding problem. I just wanna do the recorrection for those who want buy 2005fpw. I just got mine two days ago, Feb. 22th. The 2005FPW still has the backlight bleeding in the four connners of screen.
Acutally, i was considering 2001FP and 2005FPW. I chose the 2005PFW because it has a better RT as 12ms. After i saw the backlight bleedling. I have a little regrets to choose it so i went to check the some reviews of 2001fp becasue I consider returning 2005fpw to get 2001fp for larger viewable area. However,It shows 2001fp has the same problem but its backlight bleeding not much than 2005fpw does. Any comment?

[punkrunning]

Not sure where i saw the message that the revision A01 2005FPW does not have backlight bleeding problem. I just wanna do the recorrection for those who want buy 2005fpw. I just got mine two days ago, Feb. 22th. The 2005FPW still has the backlight bleeding in the four connners of screen.
Acutally, i was considering 2001FP and 2005FPW. I chose the 2005PFW because it has a better RT as 12ms. After i saw the backlight bleedling. I have a little regrets to choose it so i went to check the some reviews of 2001fp becasue I consider returning 2005fpw to get 2001fp for larger viewable area. However,It shows 2001fp has the same problem but its backlight bleeding not much than 2005fpw does. Any comment?

By your second to last sentence, I assume you're saying that the 2001FP has some backlight bleeding but not as much generally speaking as the 2005FPW. I have read similar reports and have also heard some say that many LCD's have minimal backlight bleeding. Later revisions of the 2005FPW are supposed to have less issues but aren't necessarily devoid of them. This is all according to user reports on other forums.

[BONDS]

Hey guys!!!
I am new to mikhailtech.com

I have a question that i need help with. I tried for over an hour to find the answer but couldnt get any where so im gonna try the question here and may be you guys can help me out.

I have a Geforce2 MX/MX 400 and i wanted to know if i can use the 2005FPW monitor with this card and also not having any black bars on the top and on the bottom.

I just installed updated drivers for this card today and i found an option where i can create my own resolution and refresh rate. So i created 1680 x 1050 as it is the recommended resolution for this monitor. I want to know if this would work before i get this monitor.

Any input would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

Bonds

[punkrunning]

Hey guys!!!
I am new to mikhailtech.com

I have a question that i need help with. I tried for over an hour to find the answer but couldnt get any where so im gonna try the question here and may be you guys can help me out.

I have a Geforce2 MX/MX 400 and i wanted to know if i can use the 2005FPW monitor with this card and also not having any black bars on the top and on the bottom.

I just installed updated drivers for this card today and i found an option where i can create my own resolution and refresh rate. So i created 1680 x 1050 as it is the recommended resolution for this monitor. I want to know if this would work before i get this monitor.

Any input would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

Bonds


It should work fine for web browsing but don't expect to be able to play ANY games at the native resoltuion. With that card however, I'm assuming you're not much of a gamer.

[Cloud Strife]

Unless he is a Starcraft kind of guy, he might be able to play that game in that resolution.

[punkrunning]

Unless he is a Starcraft kind of guy, he might be able to play that game in that resolution.

I wouldn't even guarantee that, although it is possible he could play it in 1600x1200. Neither Starcraft nor Warcraft III supports widescreen. I play WC3 in a stretched aspect ratio and it actually doesn't bother me at all.

[wyldtek]

It should work fine for web browsing but don't expect to be able to play ANY games at the native resoltuion. With that card however, I'm assuming you're not much of a gamer.

I just got my 2005FPW today (Rev A01, Feb 05). I use an ATI AIW 9800 Pro. Works great, but I did find two dead pixels (I had to really look to find them though). I also have the backlight bleeding problem on all sides, but the only place I occasionally notice it during normal use is in the upper right corner.

As for gaming, Half-Life 2 does run in 1680x1050 (select 16:10 Aspect Ratio) and looks amazing. The demos of Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004 also run in 1680x1050.

[val]

Looking for a AGP video card that will support this resolution, 1680x1050.

Wyldtek, I just checked the ATI site and the ATI 9800 does not have this resolution specified in it’s specs. Could you configure this card with native 2005FPW’s resolution ?

Any other video card that support this resolution 1680x1050 ?

thanks

[punkrunning]

Looking for a AGP video card that will support this resolution, 1680x1050.

Wyldtek, I just checked the ATI site and the ATI 9800 does not have this resolution specified in it’s specs. Could you configure this card with native 2005FPW’s resolution ?

Any other video card that support this resolution 1680x1050 ?

thanks

Pretty much any video card will support this resolution if you download its latest drivers. Whether it will allow you to play games in that resolution without stuttering framerates is another story.

[wyldtek]

Looking for a AGP video card that will support this resolution, 1680x1050.

Wyldtek, I just checked the ATI site and the ATI 9800 does not have this resolution specified in it’s specs. Could you configure this card with native 2005FPW’s resolution ?

Any other video card that support this resolution 1680x1050 ?

thanks

Once Windows recognized the monitor (it was able to download the latest monitor drivers from Windows Update) the options for the card expanded to include widescreen resolutions up to 1680x1050 through DVI. All the games I listed above were able to run smoothly in the 1680x1050 widescreen format. I have a P4 2.6 GHz, with 1 GB Ram.

[Forz24]

I just got my 2005FPW today (Rev A01, Feb 05). I use an ATI AIW 9800 Pro. Works great, but I did find two dead pixels (I had to really look to find them though). I also have the backlight bleeding problem on all sides, but I the only place I occasionally notice it during normal use is in the upper right corner.

As for gaming, Half-Life 2 does run in 1680x1050 (select 16:10 Aspect Ratio) and looks amazing. The demos of Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004 also run in 1680x1050.
You say when you play half Life 2 it looks amazing, but don't you get a blurry image of the background when you turn your view.

[wyldtek]

You say when you play half Life 2 it looks amazing, but don't you get a blurry image of the background when you turn your view.

No, I haven't had that problem.

[Forz24]

No, I haven't had that problem.
thanks for the info im gonnareplace the one I have

[punkrunning]

You say when you play half Life 2 it looks amazing, but don't you get a blurry image of the background when you turn your view.

As I said earlier I haven't had that problem either in UT2K4. This implies that the gosting is probably exclusive to either your monitor or your computer (whether this is related to drivers, hardware, or something else I wouldn't know).

[Forz24]

what revison do you have (punkrunning). Mine is A01 february 05 made in mexico and It didn't come with dead pixels or backlight issues everything is fine but the ghosting.
I wonder if people who have this revision(A01 February made in Mexico), have any issues with ghosting. because maybe they fixed all the past issues and screwed up the response time.

[wyldtek]

what revison do you have (punkrunning). Mine is A01 february 05 made in mexico and It didn't come with dead pixels or backlight issues everything is fine but the ghosting.
I wonder if people who have this revision(A01 February made in Mexico), have any issues with ghosting. because maybe they fixed all the past issues and screwed up the response time.

I have the A01 Feb05 and do not have ghosting problems.

[punkrunning]

I think you should definitely call Dell and get it replaced. I'd take my two dead pixels and slight backlight leakage (which I never notice unless I look for it on a dark screen) over severe ghosting problems. It's also unlikely that you would get a worse replacement than mine.

[punkrunning]

31K+ views. Woot. :D


It's weird that no other comprehensive reviews have been released on the net after so much time and the popularity of this monitor.

[mender]

I'm about to order one of these and was wondering if anyone had any experience with editing text while in portrait mode. I will use this monitor almost exclusively for document preparation and was wondering if you could put it in portrait mode and edit a legal size (14 x 8.5) document in Word or Adobe. Will the sides fit, or will I be sliding the page back and forth to see both the beginning and end of a sentence? Anyone have any experience with this or could someone with one of these monitors pull up a page and try this maneuver in portrait mode and let me know?

Many thanks in advance –

[punkrunning]

I'm about to order one of these and was wondering if anyone had any experience with editing text while in portrait mode. I will use this monitor almost exclusively for document preparation and was wondering if you could put it in portrait mode and edit a legal size (14 x 8.5) document in Word or Adobe. Will the sides fit, or will I be sliding the page back and forth to see both the beginning and end of a sentence? Anyone have any experience with this or could someone with one of these monitors pull up a page and try this maneuver in portrait mode and let me know?

Many thanks in advance –

It's actually great for this as you can see almost two full pages in length at 100% zoom. The monitor is currently hooked up to my dad's computer and he loves it. It has plenty of space in the margins even when AIM is open and locked to the right side.

[mender]

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks so much.

[punkrunning]

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks so much.

No problem. I'm glad I could help.

[GAT-ROT]

That LCD is shweet!!! To bad it's almost $800 . A guy in my DC gaming clan just bought one, believe he just got it today too.

http://www.cduclan.com/home/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1385&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

[Cyber Citizen-1]

The Dell 2005FPW is a pure joy to interface with my system. For about 2 years now I've been using a Sony SDM-S51 (15" 4:3 a.r.) and with the exception of getting the full widescreen DVD experience I didn't believe it could get much better without a 42" plasma ;) Virtually the 2005FPW has doubled my visual workspace. At this writing I have iExplorer in a 1024x768 window, ATI All-In-Wonder TV in a anamorphic (larger than 640 x 480) mode, and SpyderBar all on the screen and the same time. The clarity of every object has a 50-100% improvement over my last LCD.

Multitasking seems to be the "pret pro quo" with this monitor,
watching DVD's a pure joy just as long as the movie will do widescreen.
Games; well now we come to the only annoying thing about such a great monitor, but by no means is it the monitors fault. While Unreal Tournament 2004 conforms to the resolution/aspect ratio (1650x1050), Dungeon Siege LOA displays an error message then conforms; however, Doom3 won't except anything but the 4:3 aspect ratio.

My Midi sequencers and paint/photo programs finally have enough real estate to simplified user interfacing. I don't have to jump from window to window, while blocking one or the other.

For personal use, the Dell 2005FPW is large and in charge. :p

[Cyber Citizen-1]

That LCD is shweet!!! To bad it's almost $800 . A guy in my DC gaming clan just bought one, believe he just got it today too.


I purchase mine on ebay(auction) for $480.00 :D

[punkrunning]

The Dell 2005FPW is a pure joy to interface with my system. For about 2 years now I've been using a Sony SDM-S51 (15" 4:3 a.r.) and with the exception of getting the full widescreen DVD experience I didn't believe it could get much better without a 42" plasma ;) Virtually the 2005FPW has doubled my visual workspace. At this writing I have iExplorer in a 1024x768 window, ATI All-In-Wonder TV in a anamorphic (larger than 640 x 480) mode, and SpyderBar all on the screen and the same time. The clarity of every object has a 50-100% improvement over my last LCD.

Multitasking seems to be the "pret pro quo" with this monitor,
watching DVD's a pure joy just as long as the movie will do widescreen.
Games; well now we come to the only annoying thing about such a great monitor, but by no means is it the monitors fault. While Unreal Tournament 2004 conforms to the resolution/aspect ratio (1650x1050), Dungeon Siege LOA displays an error message then conforms; however, Doom3 won't except anything but the 4:3 aspect ratio.

My Midi sequencers and paint/photo programs finally have enough real estate to simplified user interfacing. I don't have to jump from window to window, while blocking one or the other.

For personal use, the Dell 2005FPW is large and in charge. :p

Doom 3 can be viewed in windscreen with a simple .ini file modification. Also, the monitor has been on sale for under $500 brand new with coupons. Watch techbargains.com for a couple of weeks and an opportunity will arise.

[Cyber Citizen-1]

Doom 3 can be viewed in windscreen with a simple .ini file modification. Also, the monitor has been on sale for under $500 brand new with coupons. Watch techbargains.com for a couple of weeks and an opportunity will arise.

Doom 3's not feeling me. I setting these lines in "DoomConfig.cfg":

seta r_customHeight "1050"
seta r_customWidth "1680"
seta r_fullscreen "1"
seta r_mode "8"
seta r_multiSamples "0"

but to no avail :(

[TyKoN]

i think you have to go to some .ini file also, not just the cfg. i would google it to see if anything comes up

[punkrunning]

I found this link with instructions. Apparently I was wrong. Inputing a custom resolution will still stretch the image but it will be crisper than if a 4:3 image was stretched.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=787406

[Cyber Citizen-1]

I found this link with instructions. Apparently I was wrong. Inputing a custom resolution will still stretch the image but it will be crisper than if a 4:3 image was stretched.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=787406

I found a Doom3 config file maker (beta), placed:
r_mode -1
r_ConfigWidth 1680
r_ConfigHeight 1050

The aspect ratio took, but the resolution defaults to 640x480.

read the hardforum message, and g_fov helps. :rolleyes:

[punkrunning]

The first major professional review of a Dell 2005FPW was just published at anandtech.

Read here. (http://anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=2400)

They compare it to the Apple 20" Cinema Display which uses the same LG screen but retails for almost double the price.

[punkrunning]

I made a number of small updates to the review today. 41K+ views. :)

[SAMSAMHA]

man, I read that review. I wish I had plungged into Dell's deal a week or two ago, now I regret that I didn't buy this baby:(

[punkrunning]

I see the monitor on sale for under $400 about once a week lol. Take a look at techbargains.com and slickdeals.net on a daily basis and you won't miss it. If you really want one, act soon as I've seen reports saying LCD prices are going to go up a bit.

[dotcombust]

By your second to last sentence, I assume you're saying that the 2001FP has some backlight bleeding but not as much generally speaking as the 2005FPW. I have read similar reports and have also heard some say that many LCD's have minimal backlight bleeding. Later revisions of the 2005FPW are supposed to have less issues but aren't necessarily devoid of them. This is all according to user reports on other forums.


I assume I have a later rev (just received last week) and I do not see any problems with bleeding other than the slight glow behind the screen while in sleep mode or when there is no image source and without ambient light in the room- this is typical of all LCDs and is not an artifact of poor manufacturing or quality- only a side effect of the lamp of an LCD of this size/nature.

anyhoo... I love my 2005 FPW.. 3 years ago I had an envision 18' 24ms response- hated it ..so much blurring and tearing I couldnt even game on it... about 6 months ago I got a princeton 15ms 17"- great LCD .. good balance of performance and desktop.

This 12ms Dell? OMG- HL2, UT2k4, Call of Duty:UO and dvd playback.. No ghosting or tearing @ 1680x1050 WOW! (CoD requires a UO config tweak to get the 1680x1050 since its not supported out of the box) .. When you get UO config changed then start the game up- go into Options and Graphics- the resolution value will not be there because its not coded. However you will see the screen fill out completely at 1680x1050. Running on my 6800GToc without any hicups. I've got some SEXY digicam pics of HL2 I can post here later if anyone is interested.

The difference between a 25ms and even a 15ms to a 12ms is night and day.... I have to say I'm very impressed as it comes pretty darn close in performance to my NEC MultiSync FE950+ crt monitor.

$345 out the door with 4 dell coupons last week! :cool: Glad I waited the 6 months- In the long run I saved enough money to end up with 2 LCDs, the 2005FPW and the Princeton :)

[dotcombust]

I found a Doom3 config file maker (beta), placed:
r_mode -1
r_ConfigWidth 1680
r_ConfigHeight 1050

The aspect ratio took, but the resolution defaults to 640x480.

read the hardforum message, and g_fov helps. :rolleyes:

Those are about the same for CoD:UO both single and multiplayer. The first time I tried the settings on a server- they went away jumping into another server.. all the other servers I've played on since have stuck to the UO config file thereafter:

seta r_customwidth = 1680
seta r_customheight = 1050
seta r_mode = -1

[oly8080]

I just placed an order for 2005FPW yesterday. Got it for $399 + Tax. I have few questions -
1) How can you find out what version your monitor is?
2) I have a GeForce nVidia Ti4200 Display card with 128MB RAM. Does it support the resolution required?
3) I am a photo enthusiast, has anyone used this for photo editiing? What are your opinions?
4) Where can I find screen savers and good wallpapers to go with the native resolution of this monitor?

Thanks,
Oly8080

P.S - Wonderful review "punkrunning" you helped my decision.

[punkrunning]

I just placed an order for 2005FPW yesterday. Got it for $399 + Tax. I have few questions -
1) How can you find out what version your monitor is?
2) I have a GeForce nVidia Ti4200 Display card with 128MB RAM. Does it support the resolution required?
3) I am a photo enthusiast, has anyone used this for photo editiing? What are your opinions?
4) Where can I find screen savers and good wallpapers to go with the native resolution of this monitor?

Thanks,
Oly8080

P.S - Wonderful review "punkrunning" you helped my decision.

Thanks for the compliment. In response to your questions...
1) It says what version it is on the box.
2) Download the latest drivers off the nvidia website and it should run fine.
3) The color reproduction is pretty sharp but as with all LCD's, blacks are not quite as dark as they could be. It should do fine for everyone but the most picky professionals however.
4) I found a lot of good wallpapers on deviantart.com since you can choose the minimum resolution as 1680x1050 and there are a bunch of those as well as 1920x1200 ones. You can also use google where I found a few decent ones.

[Your Anti-Drug]

i do not believe in dell, dell has the highest percentage (26%) of computers that have to be repaired in 6 months
michael dell is richer than the owner of intel

[punkrunning]

i do not believe in dell, dell has the highest percentage (26%) of computers that have to be repaired in 6 months
michael dell is richer than the owner of intel

This has nothing to do with the excellent value of this monitor. Move your rant to another thread.

[oly8080]

Thanks for answering my questions.
I will be recieving the monitor today. Dell is very fast, I placed the order on 25th and I am getting it today (27th).
I will post my first impressions about the monitor.

Oly8080

[wevsspot]

Hello all. I'm new to the forum so please take it easy on me. I researched the 2005fpw for two weeks trying to make an educated buying decision. I finally decided to pull the trigger on May 25th, then put it off for another day thinking what could go wrong in 24 hours. Well on the 25th all of the great coupons and savings expired. Now, the monitor is selling for $749 when I could have purchased it two days ago for $406. So much for my sob story. My real purpose being here, does anyone know how often Dell runs these coupon and sales deals on the 2005fpw? Is it fairly frequent or is it a once a year deal? Any input would be appreciated. I considered the e-Bay route, but that's a good chunk of change to put down on a monitor from e-Bay.

[punkrunning]

Hello all. I'm new to the forum so please take it easy on me. I researched the 2005fpw for two weeks trying to make an educated buying decision. I finally decided to pull the trigger on May 25th, then put it off for another day thinking what could go wrong in 24 hours. Well on the 25th all of the great coupons and savings expired. Now, the monitor is selling for $749 when I could have purchased it two days ago for $406. So much for my sob story. My real purpose being here, does anyone know how often Dell runs these coupon and sales deals on the 2005fpw? Is it fairly frequent or is it a once a year deal? Any input would be appreciated. I considered the e-Bay route, but that's a good chunk of change to put down on a monitor from e-Bay.

Very often. Wait up to two weeks and something will come up.

[wevsspot]

Thanks Punkrunning. I'll keep my I out. I'd really like to have that monitor.

[punkrunning]

50K views. :D

[Luhny]

time to write another..keep a resume of these with the hits each gets