Second best LCD in the world for MAME available now

[bulbousbeard]

Only $600, too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236466&cm_re=asus_mg279q-_-24-236-466-_-Product&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=3891137&SID=rewrite

If you've got a modern AMD card, it works with free sync and should be able to run every game in MAME at its native refresh rate. It's nice to see the rise of variable refresh monitors. Within a few years, hopefully all those 60hz TURDS that people have been using will be phased out.

[yotsuya]

Word of advice, capitalizing, or even using, the word "turd" detracts from your message.

If I'm spending $600 on a monitor, it's going toward a new Tri-Sync CRT.

[yotsuya]

And to keep this going as a legit discussion, the older monitors appeal to those of us who care about aspect ratio. The 21.3 Samsung I use in my MAME cab is big, proportional, and looks great while perfectly functioning and doing what I want it to do. I got it for less than $100.

If you're building a pedestal or phat aircraft carrier panel machine, a widescreen monitor might be appealing. But most of us aren't there.

[dmckean]

Freesync can't be enabled on refresh rates higher than 90hz. Not exactly ideal, 120hz Freesync with black frame insertion is what most people would  want. The Acer XB270HU is the much better choice here when it comes to what we do. But like yotsuya, I'd go for a CRT at this price point.

[yotsuya]

Freesync can't be enabled on refresh rates higher than 90hz. Not exactly ideal. The Acer XB270HU is the much better choice here when it comes to what we do. But like yotsuya, I'd go for a CRT at this price point.

The other thing to keep in mind in the purpose of the cabinet. My MAME cab does not play any Steam games, widescreen sequels, or anything else that needs a modern PC monitor. I've seen the photos of the Tri-Sync in Malenko's MAME cab. That's where it's at for classic gaming.

[dmckean]

Freesync can't be enabled on refresh rates higher than 90hz. Not exactly ideal. The Acer XB270HU is the much better choice here when it comes to what we do. But like yotsuya, I'd go for a CRT at this price point.

The other thing to keep in mind in the purpose of the cabinet. My MAME cab does not play any Steam games, widescreen sequels, or anything else that needs a modern PC monitor. I've seen the photos of the Tri-Sync in Malenko's MAME cab. That's where it's at for classic gaming.

It just depends on what the cab is, I'm mounting a 25" widescreen IPS LCD vertically in my upcoming scratch built Tempest Cabaret project. The extra screen will be hidden and masked off behind a bezel. There should be just enough room to do this and keep the angle of the original vector monitor the resulting 3:4 image will be 18.8 inches. I really wanted to go LCD because of their brightness, I love vector games when I was kid because they stood out from everything else.

I'm not spending $800 on my monitor though, more like $250.

[yotsuya]

Freesync can't be enabled on refresh rates higher than 90hz. Not exactly ideal. The Acer XB270HU is the much better choice here when it comes to what we do. But like yotsuya, I'd go for a CRT at this price point.

The other thing to keep in mind in the purpose of the cabinet. My MAME cab does not play any Steam games, widescreen sequels, or anything else that needs a modern PC monitor. I've seen the photos of the Tri-Sync in Malenko's MAME cab. That's where it's at for classic gaming.

It just depends on what the cab is, I'm mounting a 25" widescreen IPS LCD vertically in my upcoming scratch built Tempest Cabaret project. The extra screen will be hidden and masked off behind a bezel. There should be just enough room to do this and keep the angle of the original vector monitor the resulting 3:4 image will be 18.8 inches. I really wanted to go LCD because of their brightness, I love vector games when I was kid because they stood out from everything else.

I'm not spending $800 on my monitor though, more like $250.

Yeah, I totally get that. The only way I'd consider a widescreen monitor is if I were going to do what you were doing, installing it vertically and masking off the unused part.

My Tempest is running MAME, but I have a PC CRT in mine.

[nitrogen_widget]

If it doesn't cost 3x as much as everything else, it just isn't good enough. 

I'd rather use 25" CRT TV with with component in from a thrift shop for $30 than stretch a 320x240 game to 2400x1400.
is it me or does this seem complete overkill for 20+ yr old video games?

[yotsuya]

If it doesn't cost 3x as much as everything else, it just isn't good enough. 

I'd rather use 25" CRT TV with with component in from a thrift shop for $30 than stretch a 320x240 game to 2400x1400.
is it me or does this seem complete overkill for 20+ yr old video games?

It's not just you, my friend....

[bulbousbeard]

Freesync can't be enabled on refresh rates higher than 90hz. Not exactly ideal, 120hz Freesync with black frame insertion is what most people would  want. The Acer XB270HU is the much better choice here when it comes to what we do. But like yotsuya, I'd go for a CRT at this price point.

Black frame insertion sucks because it's at odds with running games at the correct refresh rate. 90hz is enough for any arcade game. The Acer is better, but that's why this is the second best.

[bulbousbeard]

And to keep this going as a legit discussion, the older monitors appeal to those of us who care about aspect ratio. The 21.3 Samsung I use in my MAME cab is big, proportional, and looks great while perfectly functioning and doing what I want it to do. I got it for less than $100.

If you're building a pedestal or phat aircraft carrier panel machine, a widescreen monitor might be appealing. But most of us aren't there.

A 27" 16:9 monitor is basically a 22.5" 4:3 screen. The aspect ratio doesn't matter. Just cover the sides with a bezel. That's what I do on one of my cabs. You wouldn't even know it was a widescreen monitor looking at it.

[bulbousbeard]

If I'm spending $600 on a monitor, it's going toward a new Tri-Sync CRT.

But we're not talking about CRTs. I didn't say it was the second best monitor in the world for MAME. I said it was the second best LCD in the world for MAME, which it is. Why are you being argumentative for no reason?

[yotsuya]

If I'm spending $600 on a monitor, it's going toward a new Tri-Sync CRT.

But we're not talking about CRTs. I didn't say it was the second best monitor in the world for MAME. I said it was the second best LCD in the world for MAME, which it is. Why are you being argumentative for no reason?

No one is arguing with you. I simply stated that at that price point, I'd rather opt for a tri-sync. No one said you were wrong. 

[bulbousbeard]

If it doesn't cost 3x as much as everything else, it just isn't good enough. 

I'd rather use 25" CRT TV with with component in from a thrift shop for $30 than stretch a 320x240 game to 2400x1400.
is it me or does this seem complete overkill for 20+ yr old video games?

It isn't a complete overkill. Let me articulate why this monitor and the Acer XB270HU are such awesome monitors for an arcade cabinet.

• It takes a LOT of resolution to reproduce CRT defects. 2560x1440 isn't even enough, really.
• The size of these monitors is perfect for basically any way you want to go. A 27" 16:9 monitor is effectively a 22.5" 4:3 screen, and it's only 24" or so inches wide so it easily fits in most wood cabinets. Don't want widescreen? Cover the sides with a bezel. Want to play widescreen games too? Use MAME's artwork system to fill in the pillarboxing. The "aircraft carrier" argument is completely bogus. Go to http://tvcalculator.com/ and test different specs. The extra width on a 16:9 monitor is almost invariably less than the space bezels use anyway.
• It can play literally anything. Vector games, brand new arcade style games such as MK10 and SF4/5, standard resolution games from the 80s and 90s with the Timothy Lottes shader, medium resolution games, VGA games. They ALL look good on this monitor. There is no other single monitor you can get that covers so many bases well.
• Expanding on this, there are certain games that look objectively better than the original on this monitor. Interlaced games such as Rampage, for example, just flat out look better on this thing with no flickering than they did with their original monitors. It's just a flat out better experience. Want me to post a 2880x2160 shot of Rampage with the Lottes shader? You'll tear your pants.
• Speaking of tearing, these monitors have NO tearing or choppy scrolling in ANY game with no tweaks or adjustments. It just works™.
• The freedom to run ANY type of frontend theme you want; want a super high resolution theme? It's going to look awesome at 2560x1440. Want a retro theme? Fire up Attract Mode with the Timothy Lottes shader and it looks authentic.
• It actually has less input lag than even GroovyMAME solutions with a CRT because when you run a G-Sync or Freesync monitor below the max refresh rate, you're basically getting the same response time you'd get with v-sync off. Even GrooyvMAME has to suck down v-sync lag.

The bottom line is that no other monitors play as wide a range of games exceptionally as these two monitors do.

[DeLuSioNal29]

So the moral of the story for everyone here is:

Everyone has a different view of what's best for THEM.  There are both expensive solutions and inexpensive solutions.  Better monitors, inferior monitors.  Everyone is correct in their opinion on what's "better" and their suggestions based on experience.

However, each individual makes a decision as to what's best for THEM in each particular situation.  There's no use arguing over the fact that they are doing it wrong.  It's all relative.

DeLuSioNaL29

[rock145]

Would buying a 4k 3840 x 2160 be better than 1440p monitors for mame. I dont care much about g sync I think tripple buffering would be enough for me. According to this post the higher the resolution the better HLSL for mame will be. Has anyone tried HLSL in 3840 x 2160? How does it look? can anyone provide a picture.

[yotsuya]

For MAME? Probably not. For PC type games, probably. Maybe, I dunno, I only play 30 year old games on my cab.

[rock145]

For MAME? Probably not. For PC type games, probably. Maybe, I dunno, I only play 30 year old games on my cab.

I don't know because I search other forums and they have good things to say about it Example of a user:

MAME can take advantage of this resolution, because when you use an HLSL or GLSL shader to simulate a CRT, you actually need that many pixels to do a good shadowmask simulation as well as even scanlines. It also gives you enough pixels to do good scanlines and a good shadowmask for medium resolution games, which looks amazing.

other user:
Similarly the HLSL shader I mentioned works better the higher resolution you go because at very high resolution (like 4K) an LCD can begin to simulate the shadow mask of an old CRT tube.

We have the technology but sadly the requirements of these old games don't mesh all that well with the new standards that that market has settled on. However with more LCD manufacturers waking up to the fact that console and PC gamers want low lag, and and LCD technology continually improves resolution and refresh rate we might actually solve most of these problems in the future....

[BlackGuyRX]

I've read this monitor, alongside all currently available FreeSync monitors get increased input lag under 120/144hz so this would probably suck for trying to run games at their original refresh rate.

[rock145]

Anybody have some screenshots of mame in 4k pc monitor?

[rock145]

Bump

[yotsuya]

What exactly are you expecting to see?

[rock145]

What exactly are you expecting to see?

I want to see how HLSL looks like for mame at 3840 X 2160. I want to see if is much more improvement than 1080P. I am currently looking at 4k monitor to buy but I want to make sure is worth it.

[05SRT4]

Every time I have people over and they play on my MAME cab they always make fun of me because its only a Sony tube and the refresh rate is bad...

Would buying a 4k TV make me the host i strive to be?

[dmckean]

What exactly are you expecting to see?

I want to see how HLSL looks like for mame at 3840 X 2160. I want to see if is much more improvement than 1080P. I am currently looking at 4k monitor to buy but I want to make sure is worth it.

The only reason it looks better at all is because of the way MAME's HLSL handles the shadow mask. It's something that could be handled in software.

[rock145]

What exactly are you expecting to see?

I want to see how HLSL looks like for mame at 3840 X 2160. I want to see if is much more improvement than 1080P. I am currently looking at 4k monitor to buy but I want to make sure is worth it.

The only reason it looks better at all is because of the way MAME's HLSL handles the shadow mask. It's something that could be handled in software.

I would love to see some screenshots?. Can you point me to the right software that could do this so I can experiment on.