Best monitor for M18x?

I'd say yes, it does. I get great results gaming at full native resolution on my U3011 (2560x1600) and I am running a pair of lowly 580m's LOL. Of course, there are some titles that get a bit tetchy running at max settings at that resolution for me - I imagine owners of 680m Sli setup's would chew up and spit out more or less any game thrown at them at that kind of resolution with game settings maxed.

 

I mostly play Mech Warrior Online. At 1600P(2560x1600) I am getting an average of 60FPS with in menu settings on very high(the highest)

One thing to consider is, with such resolution, the need for extreme amounts of Anti-Aliasing is no longer needed.

Watching Blu-ray movies on the U3011 is very nice too.

Connection: M18x-->mini display port---->display port---> U3011

Thank you,
Monnie

 

I want to buy one. But man are they expensive. 1200 dollars is alot for a monitor. It gaming on it that much better then 1080p?

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

I can not help with priorities of others so I can only speak for myself.

For me the pixel per inch of the U3011 was well worth it as well as the image quality of the panel. I was using a 1200P(1920x1200) 28" monitor. Moving to the U3011 created a big smile on my face for the pixel density.

Only you can judge if it is worth it.


Thank you,
Monnie

 

Well, in my humble opinion, yeah. 30" of 2560x1600 "goodness" really makes things shine through in detail and colours are soooo much more accurate on this monitor. With this baby, you have over a billion colours and a wider gamut (117% vs M18x 72%) to play with. Really, the 18x panel pales into insignificance when compared to one of these suckers....if you love glossy panels though, this might not be to your liking as it is matte with a anti glare coating, which some owners do not like that much - personally, I prefer it over a glossy any day of the week.

 

Not everyone's primary goal is gaming. I just want high resolution for work, dual 2560x1600.

No clear answer on if this can be done or not.

 

What about running dual Dell U3011's?

 

Cant be done because I think it requires a display port which it only has one

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This is a valid, and interesting question, to which, without testing, I am unsure of the 100% correct answer. Obviously, it all depends on the HDMI specifications/Bandwidth being used - the Mini DP to DP to drive one of the U3011's will be just fine, the problem is getting 2560x1600 @ 36bit colour outputted and transferred to the other U3011 via the remaining video outs, of which, the only one capable (assuming it's HDMI 1.4 spec) is the HDMI out on the M18x.

I had a quick look at the "tech specs" on the M18x landing page and if you look at the specifications in the spoiler below, they do indicate that the HDMI output of the M18x is indeed HDMI 1.4, which should be capable of outputting a resolution of up to 4096x2160 @36bit over single link. If you use a suitable HDMI cable, such as a High Speed HDMI 1.4 cable, it should have enough bandwidth to carry that signal too. The problem is the HDMI input on the U3011 itself. Although it has x2 HDMI ports, they are only HDMI 1.3, so they cannot handle a native resolution of 2560x1600 @ 36bit - they can only handle 1920x1200 @ 36bit. (see HDMI spec. in spoiler).

I've googled for an "active" HDMI to Dual link DVI adapter but was unsuccessful in finding one - don't think they exist. Passive adapters will not work, because even though they've got all the pins on the DVI side to look like a dual link cable, they only pass the entire HDMI signal through one of the two links of the DVI part, which means you can't get full 2560x1600. One "possible" (just might work) solution could be if you ran a HDMI 1.4 to DP cable to a Active DP to Dual link DVI adapter and then on to the monitor, that "might" works as you would be bypassing the HDMI input limitations of the U3011's HDMI ports by using the DVI ports on the monitor instead - which do allow for full native resolution.

Spoiler

Obviously, I cannot test this out as I do not have (or need, for my single U3011) an active Dual Link DVI adapter. If you have the monitors already, it could be worth trying. Otherwise, I think you will be limited to a max native resolution of 1920x1200 over HDMI - until Dell bump up the specification of the HDMI inputs on the U3011 - something they REALLY should do to allow the owners of U3011's to use a single HDMI 1.4 cable to provide maximum native resolution of the monitor.

This article was also interesting - Dell actually say to use a Dual link DVI to get max. native resolution, so assuming the above cabling suggestion works, and it allows for the HDMI output (2560x1600@36bit - HDMI 1.4 spec's) to be passed via the active adapter to the monitor (using the Dual Link DVI cable that ships with the U3011) without degradation, I'd reckon that would work. I'd imagine that all hinges on wether or not the M18x HDMI out is actually a 1.4 port.....if it's 1.3 or lower, it won't output 2560x1600@36bit, it will only output 1920x1200@36bit.

 

This is a spectacular post and exactly what I was looking for. I'll test it out with my dual U3011's and we'll see what happens