Monoprice at CES: 30-inch IPS with "Guaranteed" 120Hz and a Mechanical RGB Keyboard
by Jarred Walton on January 14, 2015 7:52 PM ESTOver the past year or two one of the hot subjects with displays among enthusiasts has been overclocking them to drive the panel at higher refresh rates. We've seen this mostly from the Korean 27" QHD imports, and the amount you could overclock the panel was often quite variable. Monoprice has begun offering displays as well, which gives you better support options than importing something from overseas, and now they're taking it a step further with a 30" IPS display that they're saying they'll guarantee will run at 120Hz 2560x1600.
Now, just refreshing at 120Hz doesn't solve all the issues you might encounter – e.g. image persistence between frames – but given these IPS panels are supposed to have a 6ms response time (which is more marketing than fact) driving them at up to 167Hz is possible. Even if there's a bit of smearing between frames, I still think having a 120Hz display is a much better experience than the 60Hz we've had to accept for years now. It will also be interesting to see how well the display actually works with a variety of GPUs – I suspect some GPUs might struggle to send a clear signal but we'll see. There's no specific release date yet, but Monoprice says the display should be out in the next couple of months.
Monoprice had plenty of other items on display, but most of those (speakers, power banks, cables, etc.) aren't something we cover much at AnandTech. However, they did have a mechanical keyboard with the new Kailh RGB switches, with programmable per-key backlighting. Or at least, that's the end goal – I'm not sure the software support for programming the backlighting is there yet. Anyway, the effects that you can make with these per-key RGB LED keyboards are really cool initially, but I don't know how practical they'll be for everyday use. I suspect most users will just settle for a uniform color, but enthusiasts will enjoy the customization options. I saw several other keyboards with Kailh RGB LED switches at CES, most with software that's nearly ready for release, so it will be interesting to see how pricing and features pan out.
Source: Monoprice
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blackoctagon - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
And by "first" I mean "only." I'm outta here. Need way more coffeeDPOverLord - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
basically its now on monoprices sitehttp://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cs_i...
The bezel looks really huge, and states that it is an LED panel, which usually means IPS... It makes you wonder why they wouldn't state its an IPS monitor.
However, the conenctors and that Power connector are really clunky. The Dell looks a lot better, however Monoprice has a no frills we pay for everything 30 day warranty. I am not sure how it works after warranty wise, but at this point maybe its better to wait for the 34" Acer Predator
yefi - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
A 30" Acer Predator would be my dream monitor if they made it (which of course they won't).KeypoX - Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - link
just got my qnix 27 inch 60hz, overclocked to 110hz, what a difference. Also pushes the pixel clock to 450MHz ish. All over DL DVI. I was getting a black bar on black images dropped to 96hz supper smooth. Only problem/s are related to OSX or Linux.... to bad no tools to unlock pixel clock in nix/osx.KeypoX - Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - link
so if they are requiring OCin for 120hz, they need to supply some tools or its windows only.blackoctagon - Thursday, January 22, 2015 - link
Is that a question? The QNIX (and other) monitors do indeed require overclocking. My understanding is that this Monoprice will not.yefi - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
Unfortunately, it appear this monitor does NOT do 120Hz. In fact, it only does 60Hz: http://www.monitortests.com/monoprice-2560x1600-12...