Point of the 120hz screen?

So as we all know, the 120hz screen is required to do 3D. However, I keep reading about people trying to keep the 120hz screen and in one thread they're talking about swapping a 6970 into a computer with the 120hz screen. Unlike hdtvs with their 120/240hz screen and the live motion smoothing effect, the laptop screen does not do that.

With that said, what benefit would there be for having a 120hz screen instead of a 60hz if you weren't doing 3D? Aside from bragging that your screen has bigger numbers.

 

Many people have said that it's brighter.

 

Ah yes, that is true. So it's mainly the brightness that some people are going nuts over?

 

Its not just that. Almost everyone wants the best in their system. If only the 120hz was offered with the 6970m, I would go for it.

 

So, theoretically, if a 240hz screen was offered people would want that too simply because it's in a way "better"? I don't want to come off as snappy or anything. I mean heck, I have the 120hz myself, I'm just trying to find out if there's some kind of benefit or advantage over the 60hz that I'm not currently aware of.

 

Well like darkloki said, Others claim that the 120hz screen is brighter.

 

120hz is brighter (noticeably) 400nit compared to 300nit (60hz)

Some people notice smoother quality at higher fps, I don't. Then again, I'm never very picky on screen quality; I see very little difference between my r3 120hz WLED screen and an hp envy 14 radiance display right next to it.

Eh, the 120hz is nice to have, but I could live without it. It is the best current screen offered by alienware. (RGB in r2 is better, but not widely available anymore)

 

it is considerably brighter, you'd need to reduce the120hz screen by as much as 50% to get to the same level as the 60hz screen

 

As someone said before the brightness is quite a bit higher, I've had all 3 screens now due to Alienware's goof up, the other thing that IMO is the biggest reason for anyone that knows screens well is the refresh rate makes the screen much smoother especially above 60fps.

The only problem with the way that AW put this rig together is a lot of games won't run at over 60fps with high settings on the 120hz screen because they put the 460m in it. Now had they coupled the 120hz panel with a 6970m or 485m then it would be well worth it. As things stand though unless you want to deal with the mess of running a 485m that's not fully functional it's pretty much only good for the brightness.

 

Hmm I thought the human eye couldn't really see beyond 60 fps. Guess I'll have to fire up an older game and compare with vsync on and with it off. Hopefully vsync on won't be set to 120hz.

 

precisely:

Alienware Mobile Displays - Compare Side-by-Side

 

Nice link vikingrinn! +1

 

Whoa wait, it has true life? How do I enable it? If I assume correctly is that the thing where your movies look extra smooth as if it were recorded by some consumer camera?

 

that is correct which is why it is set at 120hz 2x 60hz, older crt displays used to smooth out at 25hz because the crt retained the image, now scan rates are important because digital is very much on off - very little retention, I would challenge anyone to see a difference between a fully scanned 60hz or 120hz........you won't, and fps and scan/refresh rate are not exactly the same thing

 

It's been disproven, the frames per second the eye can see is definately above 100fps but not an exact number. I can definately see the difference between 60fps and 120fps, haven't seen a screen above 120 though so I don't know

 

With a 60hz and 120hz screen side by side I can see slight flickering on the 60hz...It's there and it mostly shows up when your eyes AREN'T focused on the 60hz screen.

 

Ah, nice to know it's visible. So it brings me back to the question of the true life feature I saw on the chart. Anybody seen that in action yet?

 

Never even seen it listed before, any ideas how to view this...capability?

 

US Air Force tests show the human eye can see up to 200fps.

 

@LVNeptune
Check out the link to the screen type chart a few posts up.

 

No I meant before now...Never seen a mention of this.

 

Yea that's what I was wondering. I know on hdtvs 120hz and above implies some form of true life smoothing. Maybe that chart assumed the same thing.

 

I might be mistaken, but from what I recall "True Life" is just a marketing thing for Dell to say their screens have 10% better contrast ratio.