Is the 3D screen worth it?

Wait a minute! Before you jump and CAPSLOCK me to death p), I've read quite a few threads regarding this subject, but here's my angle:

I'm looking for a bit of extra oomph, not necessarily the fastest laptop I can get for my buck. I'm not a FPS player, I'm much more of a RPG player and I've read that Skyrim/Fallout 3 are great in 3D, so I'm very intrigued by this whole 3D gimmick.

Sure, I'll have to sacrifice mobility (going for the 17" route instead of the 15" one) and a bit of performance since I'll have to settle for a GTX 560M instead of the unsupported AMD 6990M (the overpriced 580M is completely out of the question), but my question is: how good, if any, is the 3D?

P.S: While I greatly appreciate any opinion, I'm looking a bit towards a user-experience report from people who have a Sager/Clevo with a 3D monitor which can share their point of view on whether this feature is worth the sacrifice or not.

 

To actually use 3D you gotta get that whole Nvidia 3d pack don't you? that's going to cost you extra $$$
And then they insist you take breaks every 30mins or so, so you can't really have marathons playing in 3D

3D is pretty cool though, hurts your eyes a bit. I don't have it on my laptop, but my LED tv supports 3d. Plugged in my mates xbox 360 and played some halo anniversary in 3d mode. It was pretty awesome with the bullet casings flying out at us and stuff!

 

Some people get the 3D screen but don't use that part of it because they want to have a 120 Hz display. It makes things really smooth if you want to play games with vsync on because if your framerate needs to be cut in half, it drops to 60, rather than the 30 of a typical display.

 

Honestly, if you are interested in trying it out, I say get a 23-27 inch 3D capable monitor. It will work with any lappy or desktop that has an Nvidia card. Plus the whole 3D experience is alot better with a bigger screen. I have been using an Asus 23" 3D capable monitor with my Sager (in my sig below) for awhile now with no problems.

 

I contemplated the same thing, myself, but I consider a 3D capable laptop as a full package in a mobile case. I agree that a 3D capable laptop is far from ideal, but a big monitor keeps me from staying fully mobile, which is why I wanted a laptop in the first place, when a PC has so much more performance for the asking price.

You do have an excellent point, though, it's just not suitable to my current situation.

Ekulz, these 3D capable laptops already have 3D glasses and all the requirements included in the price, so no extra charges. I have to pay with mobility and performance, instead.

saturnotaku, aren't the 95% gamut monitors' display looks much better than the 3D capable ones? The 120 Hz sounds like a minor advantage, no?

 

If you plan on gaming then u totally want the 120 Hz screen. The difference is incredible.

Never tried the 3D with mine

 

Thanks for the input. I guess it really is worthwhile, afterall.

Can you please, please, pretty please try gaming in 3D with your monitor and let me know if it's any good?

Edit: Oh, I've just read in your Malibal review that you have to set Skyrim to Very High with the 560M to be able to play properly even without 3D. With 3D I would most likely have to lower it to Medium settings or less. That...kinda ruins it for me. So either 3D + GTX 580M, or just go for an 15" + AMD 6990M, then.

 

Hey there,

Thought I'd jump in since I own an NP8170 with 3D (as you can see in my sig).

First things first - gaming in 3D is incredible. Totally worth it. Games like Fallout and Skyrim are truly awesome - also, I highly recommend trying GTA VI; although there are some glitches with the crosshair and during cutscenes, that game is the best, most immersive experience I have seen with 3D. Just driving around the city with Depth turned up to around 75% is spectacular.

Second - If you plan on playing on anything above LOW settings in 3D, I must insist you get the GTX 580M. The 560 is far, far too weak to handle modern games in 3D. As a point of reference - my GTX 580M dips to 30 FPS when using 3D on HIGH settings with games that released in 2011. For 2012 games I will need to have their settings reduced I suspect. Seeing that the 560 is substantially weaker than the 580, I do believe you will have quite a bit of issues playing 3D on good settings using a 560.

Third - The screen itself is beautiful. I have not looked at a 95% gamut screen, but compared to my other laptops, the 120Hz is by far the best. As one of the previous posters mentions, the 120Hz refresh rate is, well, refreshing to have

 

Yea, with a 560m, you will be playing a lot of games in low-medium settings, which isn't really ideal. You will definitely need the 580M if you want to play 3D at higher settings.

I'm using a 485m (almost similar to 580m in performance) and running 3D via 27" external display. And most newer games, I had to turn the settings down a notch from non-3D settings to get it running smoothly. But TBH, the lower settings didn't effect me much because I didn't notice the change from highest to high, and etc lol. Like, I had Batman AA running in medium settings, no AA, and it still looks gorgeous to me. Plus 3D made it look so much better.

It looks like mobility is an important factor for you, how often are you planning on gaming with 3D on the go? It might be more worthwhile for you to get the 580M/6990M. You can game non-3D on the go and maybe get an external display for home and 3D use. That's how I have mine setup. Though I'm running the 15" laptop.

Also couple other things to note, hopefully someone with the 3D display on their laptop can answer, is there a lot of ghosting in the monitor? It would suck to buy a display that had a lot of ghosting making a game unplayable in 3D.

And, the current 3D monitor for the 17" is 3D vision 1, not the latest 3D Vision 2 from Nvidia. This may or may not be an important factor for you, but you should know anyhow.

 

+1 on this, the 120hz refresh rate is by itself worth the upgrade, i have never truly used the 3D on mine but the refresh rate makes everything look soo smooth and games feel much more fluid!! it makes you don't want to go back to the 60hz screens =S

As for the colors, you can use the "color vibrance option" and increase it to around 57% to get fantastic colors + download the Spider Pro 3 color profile from this forum to achieve real colors as well

 

Thanks a lot, guys! Much appreciated.

skorostrel, yeah, I managed to figure out by now that I have to go with the 580M for 3D. The problem is that it costs an arm and a leg, making me reach nearly $2000 USD, which is way out of my budget. But if it makes games look that good, then it's really something to consider.

vNaK, I doubt I'll be gaming much mid transit (airplane, train, etc), but I do plan on moving, settling in, then moving on again to a different place. Lugging an extra monitor with me is far from ideal. And yeah, I've read that the 17" sports 3D vision 1, which is not perfect, but it's still just 20% darker, as far as I know, no?

skorostrel, have you noticed whether games are too dark for you? And how tired do your eyes get while gaming in 3D for long periods of time?

 

To be completely honest, I don't ever feel that games are too dark for me. Maybe I don't notice it, maybe that is because I don't play games that are too dark to begin with - I've tried 3D with Fallout, Skyrim, GTA: VI, Quake 3 Arena, Call of Duty, Battlefield series, Empire Total War (once you get over the fact that army flags get doubled, battles are insane to watch in 3D), Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2... In none of those have I noticed it being too dark.

My eyes typically get tired after 2-3 hours of gaming. Which is in a way a positive side; it makes me stop playing, go cook dinner, workout, etc. Then I come back for more

**EDIT: A lot of eye-strain depends on the Nvidia 3D settings you use. For instance, don't turn up Depth the first few sessions - your eyes will not be used to it, and you may get a headache. Start off slow, increasing depth as you feel more comfortable with it. Obviously, more depth = better 3D usually, but don't jump the % too fast

The one thing that causes issues for me is that I tend to play late at night, with the lights turned off (I find that 3D works best in this scenario). In that situation, if I am wearing the 3D glasses and reach for a beer or soda, I can't see the keyboard properly to re-adjust my fingers, as the glasses make everything dark haha.


Before committing to the 580M, though, I recommend figuring out which games exactly you are going to play in 3D, and check to see their compatibility (Nvidia's website has a pretty good list). As you are an RPG player, there may be some limitations there, especially if the games have a top-down view - for instance, Red Alert 3 (not RPG, but same view-style) does not work well in 3D. I got the 3D because many of the games I was interested in worked well in that mode.

Cheers,
SK

 

Again, thanks a lot for the thorough input!

Well, most of the RPGs these days should be suitable for 3D, so I think I'm good. And I can always deactivate the 3D and play it 'normally' if I need to.

The only thing that concerns me now is the fact that these cards are getting old as it is, and I've read that new toys are right around the corner, but that's the endless chase of hardware, so I might as well sink my teeth into it right away.

 

I agree with skorostrel on the positives and negatives. While I don't use my laptop for 3D Gaming, I have the 3D Vision kit on my desktop with SLI'd 470 cards. There is no real eyestrain depending on the settings you run with- high depth of field should be avoided. It's worth noting that due to the way 3D runs, the GPU will have to render 2x the frames, so as others have pointed out it will cut your normal framerates in half (or be about equivalent to running a game at 120hz anyway).

You can basically take the benchmarks in these links and cut them in half for 3D:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

For anyone that hasn't used 3D Vision yet, it's not the same 3D you get in theaters. It's more of a "depth" rather than eye popping jump-off-the-screen action. It's not easy to explain, but once you try it you realize how cool it is

 

There are still a few resellers that sell the nvidia 485m, atleast I know of one in Australia. It fits that price gap and performance between the 560 and the 580!
Have you considered that?

 

I have, but the few resellers I found offered the 485 in a very similar price range to the 580 (negligent difference, really), so I might as well consider going for the 580.

Thanks, MALIBAL. Actually, it looks like even the 580 can't really run Skyrim on Ultra settings in 3D (33 FPS without 3D is...problematic, to say the least). But as vNaK pointed out, I'm sure running games even on Medium settings won't trouble me that much in 3D, other than hurt my bragging rights

 

Supposedly 3D vision 2 is 2X brighter, but I never tried 3D vision 1, so I can't compare. Although, most 3D vision 1 monitors have very high brightness settings, so that point may be moot.

 

Here are some color profiles for the 120Hz 3D screen.. calibrated with Spyder Elite 3:

http://files.bestmail.ws/LGD02C5-MATTE.zip

Without a color calibration your screen will only show you 50% of what it is capable of ;P

 

Downloaded. Thanks!

 

OK, so I've ordered me a nice little NP8170 with 3D monitor from XoticPC.

Against my better judgement, and despite what I've read about it, I went in and invested in their 'Redline Boost Overclocking'. Unless anyone knows any better, I doubt I'll be able to notice the difference, but my reasoning behind this decision was that it might allow them to keep testing my laptop a little further, thus noticing any faults (from past experiences, laptops are highly prone to memory sticks' issues) and fixing or replacing the faulty parts before sending the laptop over.

Since I don't live in the US (I do have a shipping service in the US due to my American Express services), I really dread getting a faulty laptop, which will really ruin everything for me as I'm about to move away from my original address, and I figured this step might help.

What do you guys think? I was wondering if a XoticPC rep might offer their insight about their 'Redline Boost', as well.

Edit: I'll ask this in the Owner's Lounge, instead.

 

Congrats you on your order amirfoox!
The Redline boost is a great option to get the most out of your computer. Its a fully tested and warrantied overclock. What we'll do is adjust the clocks then stress test to check for stability and keep doing this until we find the safest overclocks. We first run 3D mark at stock speeds and screen shot the results and again at the top overclocks and screen shots the new results and include both screen shots with your comptuer so you see the exact performance increase you're getting. We average 10-15% increase in performance.

 

Thanks Hutsady!

Will I be able to safely update the Nvidia drivers and keep your customized overclock?

By the way, while the boost in performance is great, and though I'm quite sure you always fully test your customers' laptops, stability and operability (no dead pixels, working HD, no blue screens due to faulty RAM, working speakers, etc.) is THE most important thing for me, so please take your time with this laptop as much as possible, since I'll have a very hard time RMA-ing it, if needed.

So please, no rush, I can wait as long as it takes

Thanks a lot!

 

No problem at all. It will be fully tested at Sager before its shipped to us to do the Redline and we'll do a full test on it again before it ships out to you.

Updating the drivers should be fine however cant be guaranteed as obviously things change when the drivers are updated. We also suggest sticking with Sager approved drivers downloaded directly from them as they are fully tested to be compatible with your machine. While downloading new ones directly from Nvidia usually is fine they haven't been tested on the same model you have so there is always a chance of something not working as intended.

 

I also have the N8170 with 485M graphics and am looking to upgrade to the 120hz screen. Yes, I know there's going to be a big performance hit in games but I also do 3D post (did all the corrections for MTV World Stage 3D Asia last year) so would like to hear what people think of watching videos in 3D on this screen.

 

Only use it for 3D editing...there is a little ghosting here and there but thats due to Nvidias tech...apart from that i LOVE the screen.

 

You really dont get a performance hit in games. In regular 2D mode you can actually get an increase in performance as you can get up to 120FPS to match the 120hz instead of being limited to 60FPS.

In 3D is where you'll see a hit it performance because. The GPU is literally making two images so you get almost half the FPS but you gain 3D! That is the only time you'll see lower FPS.

I've spent some time on the NP8170 w/ 3D on and was very impressed actually. If you've seen a 3D movie before it will be pretty much the same thing on here.