To test the TFTs in this month's Labs we relied on a few different methodologies. All TFTs were tested on the same test bench PC consisting of a Gigabyte 8GE667-PRO motherboard and 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 512MB of DDR RAM, running Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Focal Point Computing (www.focalpoint.com.au) kindly lent us a Matrox Parhelia graphics card for this test. We chose the Parhelia because of Matrox' superior dual-head technology and the fact the card has dual DVI outputs. This allowed us to connect monitors singly or doubly for direct comparisons between screens.

We rated the monitors according to set criteria, and benchmarking with DisplayMate 2.03 Multimedia Edition with Motion Engine from DisplayMate Technologies Corp (www.displaymate.com), which is the definitive monitor-testing tool.

DisplayMate is a program that consists of multiple test patterns designed to stress and test any display, and version 2.03 comes with an adapted script with test patterns customised specifically for LCD screens.

Before we tested each screen, the monitor's software and drivers (if any) were installed.
We also set the PC to the native resolution of the monitor, and calibrated the screens before testing.

The graphs (above, on the following couple of pages) contain four conglomerate scores based on what we looked at while testing the performance of each screen.

Specifications

This category is more about the physicality of the screen. We awarded points for the features found on the display. Half a point if the feature was present, and a full point if it excelled.

Displays were judged on response times, swivel and tilt support, connectivity options (D-Sub, DVI, S-Video, composite, USB), inclusion of speakers, a TV-tuner and if it had an in-built power supply.
 
The absolute possible maximum score for this category is seven.

Sharpness and resolution

All DisplayMate tests were rated from one (terrible) to five (excellent). These sharpness and resolution tests concentrated on fine pixel focus, pixel tracking and timing lock, brightness and contrast. The display patterns are used to test a monitor's ability to display identical images, and test whether or not it can reproduce that image again and again over an entire screen and maintain its clarity and evenness.

Uniformity testing is designed to correct variations in brightness intensity across the screen.

Display uniformity is an important test for LCDs, due to many displays having dark patches, especially in corners where the panel meets the surrounding bezel.

Switching between all three RGB channels allowed us to test them individually, in some cases illuminating problematic backlights.

Pixel tracking and timing lock is the process of removing digital noise from the display to get a smoother, clearer picture. Digital noise appears as blurred lines on screen, and can be adjusted via the OSD (On Screen Display) under either the 'clock' or 'phase' options.
Some monitors have set phase and clock, and the DisplayMate patterns are used to highlight any problems.

This is graded out of a top possible score of 20.

Colour and greyscale

Here we rated the screens with DisplayMate on dark black level, colour combinations, colour tracking, white-level saturation, dark-greyscale ramp, 256-intensity level colour/greyscale ramps and colour scales.

As LCD panels have trouble producing black and very dark grey tones, these tests verify the unit's ability to produce black and very dark colours, which should appear extremely close to a true black.

Colour combination tests assess the monitor's ability to compare the appearance of text and graphics over different combinations of colours and the 256-intensity greyscale/colour ramps are representations of how well the monitor can handle gradual sloping of colours from black to white and is used to fine tune colour scales.

Where a smooth gradient should be present, some monitors can show banding, meaning that the screen may have trouble handling colours.

In this test, the TFTs were rated out of a possible score of 40.

Real-world tasks

This last test category was a mix of DisplayMate testing and rating the screens with a series of subjective tests designed to simulate average home/business multimedia loads.
These tests included DVD playback performance, 3D gaming performance (with the 3DMark2001SE Pro performance benchmark), text readability (at gradually smaller points), pixel rise and fall response times and physical attributes such as horizontal and vertical viewing angles. We also checked for artefacts, such as ghosting.

For this particular test, each screen was rated out of a possible score of 35.