I want to take the time to tell my fellow wow addicts out there about the best investment for gaming I've made in a long time. It has basically redesigned my entire outlook on wow and other games. I'm talking about the new iZ3d monitor, a monitor that is capable of displaying wow and most other modern games in 3D. I have never enjoyed playing videogames this much in my entire life. We all know how immersive wow can be but if you are able to percieve the massive online phenomena that is WoW in three dimensions, it takes immersion to an entirely new level. It was very hard for me to make the decision to spend $700 without being able to preview what i'm actually buying, so here is a review about the monitor that should be able to make your decision to purchase a 3D monitor a lot easier.

This is a review by an ordinary gamer just like you. I Didn’t subject this monitor to any specific benchmark tests to scrutinize it and take it apart piece by piece, so if that’s the sort of review you’re looking for you’ve come to the wrong place. Instead I’m going to compare the performance of this monitor to conventional 2D monitors from the perspective of everyday gaming use. Just like many of you I’m a huge World of Warcraft fan and have been playing since beta. The guys in my guild keep asking me for the experiences I’ve had with my new iZ3D so here they are:

www.iz3d.com is where you can look up most of the info on it.

Purchase: First off, I was nothing short of thrilled with the level of service the sales support team of iZ3D have rendered both before as well as after the sale. Obviously with a price tag of $1000 ($800 on sale currently) the iZ3D is not an investment made lightly. This is revolutionary technology and having no way of actually seeing it in action before making the purchase doesn’t make your decision any easier.

Setup: Installation of the monitor couldn’t have been easier. It requires two DVI outputs (or 1xDVI & 1xVGA) from your graphics card which, if you truly want to consider yourself a gamer I’m sure your graphics card can provide. When I purchased the iZ3D I used an ATI X1950pro but have upgraded to an NVidia 8800GTXoc2 since. Not a single problem with either chipset. When I upgraded my card I did have to reinstall the iZ3D drivers, but that was trouble hardly worth mentioning. Also the version of the drivers just like with any other piece of hardware is more then likely outdated by the time you get it. Do yourself a favor and install the drivers from the website rather then from the disk provided.

Compatibility: Currently, on the purchase section of the website iZ3D has the disclaimer explaining that dual monitor setups are not supported by their software however I managed to setup my iZ3D along with two 20.1” 2D LCD monitors just fine. All it takes is a cheap off the shelf PCI graphics card and use it to power the other two monitors. At this point I’d like to make the note that if you are running any version of Vista DO NOT MIX ATI with NVIDIA chipsets when configuring your multidisplay setup. Vistas Aero engine won’t allow it and you’ll find that one of your cards will be disabled. Also, only the iZ3D hooked up to your main video card will be able to deliver a descent gaming experience, any addional monitors work fine for windows however a cheap PCI card won’t be able to render games like Crysis or Bioshock. That should hardly matter since you’ll only be playing one game at a time anyways ;p.

64 OS will be supported in the new patch which should arrive this March according to what I was told.

SLI setups are a bit more tricky, seeing how NVidia disables all but one video output for any SLI setup. It’s currently impossible to hook up more then one monitor to any SLI and since the iZ3D requires two separate DVI outputs you just can’t do it till Nvidia lets you. Thank god, rumors have it NVidia will fix that issue soon. Believe me their forums are full of gamers crying about only being able to use one monitor. I'm told in about a few weeks SLI will be available in combination of a $140 device to seperate the signal.

Games: iZ3D has a list of currently supported games on their website, however I’ve had absolutely no problems playing games that were not on the list. The only games I could not get to work were really old games that run on dx7 or OpenGL. Most modern games run on dx9 and shouldn’t pose a problem for your iZ3D. I did notice a glitch with shadows in games that use dx10, currently the only two games on the market that use dx10 are Crysis and Bioshock but many more will emerge soon. This is an issue that should be fixed in the March patch as well according to posts on the user forums. The 3D feature is easy to toggle off and on as well even while playing. Windows and any such software is automatically displayed in 2D.

3D immersion: Now the ultimate question about iZ3D is this one: Is it worth playing your games in 3D vs. 2D? This is obviously subjected to the opinion of the user, for me the answer is a resolute, unyielding and definite yes. I’ve never in my life enjoyed playing videogames as much as I do now in 3D. Most gamers are aware of how immersive video gaming can be but to be able to perceive your game in 3D takes this factor to an entirely new level. On a competitive level of gaming, whether it be pvp in mmos or multiplayer in first person shooters, to see your opponents clearly raised out of the picture of the monitor is definitely a plus.

Comfort: One question I get a lot in my guild is if I get headaches using my iZ3D. No I do not, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer playing videogames and I’ve never gotten a headache from playing. I don’t feel like it’s stressing my eyes any more then my old 2D monitors did. The glasses that come with the monitor are comfortable and look pretty stylish, no problems on that end either. A pair of clip-on glasses is also included for players that require prescription glasses. My brother doesn’t even notice them over his regular glasses.

Performance: Since the monitor does require two outputs on your graphics card it does seem to be a bit harder to handle in 3D mode as opposed to 2D mode. I generally drop a few frames when switching from 2D to 3D but it’s not enough to have to change settings in any of my games. In fact if I didn’t measure my frame rate I probably would not even have noticed. Don’t enable Vsync or Tripple buffering in your games or you might have some problems with ghosting. I found that out the hard way. Ghosting in general was the only thing I would consider a downfall of the iZ3D, no matter what you do there is always some ghosting. According to forum posts a few methods to eliminate any ghosting are being developed in the labs and will be available either in the form of new glasses with different polarization or drivers changing the algorithm on a sub-pixel level.

Conclusion:

Pros: Very realistic 3D experience, Great support, Easy to install, Great picture, stylish & comfortable glasses that don't have wires dangling off it like shutter goggles or VR helmets

Cons: Pricing, Ghosting, lack of SLI support and lack of color controlls (can be done with software), Not possible to preview product