Viewsonic touts LCD world first

Viewsonic has released two LCD monitors that it claimed have the fastest refresh rates in the world.

The VX924 and VX724, 19 inch and 17 inch LCDs have refresh rates of 4 milliseconds and are touted as perfect LCD monitors for gamers.

John Yeh, Australian country manager at Viewsonic, believed the vendor had a six-month window until competing vendors released models with a 4 millisecond refresh rate.

LCDs are moving thick and fast through Viewsonic distributors Ingram Micro and Synnex. Yeh said the company was moving between 5000 and 6000 LCD monitors per month, compared to about half that number for CRTs.

By the second quarter of calendar 2005 all Viewsonic monitors would have refresh rates of at least 8 milliseconds, Yeh said.

A new model in its VP range would also have the capability of swivelling 270 degrees. It would be available in July, Yeh said.

According to a Viewsonic document, this response time is lowered by reducing the ‘cell gap’ of the LCD. "With a reduced cell gap, there are less molecules in the stack and response tends to be quicker," Viewsonic said. By reducing the cell gap by 30 percent, response times could be cut by 50 percent, the vendor said.

The VX924 and VX724 models are available now through distribution.