Quantifying image quality of a display, is a relatively difficult task.  This is a somewhat subjective area that in many cases can come down to user preference, in some of the criteria.  However, especially with LCD displays, there are some very specific points of reference that are easily judged and apparent to any user.  We'll try to cover what we feel is important in our final testing and performance section.

Testing and Performance High end imaging

At it's native resolution, the 1600SW is a Professional Designer's dream.  The top end and native resolution for this display is 1600X1024, just shy of the 1600X1200 top end resolution for most 19" CRTs.  This is sort of a custom resolution but it is supported by GeForce2 and GeForce3 cards, as well as most current graphics adapters.

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Frankly, this camera shot doesn't do the 1600SW justice.  The image you see here is at 1600X1024 resolution and as a result, we are able to fit two full pages on this display, which were initially designed to fit for 800X600 desktops.  This is a ton of room to work on an LCD display and the image quality at this resolution is as close to perfect as we have seen on any LCD.  However, for this Tech Writer's taste the image,  at this resolution, was just a little too tight.

Resolution Scaling and Screen Fonts:

This is where the rubber meets the road for LCD displays.  When you scale down to lower resolutions from the native resolution of any LCD display, you are bound to get a certain amount of loss in image quality.  Usually this manifests itself as text and image blurring. In addition to our own eyes, we relied on DisplayMate from DisplayMate Technologies Corp., to help us pinpoint any issues.

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The ideal desktop resolution for our taste, seemed to be 1280X960.  Again, this is sort of an odd ball resolution but it produced a happy medium in screen font size and overall area.  At this resolution and at a more standard 1280X1024, the SGI 1600SW scales VERY well.  The 1600SW  is easily in the top 5% of all LCDs we have laid our eyes on, in this regard.  At these scaled resolutions, text was sharp and overall image quality was excellent.

In addition, color and brightness uniformity was excellent.  However, remember what we've said about the need for a good graphics card driving this unit.  We did struggle in this area a little bit on a lower end GeForce2 card we have in the lab.  Finally, since the 1600SW is a tad wider than standard display types, images at certain resolutions, sometimes look stretched and geometry isn't perfect.  This was a slight shortcoming but our eyes did seem to get use to this "wide" look, over time.

Motion Artifacts, Multimedia and Gaming:

Once again, this is an area where many LCD displays fall down.  Since pixel response times for many flat panels cannot keep up with the frame rates of 3D Gaming or DVD Video, often times the result is annoying streaking and motion artifacts.  It seems as if only about 20% of the LCDs on the market today can really handle fast moving action.

It is safe to say that the SGI 1600SW had zero issues with motion artifacts.  As a matter of fact, we were hard pressed to see any streaking or blurring at all while gaming or viewing DVD titles.  This LCD is an excellent choice for gamers and movie buffs alike.  In addition, we took the above in game action shot at 1024X768 resolution (actual image is 800X600).  The action was crisp and detailed here as well, even though this setting was several notches down from its native resolution.

All told, the SGI 1600SW is a very impressive LCD Flat Panel Display.  It has amazing sharpness and clarity at high resolutions and it also scales very well down through the lower resolutions.  It has a lot to offer for many end users, from high end CAD types to home users with gaming and multimedia requirements.

There are a few caveats with this display however. For one, it is rather pricey at around $1400 - $1600, through most on line retailers and it is also somewhat hard to find.  In addition, at its native resolution, things can look a little tight.  However, this issue is easily offset by the fact that the 1600SW scales so well across multiple resolutions.

In general, we were very impressed by the SGI 1600SW and we're giving it a HotHardware Heat Meter rating of....

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