NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 w/ 3D LightBoost Review

NVIDIAs 3D Vision 2 offers several improvements from the previous generations offering. During use the most noticeable change is the added brightness, not only due to 3D LightBoost on the monitor. It appears that unlike in the previous generation where the lenses would go 100% black, the new generations glasses will never fully darken and stay open longer. This means that visually it appears brighter, which is especially helpful if you game in a lit room and makes it easier to see things besides the monitor (keyboard, food/drink, etc) while in 3D mode. The additional size of the glasses also helps as they block more of your peripheral vision than the previous design which as an end result is less distracting.

Overall the new glasses are a bit more comfortable than the old, with the new design helping quite a bit when wearing large headphones or headset. That being said, the new design has not solved the problem 100% which seems to be due to the roundness that the earpieces have. The earpieces start to curve away from your head a bit too early which headphones end up slightly resting on. They are far more comfortable to wear than the old design, but there is still some room for improvement.

The only real letdown with the NVIDIAs 3D Vision 2 bundle was the ASUS VG278 LCD monitor we received. As mentioned before, the demo unit we received seems to have a bad panel so I was not able to do a full test of the screen. Others that have seen and used the same model have told me that everything looks great so this should not be an issue.

Update: After further troubleshooting and testing it appears we only had a bad DVI cable. Upon replacing the cable and running some further tests this monitor looks great for most tasks. Colors are a bit over-saturated for graphic editing (not the intended purpose of this screen), though a combination of settings changes on the monitor and in the NVIDIA Control Panel does alleviate most of this issue. Colors are excellent in stereoscopic 3D mode, LightBoost and the new glasses improving the experience quite a bit.

With most 27 120Hz LCD monitors selling for between $600 and $700 the NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 + ASUS VG278 bundle is a pretty good deal having an MSRP of $699. It is priced a little higher than we’d like to see it, but this is a 27-inch monitor. If you already have a 120Hz 3D LCD screen the 3D Vision 2 retail kit will retail for $149, with additional wireless glasses going for $99. Prices will likely come down before the holiday season and we heard that rebates could also be coming out soon.

For those with a previous generation 3D Vision setup, the new glasses are a definite upgrade. The increased lens size giving increased brightness due to letting more light in is worth the $99. Many gamers with an existing 3D Vision setup will also probably be running into the issue soon where the batteries in their glasses are no longer holding a good charge, making for an excellent excuse to upgrade to the new glasses as well.

At the end of the day the NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 has made good on most of its promises. Even though the monitor we received did have panel issues, the bundle is still an excellent value. Keep in mind the robust 3D ecosystem that was presented in the previous 3D Vision review and this new release makes an already very good experience even better. We will update this article once we get the new panel and make sure it performs okay.

Legit Bottom Line: NVIDIAs 3D Vision 2 is a very solid improvement over the previous generation. The ASUS VG278H even though ours had its issues, is a very solid screen offered at a great bundled price.