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Gaming monitors with true 3D images

3D is making a comeback at CES this year, with Samsung's plasma and now a couple of PC monitors. Zalman is a name known by PC enthusiasts for its cooling products and cases, but the company is now branching out into peripherals -- including two new 3D monitors.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury

3D is making a comeback at CES this year, with Samsung's plasma and now a couple of PC monitors. Zalman is a name known by PC enthusiasts for its cooling products and cases, but the company is now branching out into peripherals -- including two new 3D monitors.

If you've been to a 3D movie in the last few years you'll know that the old-school red and blue glasses are a thing of the past, and you only need a pair of specially-designed, clear glasses.

Zalman applies this technology to its Trimon monitors -- the 22-inch ZM-M220W and the 19-inch ZM-M190 -- and gives a convincing 3D effect.

At this point only NVIDIA graphics cards -- GeForce 6, 7 and 8 -- support the effect, and games support appears limited.

The system also supports 3D video that has been filmed with a stereoscopic camera (some IMAX films), and Zalman provides a software player in the package.

Zalman supplies two sets of glasses with each monitor and they can clip on top of spectacles. Of course, the monitors function as normal LCD displays and feature onboard speakers and the 22 inch also has a swiveling screen for easier adjustment.

The ZM-M190 will retail for US$550 and the ZM-M220W for US$700, and Zalman told us that the monitors should be available in the next month in Australia with pricing to be confirmed.