The final link in a great PC is the monitor. You can have the best graphics card and the fastest processor around, but an abysmal monitor can cripple your system. With the 19 inch MultiSync LCD90GX2, NEC has brought an excellent monitor to the market that blasts forth high quality images with near flawless precision.

To look at, the MultiSync LCD90GX2 does not really stand out from many other 19 inch monitors. The screen is surrounded by a silver casing, with four menu buttons and a four way directional stick for menu navigation neatly cantilevered out under the bottom of the display. The base and rear of the unit are black with the input connectors hidden behind a removable cover plate. The display can tilt through 30 degrees and the base can swivel through 340 degrees. A PC can be connected via either DVI or VGA connections and the two nifty USB slots are a useful addition.

Configuring and adjusting the display is simple through the combination of the on-screen display and the directional stick. The display supports resolutions up to 1280x1024: all our tests were run at this resolution.

We ran image quality tests using DisplayMate Video Edition and were both surprised and pleased at the results with only two minor issues. The colour block tests were perfect, the text on colour block tests was flawless and the uniformity and focus matrix tests passed with flying colours. Even the various moire pattern tests, the hardest tests for any monitor to display, were displayed without fault. From an image quality standpoint, this monitor is sublime.

We did find a slight yellow discolouration on the last two vertical lines on the far right of the screen. This was almost unnoticeable but on a screen of white lines on a black background it was visible. The other issue involved a barely noticeable slight darkening of the image in each corner of the screen. However, we do not feel these two minor issues impact on the use of the LCD90GX2. Further countering these insignificant problems is the fact that this display stands out from the crowd thanks to the absence of back light bleeding.

NEC claims the monitor has a response time of four milliseconds, making it suitable and seemingly targeted toward gaming usage. We walked through various levels of our game wildly moving the camera and game character and noticed no trace of image ghosting or any of the usual symptoms of low response displays. We also ran informal DVD playback tests and were once again pleased with the result.

The biggest problem with this monitor is the screen material when used under flourescent lighting. In this scenario we found the screen to be too reflective. The ultra-reflective screen allows a much sharper image overall but comes at a cost. However, this problem is less noticeable under regular incandescent lighting common in the home.

The NEC MultiSync LCD90GX2 is an excellent monitor suitable for graphics and gaming intensive applications.