Dell S2417DG (1440p, 165hz, g-sync) owners thread

VEGACORTEZ · 20 Oct 2016 at 15:36

Just picked up one of these to try out instead of 4k as the PPI makes the image really close to 32" 4k but with power to spare to get really high fps on a titan x pascal.

It looks a very nice monitor with thin bezels and adjustable stand. After firing it up didn't notice any backlight bleed or other issues. This is a great TN panel for viewing angles as it seems much better than others, the vertical gamma shift seems quite minimal and so is more like IPS. The panel is not at all grainy like a rog swift TN and is as grain free as your average quality IPS panel. The controls for the menu are on the underside and are push buttons not some horrid touch based ones.

I managed to get the advertised 165hz overclock no problems. On the scrolling UFO test i couldn't see any overshoot at all and it seemed to look perfect, in fact 144hz and 60hz were just as perfect as well, a very nicely tuned overdrive. Tried ULMB even though i won't use it, 85 and 100hz looked okay with a little overshoot looking ghosting as per normal on strobed panels but 120hz gave a distinct double image for some reason.

I ran a calibration (altering OSD settings only and not creating any kind of ICC profile at the moment) and the greyscale could be made to look great if not 100% perfect, the colours also were great with no undersaturation at 0-100%. Only green went off hue a little but is not an issue. The main thing that can't be fixed via the OSD is the gamma. Their are no options and it is far too bright and the curve is bowed. Luckily a quick trip into nvidia CP and changing gamma to 0.83 from the default 1.00 gave it a rich look although still bowed and it all looked fine now and very pleasing to look at compared to IPS. Obviously most games in exclusive fullscreen ignore the NCP gamma setting so i just play in borderless window mode to get around this as g-sync works fine.

Checked out ROTTR, witcher 3, shadow warrior 2 and forza horizon 3 for starters all set to 165hz g-sync borderless window. Absolutely fantastic image and could hardly tell it wasn't IPS, way better than the rog swift TN. The PPI made is look fantastic like 4k but with silky controls and motion. So nice having a grain free image with minimal vertical gamma shift. Until a review emerges to see if response times are better at 144hz overall i will stick with 165hz as shadow warrior 2 is hitting 165fps indoors at the beginning.

Overall the gamma out of the box is a little disappointing but can be overcome to a degree to not matter any more. I might calibrate an ICC profile to run in borderless window mode for better accuracy but for now i'm pleased with the NCP fix and in no hurry. Fantastic monitor and well worth the cost IMO as a 4k alternative for a high end gpu.

Upgrade · 20 Oct 2016 at 15:44

What made you get this monitor over the s2716dg?

Smoogels · 20 Oct 2016 at 15:53

I've been thinking of getting this monitor over similar 27" ones but struggling to find many reviews of it (hopefully tftcentral will soon).

How do you find the pixel density? Does the scaling work fine?

VEGACORTEZ · 20 Oct 2016 at 15:56

Upgrade said:
What made you get this monitor over the s2716dg?

I have gamed at 4k and don't want a 27" 1440p monitors pixel density it's not enough for me. I also read that this monitor had a non grainy panel from the off and great TN viewing angles which sounded great.

VEGACORTEZ · 20 Oct 2016 at 16:01

Smoogels said:
I've been thinking of getting this monitor over similar 27" ones but struggling to find many reviews of it (hopefully tftcentral will soon).

How do you find the pixel density? Does the scaling work fine?

2ft or less and no need for any scaling on desktop. It actually seems quite large to me after 4k at various screen sizes. The PPI is great and the closest to 4k at 32" you can get without being a silly size. By scaling do you mean from lower resolutions? or windows scaling quality?

Smoogels · 20 Oct 2016 at 16:06

VEGACORTEZ said:
2ft or less and no need for any scaling on desktop. It actually seems quite large to me after 4k at various screen sizes. The PPI is great and the closest to 4k at 32" you can get without being a silly size. By scaling do you mean from lower resolutions? or windows scaling quality?

Windows mostly. I know in older versions the scaling is pretty poor but was wondering how well Windows 10 does on this monitor specifically. I'd like the pixel density in games, though my pretty poor eyes can only just comfortably read text 27" 1440p without scaling at a normal sitting distance so I might have to use scaling.

It's a shame there is no where local with these types of monitors on display. I feel like I'm going in blind when monitor shopping

VEGACORTEZ · 20 Oct 2016 at 16:23

Smoogels said:
Windows mostly. I know in older versions the scaling is pretty poor but was wondering how well Windows 10 does on this monitor specifically. I'd like the pixel density in games, though my pretty poor eyes can only just comfortably read text 27" 1440p without scaling at a normal sitting distance so I might have to use scaling.

It's a shame there is no where local with these types of monitors on display. I feel like I'm going in blind when monitor shopping

Whenever i get a high PPI monitor, windows when i first plug it in sets windows scaling automatically before i set it back to 100%. It always looks very nice but of course some things like steam don't scale though. Icons and the edge browser look great though at larger scaled sizes on windows 10.

ACP11 · 22 Oct 2016 at 13:15

I just received my s2417dg and I cant seem to get the 165hz overclock working.....has anybody with this monitor been able to get that refresh rate? Every time I overclock it on the monitor menu the monitor doesn't connect to my gtx 980ti, it just says its in power saving mode and it has a blank screen. Odd thing is that I need to connect the monitor back to HDMI to get access to reset the factory settings on the monitor just to get the display port signal to work again. This seems really strange to me and im wondering if my monitors board is the problem, maybe I got a lemon?

Also just to note I used the original dp cable it came with along with another dp 1.2 cable I was using for 3 years with my asus vg248qe monitor.

Any suggestions guys? I might need to send it back for an exchange.

VEGACORTEZ · 22 Oct 2016 at 16:06

ACP11 said:
I just received my s2417dg and I cant seem to get the 165hz overclock working.....has anybody with this monitor been able to get that refresh rate? Every time I overclock it on the monitor menu the monitor doesn't connect to my gtx 980ti, it just says its in power saving mode and it has a blank screen. Odd thing is that I need to connect the monitor back to HDMI to get access to reset the factory settings on the monitor just to get the display port signal to work again. This seems really strange to me and im wondering if my monitors board is the problem, maybe I got a lemon?

Also just to note I used the original dp cable it came with along with another dp 1.2 cable I was using for 3 years with my asus vg248qe monitor.

Any suggestions guys? I might need to send it back for an exchange.

So just to confirm, you enabled the overclock setting then selected 165hz by scrolling up & then kept pressing right until it says select yes to reboot monitor which then you do. The dell sign appears on a black screen & then 165hz should be a selectable option in nvidia CP. If this is what you did then it should work unless yours won't reach the full 165hz. I use a quality 3m DP cable & have had no issue on my pascal gpu getting a fully stable 165hz.

VEGACORTEZ · 22 Oct 2016 at 16:34

Did some more calibrating & with the latest nvidia driver. Greyscale calibrated the best the monitor can do via the OSD & settled on a monitor contrast setting that flattened out the end of the gamma slightly & didn't affect the low end too much. Then with this result in place i used nvidia CP gamma to shift the gamma line upwards. I used gamma 0.89 which still let bar 18 flash just but not bar 17 on the black level calibration test pattern. I can't get the results to be any better now but I am very pleased now with my final calibration result.

I tried doing an ICC profile calibration but it crushed more near black shades & gave the low end near black a brown tint, I just didn't think it looked as good so monitor OSD and nvidia CP gamma is the best way to go. Some graphs below to show what is possible with these easy to do changes.

Greyscale -

Gamma-

Colour-

ACP11 · 22 Oct 2016 at 21:25

VEGACORTEZ said:
So just to confirm, you enabled the overclock setting then selected 165hz by scrolling up & then kept pressing right until it says select yes to reboot monitor which then you do. The dell sign appears on a black screen & then 165hz should be a selectable option in nvidia CP. If this is what you did then it should work unless yours won't reach the full 165hz. I use a quality 3m DP cable & have had no issue on my pascal gpu getting a fully stable 165hz.

The only way it worked for was after pressing 165hz in the monitors menu I needed to unplug the power cable and upon reboot the 165 stuck ...really strange

VEGACORTEZ · 23 Oct 2016 at 07:54

ACP11 said:
The only way it worked for was after pressing 165hz in the monitors menu I needed to unplug the power cable and upon reboot the 165 stuck ...really strange

Good news you got it working thank goodness. Now you can enjoy your new monitor.

VEGACORTEZ · 24 Oct 2016 at 05:28

I thought i'd post my settings used although these may not be good for your monitor.

Brightness - 70 (or whatever you want)
Contrast - 72 (default is 75 but this setting helped high end gamma flatten out without affecting the low end)
Custom colour RGB - R 95 G 95 B 100

Then using the latest nvidia drivers used their control panel gamma setting of 0.89

Then just run games in borderless window mode at 165hz with g-sync enabled, but don't forget to tick enable g-sync to work in fullscreen and window modes.

VEGACORTEZ · 29 Oct 2016 at 19:25

Played some of the rise of the tomb raider DLC at croft manor which is quite dark and wanted a darker gamma setting. Fiddled around with nvidia CP gamma and found on my setup 0.86 gave a 2.4 gamma with a bit darker shadowed areas than before, looked very nice think i'll stick with this setting now.

Still amazes me how good this monitor looks and i didn't realize that some games seem to support proper fullscreen mode with your nvidia CP gamma setting which is great. Still not spotted any response time issues at all since using the monitor for a bit, it is essentially perfect in that regard. All the games look very blur free and crisp.

mistersprinkles · 30 Oct 2016 at 00:54

VEGACORTEZ said:
Just picked up one of these to try out instead of 4k as the PPI makes the image really close to 32" 4k but with power to spare to get really high fps on a titan x pascal.

It looks a very nice monitor with thin bezels and adjustable stand. After firing it up didn't notice any backlight bleed or other issues. This is a great TN panel for viewing angles as it seems much better than others, the vertical gamma shift seems quite minimal and so is more like IPS. The panel is not at all grainy like a rog swift TN and is as grain free as your average quality IPS panel. The controls for the menu are on the underside and are push buttons not some horrid touch based ones.

I managed to get the advertised 165hz overclock no problems. On the scrolling UFO test i couldn't see any overshoot at all and it seemed to look perfect, in fact 144hz and 60hz were just as perfect as well, a very nicely tuned overdrive. Tried ULMB even though i won't use it, 85 and 100hz looked okay with a little overshoot looking ghosting as per normal on strobed panels but 120hz gave a distinct double image for some reason.

I ran a calibration (altering OSD settings only and not creating any kind of ICC profile at the moment) and the greyscale could be made to look great if not 100% perfect, the colours also were great with no undersaturation at 0-100%. Only green went off hue a little but is not an issue. The main thing that can't be fixed via the OSD is the gamma. Their are no options and it is far too bright and the curve is bowed. Luckily a quick trip into nvidia CP and changing gamma to 0.83 from the default 1.00 gave it a rich look although still bowed and it all looked fine now and very pleasing to look at compared to IPS. Obviously most games in exclusive fullscreen ignore the NCP gamma setting so i just play in borderless window mode to get around this as g-sync works fine.

Checked out ROTTR, witcher 3, shadow warrior 2 and forza horizon 3 for starters all set to 165hz g-sync borderless window. Absolutely fantastic image and could hardly tell it wasn't IPS, way better than the rog swift TN. The PPI made is look fantastic like 4k but with silky controls and motion. So nice having a grain free image with minimal vertical gamma shift. Until a review emerges to see if response times are better at 144hz overall i will stick with 165hz as shadow warrior 2 is hitting 165fps indoors at the beginning.

Overall the gamma out of the box is a little disappointing but can be overcome to a degree to not matter any more. I might calibrate an ICC profile to run in borderless window mode for better accuracy but for now i'm pleased with the NCP fix and in no hurry. Fantastic monitor and well worth the cost IMO as a 4k alternative for a high end gpu.

What is the NCP fix? I just ordered a S2716DG and I need to calibrate it when it arrives on Nov 2nd!

Also, how do I set up G-sync? I have never had an adaptive sync monitor. I have a GTX980 (but plan to upgrade to a GTX1080 in early 2017).

VEGACORTEZ · 30 Oct 2016 at 08:06

mistersprinkles said:
What is the NCP fix? I just ordered a S2716DG and I need to calibrate it when it arrives on Nov 2nd!

Also, how do I set up G-sync? I have never had an adaptive sync monitor. I have a GTX980 (but plan to upgrade to a GTX1080 in early 2017).

You need to open nvidia control panel, which if you don't know how you just right click on desktop and select it.
Regarding the gamma option i spoke of here is a picture with the mouse curser showing it. "Use nvidia settings" needs to be checked as you can see to make it active. You should drag the slider to the left to make the gamma darker on your new dell as it is a bit like my 24" out of the box. When finished click apply.
You need to go to this website link http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
And hopefully you should be able to see squares 1 & 2 before any gamma alterations. When altering the nvidia gamma slider you will probably lose squares 1 & 2 but make sure that you can still see square 3 otherwise you will start to lose too much dark detail. Without measuring equipment it's hard to know what gamma you will end up with but as long as it looks good to you in a variety of games it will be fine. Just keep box 3 visible as i said and don't go any further.
You can test which games support this gamma adjustment by switching between borderless window mode in game (which always uses the adjustment) to proper fullscreen mode and if the image looks the same you can go ahead and use proper fullscreen mode in the game.

Regarding g-sync go into nvidia control panel again and set it to look like this.

The first thing to note is that v-sync and triple buffering should be turned off in game on all games that you play at proper fullscreen.
Then go to manage 3d settings. "Monitor technology" should be set to g-sync, "maximum pre-rendered frames" to 1, "multidisplay/mixed gpu accel" set to single display, "power management mode" to prefer max perf, "prefered refresh rate" highest available. The only other option left to set is "vertical sync". This option only comes into play when you hit the max fps of your monitor ie: 144fps or over as g-sync turns off here. Setting off means tearing as usual over 144fps, v-sync means lag and locked to 144fps and fast sync means no tearing or lag over 144fps just some judder. These v-sync settings only apply in proper fullscreen as in windows borderless it will revert to windows v-sync if i'm not mistaken. I just leave mine set to fast sync.
Because i use MSI afterburner to overclock my gpu and you get Rivatuner statistics server with it. I use RTSS on global and limit the framerate so g-sync is always active. So you could limit to 140fps like below.

I hope this helps you out, hopefully i didn't miss anything out. All these options can do your head in at times. One thing to note is that windows store DX12 games won't adhere to the RTSS framerate limit.

mistersprinkles · 30 Oct 2016 at 18:13

Vega, thank you, that was highly informative and helpful. I can't wait until they deliver my package on Tuesday. I payed $699 Canadian. Is that a good price? That's 428 pounds.

VEGACORTEZ · 31 Oct 2016 at 06:13

mistersprinkles said:
Vega, thank you, that was highly informative and helpful. I can't wait until they deliver my package on Tuesday. I payed $699 Canadian. Is that a good price? That's 428 pounds.

It costs £500 in the UK usually so it sounds good. I paid £443 for my 24" model. Not sure how much things cost in Canada but Linus tech tips makes it sound like it is quite costly compared to the United States. Have fun on Tuesday!

mistersprinkles · 31 Oct 2016 at 19:57

It arrived a day early and I'm using it right now. It's quite kickass.

How do I get games to run in borderless fullscreen window instead of exclusive fullscreen if there is no such in game option?

The gamma out of the box was crap but I was warned. No bad pixels so far.

Looking forward to replies!

VEGACORTEZ · 1 Nov 2016 at 05:35

mistersprinkles said:
It arrived a day early and I'm using it right now. It's quite kickass.

How do I get games to run in borderless fullscreen window instead of exclusive fullscreen if there is no such in game option?

The gamma out of the box was crap but I was warned. No bad pixels so far.

Looking forward to replies!

Glad you are enjoying it. If the game has a windowed mode option this program seems to be what you need, i've not tried it myself though as the games i play so far are fine. If you do give it a go let me know how it goes. http://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/home