Are Benq's really that bad in image quality?

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Hi, I've been browsing these forums for a couple of weeks now in search for a new monitor recommendation and I'm still slightly in doubt. A bit of background info... I bought my rig about 6 months ago and started by playing on a 32 inch Hitachi LCD tv. This wasn't really working and I finally found enough room to have a proper desk setup. Which left me using our 7 year old Samsung Syncmaster 920n... A lovely 1280x1024, VGA connected, office monitor.

I've been looking all over the places at every review on the internet and I'm still no wiser (well a bit wiser but not massively). I run a i5-3570 with a 2gb GTX 670. I achieve 60-70fps on the latest games with max settings and older games I easily get over 100fps and even on most of the newer ones if I tweak the graphics slightly.

So I've been considering a 120hz screen which really in the UK, narrows it down to one of the Benq's, in which I'm edging towards the XL2411t as it's cheaper, newer and seems to have fixed some of the 2420's problems.

Now my questions are:

1) Will my single GTX 670 really benefit from a 120hz screen. I'd assume so when I'm playing older games, etc but I don't want to be buying new games and having to turn the graphics down if they're not getting a decent frame rate. I assume that a 120hz screen will perform identically to a 60hz screen at lower frame rates? Although I will notice more laggyness if it drops from 120 to 60 than if I am consistently only achieving 60fps...?

2) I've read all the arguments online. Yes the human eye can see more than 30fps and yes, apparently 120hz is night and day compared to 60hz. This is my reason for wanting one to take advantage of my pricey rig. But the downside always seems to be the colours looking washed out. Now like I said, I'm playing on a 7 year old monitor and the colours genuinely don't bother me. The image looks slightly blurry due to the VGA input and the colours can shift on the screen a bit but I don't inspect every tree to make sure it has realistic colours and once I'm immersed into a game I tend not to pay attention to those things.

However, I do want the image to 'wow' me still, I want to turn on a game like Crysis 3 and think flippin heck, that looks brilliant. Am I going to get this from the benq? And if not is the 120hz really worth it for that major downside? My friends all think that PC graphics will be amazing compared to their consoles and will want to give mine a go, but if I stick them on a 120hz that looks shoddy I doubt they're going to be that impressed, especially if they aren't really noticing the 120hz advantages.

3) Are there any other recommendations that may suit me more? I play FPS's although I wouldn't necessarily call BF3 fast paced... Which is the reason I probably wouldn't mind a 60hz IPS or something as I would see 120hz being more beneficial for playing things like Quake and Counterstrike. I'm quite a firm believer that peripherals do not turn a player into Jesus, and that while they may be an advantage, I have never been killed by somebody and thought "Dam, they had a quicker screen than me". Other than FPS's I also play quite a variety of single player games so image quality may be more important than refresh rates to me. However, if the higher refresh rates produce a better image due to their smoothness then I'm good with that. I don't really have a budget for other recommendations but I probably have about £500 if I'm honest. I don't want to spend that but if it's genuinely worth while to do so with my setup then I'll consider it.

Thanks for any info, I didn't mean to rant but it turns out I did anyway. I'm sure I'd be happy with any screen so should just buy one but I want it to be right! I just get the feeling reviewers can be far too critical and that I'd probably be content with the colours and quality of a TN panel. Heck, I read reviews about my Punto online and it gets absolutely slated whereas I think it's been a good little car. Problem is the people reviewing them have driven things much much more expensive and probably don't appreciate how good it can be. It's probably the same with monitors, if they just reviewed a 1440p IPS panel, then obviously a 1080p TN panel isn't going to look that hot.

I dunno... Any help would be appreciated :)
 
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Have you considered a 120hz IPS screen? Catleep, Overlord Tempest etc?

These get the best of all worlds, 1440p, ips screen quality and colors etc, overclockable pcb so can clock it to 80, 100, 120hz depending on your set up...

For this though you would really need a 2nd gfx card as even maxing 60fps at 1440p on some current gen demanding games is hard!

I am in the same situation as you though and I think im leaning towards the xl2411t, If you are just gaming then it shouldnt really bother you if the colors are not 100%

I have watched some videos with this monitor running crysis 3 at max settings and it looks stunning! I don't think you would be dissapointed..

Obviously out of the box it would need setting up too as I have heard they come set up quite bad.

I think a 670 would benefit from a 120hz capable monitor, granted your not going to get 120fps on newer games at decent settings but anything over 60fps is going to benefit you and you 'should' be able to tell a difference in smoothness.
 
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Thanks for the reply :) I think I'm gonna suck it up and do it! Like I said, people are probably being overly critical and I'm sure with the right settings it can look decent. I don't do much in the desktop at home so it would purely be for gaming.

I can always send it back if it's truly horrible!
 
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I run a i5-3570 with a 2gb GTX 670. I achieve 60-70fps on the latest games with max settings and older games I easily get over 100fps and even on most of the newer ones if I tweak the graphics slightly.

and you've measured this on the 1280x1024 screen? 1080p is 1.6x more pixels meaning those framerates are going to drop a lot....
 
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Got the xl2420t this week an so far liking it. Im running a gtx 580 an on bf3 with msaa turned diwn im getting over 60 most if the time an it feels way smoother an more responsive. Even when it dips beliw 60 it still feels better. As for the picture it was bright so I turned it way down at first. Now im using the tft central manual profile settings and the included icc file. I'll tell you what I think after tonights session.
 
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The XL2420T has AWFUL qualities out-the-box. My friend won one and I bought his XL2410T off him, and my colours are perfect compared to it, the XL2420T colours are too.. bland? If that's the right word.

The best brightness setting is 60-70 on the XL2420T for gaming.
 
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60 70 wow you must have built in ray bans. mine would be way too high on that but that could be quality control using different panels. Check out tft central for there calibration settings but if your panel is different it doesn't always work. I'v heard stories of people returning there sets upto 3 times before they get a good one.
 
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I bought an XL2420T and was massively disappointed with the image quality, but this wasn't a huge surprise as it's a TN panel focused on response and not picture quality.

I don't think 120hz is worth the trade off unless you can get a different, superior panel type. It's only really beneficial in certain games anyway.

The Dell IPS monitors seem hugely superior in my view, but it depends what you want.

I don't think it's down to BenQ, I'm sure they could make a good monitor if they used the right panel etc.

I don't think 120hz is worth it, but some swear by it.
 
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The best brightness setting is 60-70 on the XL2420T for gaming.

I use 24 on mine and thats quite bright, I definitely wouldn't call the colors bland either they are very vivid. My main issue with it personally is the backlight I find it quite harsh on the eyes for prolonged viewing due to having a slightly ultra-bright "LED" blue aspect to it.

If you just like vivid colors and aren't very fussy you'd probably be happy with it but I've used and continue to use a much higher quality panel alongside it and the color accuracy even with the best possible settings does my head - for gaming it doesn't bother me but no way I'd personally use it for extended desktop use but theres very few panels that can match it for gaming.
 
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Thanks for your input guys, I ordered the XL2411T yesterday and it arrived this morning at 7:55... just as I was about to set off to work. I did have chance to have a quick look in side and it all seemed pretty solid. However, for some reason the VGA cable was plugged into the monitor... is there a reason for this? I haven't bought a monitor for a while but can't remember them coming with a cable already in it, especially one that I won't be using.

And as for the image quality, I'm hoping it will be fine :) I'm not fussy and I tend to just make do with what I've got but I'll probably end up playing with the settings a bit. I just hope 120hz hasn't been over-hyped for nothing. I'm not getting my hopes up...
 
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I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure my XL2420T came with the VGA cable plugged in. If you look at the piece of paper with the wires and stuff on, it's shown as being plugged in by default.
 
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I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure my XL2420T came with the VGA cable plugged in. If you look at the piece of paper with the wires and stuff on, it's shown as being plugged in by default.

Ah fair enough! I'll have a look at that tonight then. I unplugged it as it was annoying me x) I was started to think it was a returned model that they had boxed back up and had tested beforehand.

Can't fault the service so far though, just hope everything works properly!
 
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Grimezy any chance you can post your thoughts after a good play around with the settings and some gaming time?

I look forward to hearing more about this monitor as it is one i am really considering!

Yes absolutely, it's one of the things I was craving for when I was deciding about mine. There really is a lack of decent reviews online and then sites like TFT Central and Prad can be too critical in my opinion.. not too critical but they're doing tests that would never affect me as an average consumer. And it's very difficult to find a discussion about one of the benq's without it turning into the old 60hz v 120hz debate.

I shall report back tonight!
 
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My 2p.

It's a fantastic monitor but don't get it if you don't like fiddling/adjusting to find your sweet spot.

As has been said by a lot of people, out the box it sucks. I think this is where a lot of the negative feedback comes from.
You spend a fair amount of money on a monitor and you're excited to get it. You're excited to unbox it. You're excited to set it up. You plug it in and ..... you're deflated :(

I think it's on purpose to make sure you take advantage of the monitor's adjust-ability if that makes sense.
Don't forget this monitor has downloadable presets for games etc and is really a gaming monitor with nothing but gaming in mind.

If you want to buy a monitor, turn it on and be amazed by maybe turning the brightness or contrast up or down a bit then don't buy it.
If you like playing with settings and want a really responsive, well built, personalised experience then get it.

I love mine but did suffer from a bit of deflation when I turned it on.

At times I do wish there were less options to adjust :D
 
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My 2p.

It's a fantastic monitor but don't get it if you don't like fiddling/adjusting to find your sweet spot.

As has been said by a lot of people, out the box it sucks. I think this is where a lot of the negative feedback comes from.
You spend a fair amount of money on a monitor and you're excited to get it. You're excited to unbox it. You're excited to set it up. You plug it in and ..... you're deflated :(

I think it's on purpose to make sure you take advantage of the monitor's adjust-ability if that makes sense.
Don't forget this monitor has downloadable presets for games etc and is really a gaming monitor with nothing but gaming in mind.

If you want to buy a monitor, turn it on and be amazed by maybe turning the brightness or contrast up or down a bit then don't buy it.
If you like playing with settings and want a really responsive, well built, personalised experience then get it.

I love mine but did suffer from a bit of deflation when I turned it on.

At times I do wish there were less options to adjust :D

Hmmm, I wonder if my missus could figure out how to configure it for me so I don't have to look at it initially.

One thing I did notice just from picking it up is it feels much better built than I expected, just from feeling the weight of it. The plastic from what I can tell doesn't feel cheap and the stand feels brilliant.
 
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Hmmm, I wonder if my missus could figure out how to configure it for me so I don't have to look at it initially.

One thing I did notice just from picking it up is it feels much better built than I expected, just from feeling the weight of it. The plastic from what I can tell doesn't feel cheap and the stand feels brilliant.

Yeah the build quality is very nice.
I'm more than happy with mine, I just think that they should make it more balanced out the box.
I was like.....hmmm I don't remember having a headache :D
Straight to google and within a 10 minutes I'd had a crash course in the settings and was looking at a different monitor.
Hope you enjoy it :)
 
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i bought my son a benq recently and advised my mother in law one a while back, they are good monitors ...next to say a dell ultra sharp they are noticebly a bit cheap and and not the greatest screens but they are great screens if your on a budget
 
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Well been playing on it all night and i'm loving it so far. I have messed with various colour settings from around the net finally staying with the tft central profile and icc setting(that was a chore sussing that out) and think it looks pretty good maybe lacking that wow factor my samsung tv has for sheer clarity but no big deal. The 120hz though is just a different ball game. Playing BF3 im a lot quicker on the trigger than i used to be. Bargin for what i paid too £165.
 
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