Acer XF270HU(freesync) too good to be true or not?

Hi, I've been looking at this monitor (Acer Xf270HU) https://www.overclockers.co.uk/acer...descreen-led-monitor-black-red-mo-095-ac.html for an R9 390X as it's the only reasonably priced 1440p IPS screen that uses the full freesync range of 40-144Hz.

However, I've heard that it uses the same panel as the much more expensive Eizo FS2735 (£900+) which supports either 57-144Hz or 35-90Hz and the Asus MG279Q(35-90Hz). My question is, how has Acer managed to use the full range when the monitor is significantly cheaper and yet uses the same panel?

I can't find any professional reviews of this monitor from the big sites which is making me a bit wary that Acer have somehow bodged the monitor to support this range as they aren't known for quality.

Tft central have refused to review it as it uses the same panel as the Gsync version and they don't see the point. This is besides the point though as Asus and Eizo cannot get it working properly with the whole Freesync range and it would be nice to know if Acer have done something special to achieve this.

Acer insists that overdrive is functioning and it's tuned to dynamically adjust based on the refresh rate and it's simply not user adjustable. Whereas someone on overclock.net insists that this is nonsense and it is not working correctly resulting in lots of blur.

Freesync turns itself off and on repeatedly in games for some people: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4d0lld/freesync_is_broken_does_amd_even_know/

Given the above and that I have a 390x which might be under-powered, do you think it would be worth taking a chance on this monitor and a possibly broken Freesync, or should I wait for HDR? Will there be affordable options when monitors that use this technology come out?

At the moment I have a 24" Eizo 1920x1200 IPS screen that works perfectly. The only problem I have is FPS drops when Vsync is enabled in some games which means I have to disable it resulting in lots of tearing which I'm finding annoying and the 16:10 aspect ratio results in many games having a zoomed in look.

Theres so many issues with the "high end" Asus and Acer monitors. Dead pixels, gsync/freesync issues, excessive BLB, flickering, power problems, etc. Many just seem to die after a year or so. They just aren't made very well

Nasher said:

Theres so many issues with the "high end" Asus and Acer monitors. Dead pixels, gsync/freesync issues, excessive BLB, flickering, power problems, etc. Many just seem to die after a year or so. They just aren't made very well

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It's a pity that the quality is so poor, particularly when they are far from cheap. I've been on 1920x1200 and 24" for 8 years now and I'm getting a bit sick of it. Have you used one of these 27" monitors recently and got lots of problems? Do you think a 390X is too slow for this resolution even with freesync?

Maybe I should just wait for HDR and Vega, not sure how long this will take given the glacial pace of both the PC monitor industry and AMD.

Excellent monitor I own it myself with Freesync the overdrive option is greyed out however it does still work however it is defaulted to normal, the backlight bleed on mine is quite heavy but I don't notice it and normally this drive me mad. The Freesync works fine on mine. I recommend it massively and I got a deal of £360 or £380 with OCUK last may. I would prefer G-Sync though so I could have a Nvidia card.

Doogles said:

Excellent monitor I own it myself with Freesync the overdrive option is greyed out however it does still work however it is defaulted to normal, the backlight bleed on mine is quite heavy but I don't notice it and normally this drive me mad. The Freesync works fine on mine. I recommend it massively and I got a deal of £360 or £380 with OCUK last may. I would prefer G-Sync though so I could have a Nvidia card.

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That's good to hear, Doogles. What GPU do you have and do you think my 390X would cope with this resolution? Are you worried you might want to upgrade to an HDR-capable monitor when they come out?

Do you want an Nvidia card only because they have faster options at the moment and do you consider Gsync superior?

When I had a GTX 690 Nvidia disappointed me somewhat, Crysis 3 had massive stuttering and low FPS on release and Battlefield 4 also had stuttering. These issues were eventually fixed, except for the odd stutter in Crysis 3, but it took months. This 390X has generally been very good, particularly in games that use DX12 or Vulkan.

I believe the issues with my 690 were due to SLI, my 4870X2 from AMD was much worse though as it supported fewer games.

However, my friend has a GTX 980TI and that performs wonderfully in all the games he plays.

ltron said:

That's good to hear, Doogles. What GPU do you have and do you think my 390X would cope with this resolution? Are you worried you might want to upgrade to an HDR-capable monitor when they come out?

Do you want an Nvidia card only because they have faster options at the moment and do you consider Gsync superior?

When I had a GTX 690 Nvidia disappointed me somewhat, Crysis 3 had massive stuttering and low FPS on release and Battlefield 4 also had stuttering. These issues were eventually fixed, except for the odd stutter in Crysis 3, but it took months. This 390X has generally been very good, particularly in games that use DX12 or Vulkan.

I believe the issues with my 690 were due to SLI, my 4870X2 from AMD was much worse though as it supported fewer games.

However, my friend has a GTX 980TI and that performs wonderfully in all the games he plays.

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I was running a R9 290 until my PCI-Express died but with that I was getting around 60 fps average in BF4 Ultra with x2 msaa with minimums in around 45-50. With a R9 390x you will be fine until Vega arrives. I'm not worried about HDR because if I want to upgrade I have no issue with selling and buying the next thing that comes along, upgrading from a 60hz 1440p to 144hz/Freesync was worth it for me even though I had to sell my old monitor.

Really considering this monitor for the 1440P/IPS/144Hz goodness, I currently have a 780Ti so Freesync will be useless but the big three really ticks all the boxes.