Acer XB270HU - Worlds First IPS, 1440p, 144hz, Gsync

WesleyBurns said:
Here with my personal thoughts on the XB270HU.

For years I had various high end IPS monitors that cost £700 (BenQ fp241w) that at the time I thought were the bees knees, and they were at the time. This mini reviews conclusions are are focused on 27" 1440p monitors (mainly between the Asus Swift and Acer Predator).

My last monitor I had before I entered the realm of >60Hz monitors was a Crossover 27" and it was good, apart from the glossy screen and heavy uncalibrated colours (which was easily remedied with a colour calibrator).

Then it all changed, I got a Asus Rog Swift and I was blown away by the response and lack of a blurry image and was even playing games better (best chassis I have ever seen on a monitor too), things were more point-and-shoot-and-shoot-straight. I was in bliss before I started to notice the overdrive noise (goes by various descriptions). I went through a few of them (3 in total) and I could not get used to it. Near that time I had noticed news of the XB27HU and was eagerly awaiting it, but was still many many months away until release.

I then moved over to a QNIX 27" PLS Evolution II, and, for the price when overclocked is pretty damn cool - however there was the usual slight blurriness that comes with the standard IPS type technologies. I was happy to put up with it and even got used to it within a few days. The frame response was the most important thing it seemed, to me (I was running at 96Hz).

Yesterday my XB27HU arrived, I am pleased with the build quality (it isn't styled futuristic like the Asus Rog Swift) and I am not a fan on piano black. However the bezel is thin and I am using my own VESA stand that can rise higher than the stock XB27HU one and the base not curved like the XB27HU is.

The menus are slightly fiddly although all I did was tinker and then leave it alone. I found the brightness of about 60% is good, while the 100% is far too bright, so plenty of adjustment there. I used a ColorMonki to calibrate the colours as the monitors was slightly too cool.

I have fired up a few games (Crysis 3, Far Cry 3/4, GTA) and the pixel response times for truly are the best I have ever for an IPS panel.

How fast is it? I would say not quite as fast as the Asus Rog Swift, but close enough and close enough to see this is no ordinary IPS monitor!

The pros are:
*You are getting an IPS Panel with close to TN speeds.
*Obviously the 1440p/27"/144Hz specifications
*The colours & contrast blows the Asus right out of the water.
*So far no dead/stuck pixels (for my monitor anyway)

Cons:
*In a very dark room there is some Backlight bleed, some due to chassis/panel pressure. The Asus Rog also had this (but doesn't bother me - Stuck/Dead pixels do). During normal use Backlight bleed is undetectable.

As for GSYNC, IMHO only counts if you are running lower FPS because your GPU cannot keep up (I am running dual 980's and always get >90 in most games). GSYNC does shine in side scrolling games like Starcraft etc as apparent jittery motion is VERY noticeable - again personal findings. So overall, most of these monitors are overpriced because of the GSYNC module, but it is nice to know it is there if i need it.

To sum it up, would I have the Asus or the Acer if I had to do it all again?

My answer obviously is the Acer - every time. The IPS quality is fantastic and overall makes up for the slightly slower pixel response times WITHOUT overshoot distortion like the Asus has (and for which ultimately killed it for me and why I had an overclocked QNIX instead.)

Is it worth the price (I paid a bit less as I imported it)? I would say that unfortunately you have to spend this money to get what as pure bliss, smooth quick frames (IPS/144Hz/1440p/4ms - lots of 4 in there :)). I would prefer these types of monitors to be around 450 Pounds, but that is dreaming.

Overall it is a personal choice but I have been through a monitor hell trying to get the best overall with the least compromises, for now the Acer XB270HU is it for me. (Keep any eye out for the 3440x1440p 144Hz IPS monitors ;))
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Thanks for the thoughts on this...

What did you use to compare speed over the ROG ?
 
Nice mini review Wesley, thanks. Getting pretty tempted by the Acer now. Only running a GTX780 at the moment with my Hazro 1440p but I'm thinking G-Sync is going to be worth getting especially in FSX where I'm gaming with fixed 30fps! (CPU limited simulator).
 
BaDBoY_uK said:
Maybe it is officially known as ATOC but I used to get a weird ghosting on bushes and grass on ARMA3 using this monitor. I hadn't seen it on the BENQ or DELL before it... maybe my old eyes :eek::mad::)
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I know what you're on about, I had it with my Benq XL2410T, it was fixed by disabling AMA or Instant Mode.
 
Picked up a ROG Swift today. I have a 3440x1440 monitor, but it suffers with Vsync quite a lot unfortunately, so some shooting games can be a little hard with the input lag.

Unfortunately - while still a fantastic monitor - gonna have to send it back for this. I sort of dismissed any reports of colour problems because I'm a bit colourblind and didn't think I would notice anything wrong. I was wrong, sadly. Side by side games were just not looking particularly lovely for me, compared to my IPS display.

Hopefully I'll get a full refund and grab this one down the line.
 
I just read the tftcentral review of Acer Predator XB270HU. Sounds like this would be a perfect fit for me, unless anyone can point me in the direction of something similar?
 
Drojman said:
Picked up a ROG Swift today. I have a 3440x1440 monitor, but it suffers with Vsync quite a lot unfortunately, so some shooting games can be a little hard with the input lag.

Unfortunately - while still a fantastic monitor - gonna have to send it back for this. I sort of dismissed any reports of colour problems because I'm a bit colourblind and didn't think I would notice anything wrong. I was wrong, sadly. Side by side games were just not looking particularly lovely for me, compared to my IPS display.

Hopefully I'll get a full refund and grab this one down the line.
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The swift out of the box is not particularly great, however with some manual adjustment it can be brought in line, in particular it needs a small dab of negative gamma in NVCP, I have mine at about 0.89, I'll dig out my other settings shortly

I have my swift side by side with an IPS and cant tell the difference
 
Drojman said:
Picked up a ROG Swift today. I have a 3440x1440 monitor, but it suffers with Vsync quite a lot unfortunately, so some shooting games can be a little hard with the input lag.

Unfortunately - while still a fantastic monitor - gonna have to send it back for this. I sort of dismissed any reports of colour problems because I'm a bit colourblind and didn't think I would notice anything wrong. I was wrong, sadly. Side by side games were just not looking particularly lovely for me, compared to my IPS display.

Hopefully I'll get a full refund and grab this one down the line.
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If you have to deal with vsync at some point in time you can always use a framerate limiter and set it equal to hz off the monitor. That will remove 95% of the input lag and the gameplay should be smooth as long as you can max out that framerate limit. Wont do you any good if you dip under though but how bad thats gonna feel is different from case to case, here im talking about the stutter and not the input lag :).
 
very close to pre-ordering this bad boy. what leads do you get with it (and what do you need) and how long? need a fairly longish lead to get to my PC. Got 2 780tis, assume they are fine?
 
Mightyashy said:
very close to pre-ordering this bad boy. what leads do you get with it (and what do you need) and how long? need a fairly longish lead to get to my PC. Got 2 780tis, assume they are fine?
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You get a DisplayPort cable that looks about 1.5m long. The monitor only has 1 DisplayPort connection.
 
I really want one but the price tag is to high for me imo, think I'll see how the Asus is now because it has Freesync, I have never had a Nvidia card so don't think it is worth me getting G-Sync, maybe Acer will make a non G-Sync version of this? Could get the price down to £480 I am sure without it.
 
In a serious pickle as to whether I should get this now, or wait for more user reviews. Is there any point in waiting? Will prices drop in a few weeks? Are there any equivalent gsync monitors coming out soon?

Also am I right in thinking that, even if Acer don't have a good warranty in regards to dead pixels and backlight bleeding, I can always DSR it, even after opening the box?
 
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