** ASUS DO IT AGAIN: IPS, 144Hz & FREESYNC!!! Asus MG279Q thread **

First impressions.

OMFG - the best monitor ever!!!!

The colours are incredible - contrast amazing (brilliant whites, dark blacks).

So lovely and bright - I haven't even calibrated it yet but it hardly looks like I need to - you can definitely tell it's an IPS screen :)

I have no bright or dead pixels!

Well to be fair there is the faintest green sub-pixel on the far right near the bezel but I cannot notice it unless I'm a couple of inches away from the screen and I tend to think it'll go over time.

Backlight bleed wise, there seems fairly high bleed towards the lower-right but it only shows on pure blacks and doesn't really bother me at all.

Screenshots coming up on my next post...
 
NirK said:
Even on a black screen in a dark room??
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There will always be ips glow, but seemed in the normal range. I don't recall any red colour on it though. Are you sure it isn't bleed?, does it change if you move your vision?. If it reduces as you move around it's probably glow, if not its bleed.
 
20150625_205500.jpg


20150625_205657.jpg


Neither of these pictures do the screen any justice...image quality is 1000% better in person and the back light bleed looks absolutely aweful here - it really isn't that bad in reality!
 
By the way - these are at the default 90% brightness (which I really like actually!).

Text wise - I think I know what you guys means but it looks sharp to me.

I think it is more down to the 1440p very sharp resolution more than anything.

I use my monitor for both work and play and I definitely won't have to 'tolerate' the text in anyway.
 
I returned my monitor today :( The "softness/blur" on text wasn't right on mine, it was hurting my eye's when reading (eye's are ok with other monitor's). When I took it back the guy who tested it only switched it on and looked at it for a couple minutes before deeming that something wasn't right with my panel, he agreed with me that things on the screen had a very slight haze/cloudiness to them.

Another thing I noticed was, and I think this only applies to Nvidia cards and more so when using dual screens but I might be wrong. With all the 144Hz panels I tried with this same system and drivers, when set at 144hz my GFX card wouldn't down clock fully when in idle. Now I know this is a common problem which I have come to accept, but the funny thing is that with the MG279Q set at 144hz and nothing else changed at all my GFX card would down clocked correctly. Could this be that my panel wasn't actually operating at 144hz even though being set to it?
 
TerminatorUK said:
Text wise - I think I know what you guys means but it looks sharp to me.

I think it is more down to the 1440p very sharp resolution more than anything.
Click to expand...
That was my initial response, too. But it's more than that, there's definitely something wrong with the monitor's image handling. The MG279Q has a pixel density of 108ppi. I compared it directly to my Samsung 305t+ (100ppi) and my 15.6" 1080p laptop (141ppi), and both of those managed much sharper text without needing any artificial over-sharpening adjustment. The Samsung being sharper was a surprise since it is a VA panel and they generally have softer text than IPS due to VA's non-rectangular sub pixels.

I still feel the Asus' firmware is applying a blur filter to the image when it shouldn't. People like me just can't live with that while others may not be bothered by it at all, but I'm pretty sure it isn't intended behaviour.

(on another note, my MG279Q arrived back to OCUK today and they immediately issued a full refund. Top service as always. I think my adventures with monitors are over for the moment, although a 144Hz/FreeSync monitor with a VA panel would be mighty tempting.)
 
LokiS said:
There will always be ips glow, but seemed in the normal range. I don't recall any red colour on it though. Are you sure it isn't bleed?, does it change if you move your vision?. If it reduces as you move around it's probably glow, if not its bleed.
Click to expand...

There is some bleed in the same place and I think it makes the red IPS glow worse... On this panel the glow is red if you are looking right and white / silver if you are looking left.... I have some backlight bleed top left and bottom right..

Think the red glow / bleed in the bottom right making me want to return for another one. IDK if they all do that due to IPS glow.. I do seem to be hearing quite a lot of "it has a red glow from the bottom right".
 
TerminatorUK said:
20150625_205500.jpg


20150625_205657.jpg


Neither of these pictures do the screen any justice...image quality is 1000% better in person and the back light bleed looks absolutely aweful here - it really isn't that bad in reality!
Click to expand...

Yes mine is like that with the red / orange color in the bottom right mainly, I have some backlight bleed bottom right (bad) mainly and top left that is not too bad and I think it is making the glow worse.

Other than the glow / backlight bleed I agree that this monitor is niiiiccceeeee.

I also noticed on the right edge of the screen all the way down it is a fair bit brighter than the rest of the sceen (most noticeable on grey background) does yours do that as well?
 
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NirK said:
Yes mine is like that with the red / orange color in the bottom right mainly, I have some backlight bleed bottom right (bad) mainly and top left that is not too bad and I think it is making the glow worse.

Other than the glow / backlight bleed I agree that this monitor is niiiiccceeeee.

I also noticed on the right edge of the screen all the way down it is a fair bit brighter than the rest of the sceen (most noticeable on grey background) does yours do that as well?
Click to expand...

Yup - the notification area / clock seems pretty bright but not distracting though.

I played Diablo 3 in relatively dark areas and nothing has put me off - the 1440p resolution and that vibrance and 'pop' of the colours is just something else!

I had an Eizo Foris FG2421 (VA panel, 120hz) and the improvement is amazing; I don't miss the black depth or 5000:1 contrast ratio at all.

The issue with the Eizo (which I believe affects VA screens generally I believe) is that it had real gamma uniformity issues; away from the centre of the screen it looked like severe backlight bleed yet there was virtually none so to me the consistency if gamma wins out massively over some backlight bleed (which is not noticeable in 95% of situations).

Also, on another note, the 80 trace free setting and 144hz gives a brilliant motion blur free experience - again, a marked improvement on the Eizo at 120hz (true it doesn't beat the strobed Turbo240 mode but I prefer this as it has no crosstalk artefacts)
 
Had a fair play with mine last night and made some observations

1) Very little IPS glow (In comparison to my old 24" LG this is non existent)

2) There is back-light bleed but not enough to be distracting under normal conditions

3) I cant see the text blurring at all, in fact white on black text (like the spotify app) is super sharp

4) 144hz desktop is woow ..... just woow

5) With freesync gaming I need to set the games refresh rate to 90hz for the monitor not to split the screen, strange that the display just doesn't disable freesync at 144hz under games. But freesync does work and for most of my games i'm sitting at 60-70fps average at 1440p so the 35-90hz range is perfect for me.


All in all its a great screen :) but looking over this thread they do have some QC issues that need ironing out :)


[NOTE]

You can have your desktop at 144hz with freesync enabled (the screen just notifies you that is outside of the range), as said above this doesn't work on games (screen gets split). This is all well and good with games that allow setting the refresh rate (Like BF4) but others like KSP or Fallout New Vegas only allow setting the resolution. Ill have to look for a solution that can set resolution an refresh dependent on the game that is loaded.
 
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LokiS said:
There will always be ips glow, but seemed in the normal range. I don't recall any red colour on it though. Are you sure it isn't bleed?, does it change if you move your vision?. If it reduces as you move around it's probably glow, if not its bleed.
Click to expand...

How are your dead pixels today? I hope they disappeared like mine did after a few hours use.
 
Andy321 said:
I returned my monitor today :( The "softness/blur" on text wasn't right on mine, it was hurting my eye's when reading (eye's are ok with other monitor's). When I took it back the guy who tested it only switched it on and looked at it for a couple minutes before deeming that something wasn't right with my panel, he agreed with me that things on the screen had a very slight haze/cloudiness to them.

Another thing I noticed was, and I think this only applies to Nvidia cards and more so when using dual screens but I might be wrong. With all the 144Hz panels I tried with this same system and drivers, when set at 144hz my GFX card wouldn't down clock fully when in idle. Now I know this is a common problem which I have come to accept, but the funny thing is that with the MG279Q set at 144hz and nothing else changed at all my GFX card would down clocked correctly. Could this be that my panel wasn't actually operating at 144hz even though being set to it?
Click to expand...

Definitely something wrong there with yours. Sorry mate, it sucks when you get a bad monitor. It seems to be harder and harder to get a good monitor that just works out of the box.

you are right about your graphics card downclocking, with a dual monitor setup it shouldn't downclock at all even in idle. So it was a good idea to return it.

DrBombcrater said:
That was my initial response, too. But it's more than that, there's definitely something wrong with the monitor's image handling. The MG279Q has a pixel density of 108ppi. I compared it directly to my Samsung 305t+ (100ppi) and my 15.6" 1080p laptop (141ppi), and both of those managed much sharper text without needing any artificial over-sharpening adjustment. The Samsung being sharper was a surprise since it is a VA panel and they generally have softer text than IPS due to VA's non-rectangular sub pixels.

I still feel the Asus' firmware is applying a blur filter to the image when it shouldn't. People like me just can't live with that while others may not be bothered by it at all, but I'm pretty sure it isn't intended behaviour.

(on another note, my MG279Q arrived back to OCUK today and they immediately issued a full refund. Top service as always. I think my adventures with monitors are over for the moment, although a 144Hz/FreeSync monitor with a VA panel would be mighty tempting.)
Click to expand...

You are dead right to return it. A monitor is something you will keep for years so if it isn't right at the beginning it's just going to bug the hell out of you as you go on.

I am wondering are some people getting recalled monitors with a firmware update and other people getting new monitors built on the new firmware. Because some people have reported this blur and others haven't noticed it at all. I know mine isn't anything like the picture Andy321 posted.

You should give the BenQ XL2730Z a go. People are saying since the update to fix the AMA issue that the PQ is amazing. Might be worth considering especially if you do more gaming than anything else.
 
TerminatorUK said:
Neither of these pictures do the screen any justice...image quality is 1000% better in person and the back light bleed looks absolutely aweful here - it really isn't that bad in reality!
Click to expand...

Delighted that you got a good monitor Terminator :) Would hate for you to have to go on a killing spree because of a faulty one :D

You like the 90 brightness? Oh man, it would burn my retinas after a while, I had to lower it. Did you mess with any other settings and how are you finding freesync?

Will you try vivid pixel 0 and sharpness 40 or 50 and see what you think?

And you are right, the 144hz IPS screen is awesome :D I am loving it now. Actually I don't even bother much with freesync at all.
 
melmac said:
How are your dead pixels today? I hope they disappeared like mine did after a few hours use.
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No luck :( . It's a really nice monitor if people can get one without issues, I still really want it. I'm not going to order another though without some sort of warranty cover. I really wish this monitor had the Rog Swift warranty, I would happily pay an extra £100 for that cover OcUK do for the Swift.

OcUK should try work with Asus to get more of them warranty covers, even if its an optional pay cost option of 100 squids, naturally they would have to work out supply with Asus.
 
melmac said:
Delighted that you got a good monitor Terminator :) Would hate for you to have to go on a killing spree because of a faulty one :D

You like the 90 brightness? Oh man, it would burn my retinas after a while, I had to lower it. Did you mess with any other settings and how are you finding freesync?

Will you try vivid pixel 0 and sharpness 40 or 50 and see what you think?

And you are right, the 144hz IPS screen is awesome :D I am loving it now. Actually I don't even bother much with freesync at all.
Click to expand...

Haha, I'll give it a go tonight!

To be fair though the sharpness / text is absolutely fine for me.

I had a quick stab with Freesync, I set it to 'on' in the monitor, 90hz for the desktop and upgraded my drivers but I can't find the option to enable it in the CCC.

I did notice that the CCC is still saying version 14.something (instead of 15.x) so I'm not convinced it updated correctly - I'll try doing a clean install and see if that works.
 
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