Monitor for gaming and photography - any advice greatly appreciated

[Hoppringle]

Hello all,

I've been looking to replace my Dell 2312HM IPS for a while now as it's developed a dark patch on the right hand side of the screen.

I do quite a bit of gaming (mostly Elite Dangerous, strategy games) but also a lot of photography. Although I shoot mainly b&w film, I've recently started to shoot with colour film so colour reproduction and accuracy are very important. An IPS panel is a must because of this.

After quite a bit of exhaustive research I think I've narrowed the selection down to the following 2 models:

• Predator XF270HU

• Dell U2515H

Reasons to consider the Predator XF270HU: I recently purchased a Sapphire Nitro RX 480 OC 8GB so I'm quite tempted to try freesync. I realise that I may have to dial down some settings to play smoothly at 1440p but hopefully the Acer Predator range of 40-144hz would help here. My concern with this monitor is some of the customer reviews (on other sites) mention poor quality control and issues of severe IPS glow and backlight bleed. Does anyone have experience of this monitor?

Reasons to consider the Dell U2515H: I've always been pretty impressed by Dell IPS monitors (except for the dark patch on my current monitor!). The Dell is quite a bit cheaper but is smaller and lacks freesync. It would be perfect for photography but not so much for gaming.

In an ideal world I'd have a dedicated photography monitor and one for gaming. Am I asking / expecting too much to have one monitor to cover both?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hoppringle]

Seemingly the colour accuracy on the Acer is good, even out if the box, but there are known quality control issues. I have one arriving tomorrow, upgrading from a Dell U2311H, which served me well - i'll post thoughts.

I had similar needs to you, insofar as i wanted a good gaming monitor, but had to have ips.

Obviously i went for the Acer. An extra £100 or so for 144hz. Freesync and a couple of inches.

That Dell does look like a perfect workstation monitor though.

Many thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the Acer looks very tempting but as you say, the quality control is a concern. I'd be very interested to hear your feedback once you receive it. Fingers crossed you get a flawless monitor

 

[Hoppringle]

I've got the g-sync Dell which I use for Gaming and Photography and I really cannot fault it. The colour reproduction in comparison to my VA panel is superb and well worth the consideration.

That would be ideal for me if there was a freesync version. I read about a 27" 1080p Dell freesync monitor (SE2717H) coming out but the res is a bit on the low side for that size of monitor.

 

[Hoppringle]

Many thanks for all the great feedback.

The dell build quality is great, I had an issue with a pixel at first and dell premium panel guarantee now feels like a myth as they pretty much refused to swap it, a rainforest intervened and got a new screen out and all is well now on number 2. When I upgrade to 144Hz again I'll be keeping the dell for sure.

That's a bit worrying regarding the premium panel guarantee as that was one of the reasons I was considering the Dell. Glad you got it sorted in the end though. Still pretty tempted by the U2515H. The only drawback being the no freesync as my RX 480 8GB may struggle to push 60 fps at times.

If your aren't in hurry, samsung bringing on the market a lot of quantum dot monitors even for photography use, all supporting freesync also at various sizes and resolutions.

Thanks for pointing this out. I had a look at the new Samsung monitors being released and they all seem to be curved. Unfortunately this is a big no for me as I'll be doing a lot of photography work on this monitor.

My Acer Xf270HU just showed up, and i'm happy to confirm its a good screen. Quality wise, its very similar to what I'd expect from a similarly priced Dell. Out of the box colour accuracy in 'user' mode is decent, although for photography purposes i'd say it would need some very minor tweaking.

Very happy to hear you got a good screen. If I could be guaranteed a good screen I would most likely go with the Acer due to the freesync range. I have a Spyder Pro so can do monitor calibration to get the colours more accurate. Quality control and Acer customer support are what are making me a bit hesitant on the purchase.

Out of all things PC related, purchasing a monitor is what I dread the most. It just seems to be such a lottery these days whether you get a decent panel or not.