Samsung 24" and 27" CFG70 144 Hz / 34" CF791 100Hz VA FreeSync

[PCM2]

Alright, bit gutted . The screen is fantastic in how it looks, the contrast is something I desire so much in a monitor but after trying a good couple of games I just can't get past the VA smearing and blur. I'm not sure why I dont notice it in Planetside 2, maybe as it doesnt have pure deep blacks and has some light to the shades. Soon as a black is up for example: the trees on the tundra in Skyrim there will be a 1cm smearing on the tree trunks when slowly panning the screen with similar blur and shimmering on anything esle black. In dim rooms with black objects they will smear pretty badly. Walking through a town in Elderscrolls online during night as soon as you pan the blurring is pretty jarring to look at. Black against the Ocuk forum background will have a pretty large trail as well, gaming on VA just isn't for me.

Damn shame as theres nothing wrong the screen and the image is best I've seen on a monitor, just gutted the usual VA problem is there.

Can you confirm:

- The refresh rate used when testing and the frame rate
- The 'Response Time' settings tested

 

[nox_uk]

Walking through a town in Elderscrolls online during night as soon as you pan the blurring is pretty jarring to look at. .

Nooooooo the game I'm playing most at the moment and you single it out against this monitor! I'm not entirely sure what you mean by smearing but can kinda guess. Are you suggesting an IPS panel is the better route for typically Elder Scrolls series games?

Nox

 

[mods1965]

I ordered the CF791 yesterday from OCUK and It arrived 9AM this morning. Brilliant service and thanks to Alastair H for his prompt response to my web note on OCUK pixel policy.
I have had a Samsung P2450H, 24", 1080, 60hz/2ms for 8 years, so this is big jump for me, but a really, really good one! This monitor is gorgeous to look at and was very easy to setup.
I have a ref MSI R9 290 at stock under water. Crimson 16.12.2 and Samsung driver from support site. Set OSD to FreeSync ultimate.
UFO test = 100FPS/100Hz. Dead pixel test so far showed nothing, except for what looks like a pin spot of dirt on bottom far right, but that does not really bother me and only shows on white.
I cannot detect any BLB in daylight with black background, but if it is present, its not bothering me so far.
I have been amazed that I can play Overwatch and get 60FPS with my stock R9 290 using the same settings as I had at 1080P. I cannot see any tearing, flicker or game feeling sluggish for a FPS game.
I will try out Battlefield 1 and expect I will have to turn that down, but with a 3 year old card, I can still game until Vega comes out.
So far I am very happy and I am loving super wide. I will post more thoughts as I bed this screen in.

 

[Nerusy]

So I bought the 34inch one after all.

Now I have the same story as mods1965, had the same samsung 1080p monitor for 7 years so going to this feels amazing.

I have amd rx 480 and set the freesync on ultimate.

Now, I downloaded the driver that supposed to fix flickering and playing bf1 and Witcher 3 there is a lot almost permanent flickering in menus and in engine cut scenes but I saw no flicker whilst gaming. I tested both of them below 60fps and saw no flicker or at least i did not notice any in game but I only played for literally 5min each.

Text looks great out of the box (some people said text looks awful on default sharpness) my sharpness is at 60 and text looks fine.

As with my preivous monitor and my general luck I got dead pixel or actually maybe looks like dirt. What is the policy on one dead pixel? I know I can return under DSR but then I will have to cover costs of all deliveries. Quite annoying to have a single dead pixel on a £800 monitor.

Spoiler

Edit: Dishonored 2, plenty of flickering in game on ultimate engine.

 

[LokiS]

Can you confirm:

- The refresh rate used when testing and the frame rate
- The 'Response Time' settings tested

Refresh was at 100hz, free-sync is off as I'm on a 980. In both games the framerate would be capped at the refresh with vsync, didn't check the framerate though, its just the normal VA panel blurring.

Tried both response settings faster, fastest can't see any difference between the two.

 

[PCM2]

Refresh was at 100hz, free-sync is off as I'm on a 980. In both games the framerate would be capped at the refresh with vsync, didn't check the framerate though, its just the normal VA panel blurring.

Tried both response settings faster, fastest can't see any difference between the two.

Thanks for that. Did you not try 'Standard' for Response Time as well? I only ask as this happened to be the best for the S34E790C. You seem to know what you're looking at (sluggish VA responsiveness vs. overshoot), though, so it's probably just the panel. Out of interest did you have the Samsung driver installed or just the 'Plug and Play' defaults?

So I bought the 34inch one after all.

Now I have the same story as mods1965, had the same samsung 1080p monitor for 7 years so going to this feels amazing.

I have amd rx 480 and set the freesync on ultimate.

Now, I downloaded the driver that supposed to fix flickering and playing bf1 and Witcher 3 there is a lot almost permanent flickering in menus and in engine cut scenes but I saw no flicker whilst gaming. I tested both of them below 60fps and saw no flicker or at least i did not notice any in game but I only played for literally 5min each.

Text looks great out of the box (some people said text looks awful on default sharpness) my sharpness is at 60 and text looks fine.

As with my preivous monitor and my general luck I got dead pixel or actually maybe looks like dirt. What is the policy on one dead pixel? I know I can return under DSR but then I will have to cover costs of all deliveries. Quite annoying to have a single dead pixel on a £800 monitor.

Spoiler

Edit: Dishonored 2, plenty of flickering in game on ultimate engine.

Flickering at the very low frame rates of cut-scenes and some in-game menus is a known FreeSync issue. And if you're getting flickering in-game on some game titles and not others, assuming equal frame rate, then it's an issue with the graphics driver or game not the monitor.

 

[mods1965]

Nerusy - OCUK told me in web note that they follow ISO 13406-2 standard, which sadly states that 2-3 pixels is acceptable failure.
I am unable to run Battlefield 1 as it just keeps crashing, so i will play around until I can get it working.
SWBF is fine at High settings with my R9 290 and I am very pleased with that as the game looks much sharper at 1440 super wide.
I have been using the built in speakers, and as other have said, they are decent enough when you want to use them.
Its odd that I see no flickering anywhere, but that must be down to the game selected.
Normal desktop with Chrome, office etc. is fine and very crisp.

 

[LokiS]

Thanks for that. Did you not try 'Standard' for Response Time as well? I only ask as this happened to be the best for the S34E790C. You seem to know what you're looking at (sluggish VA responsiveness vs. overshoot), though, so it's probably just the panel. Out of interest did you have the Samsung driver installed or just the 'Plug and Play' defaults?

I just tried standard now and the blur seems a little worse, either faster or fastest is best I didn't notice any difference on them. I don't see any ghosting but to be honest I've owned some ips screens known for ghosting and didn't have issue with it, it's just the slow blurring you get on VA with blacks. Hope I'm describing it right

I installed the driver off the disc, I did notice an improvement to the input speed with it in which seems crazy to me as I've never known a monitor driver doing that but the mouse did feel more snappy after installing it.

I'm not wanting to put people off, it is really a nice screen but just be careful if you have tried VA before and had problems like I had to be wary, suggest waiting for the indepth reviews.

 

[Nerusy]

snip

Thanks for the information. Yeah if that's the case then I will have to stick with this 1 dead pixel, at least it is right on the side so I wont see it all the time.

As for bf1, I couldn't even start it at first, alt tabbing helped but then menu would not respond, I switched to windowed mode with a keyboard shortcut (alt-enter) and it worked, then i had to change to the correct resolution + 100hz.

Also tried bf1 single player, unfortunately there is plenty of flickering on ultimate engine.

Well I knew what I was going into (that large freesync mode is not working) so other than freesync I like the monitor, compared to my old TN 16:9 monitor, this in comparison is so immersive, its amazing.

I do not really feel any input lag coming from TN 2ms but I am not an advanced user when it comes to monitors, I can not tell fine detailed difference.

 

[Scramz]

Alright, bit gutted . The screen is fantastic in how it looks, the contrast is something I desire so much in a monitor but after trying a good couple of games I just can't get past the VA smearing and blur. I'm not sure why I dont notice it in Planetside 2, maybe as it doesnt have pure deep blacks and has some light to the shades. Soon as a black is up for example: the trees on the tundra in Skyrim there will be a 1cm smearing on the tree trunks when slowly panning the screen with similar blur and shimmering on anything esle black. In dim rooms with black objects they will smear pretty badly. Walking through a town in Elderscrolls online during night as soon as you pan the blurring is pretty jarring to look at. Black against the Ocuk forum background will have a pretty large trail as well, gaming on VA just isn't for me.

Damn shame as theres nothing wrong the screen and the image is best I've seen on a monitor, just gutted the usual VA problem is there.

Hi Lokis, I can not seem to reproduce the same issue you are having and in all games and the OCUK of black has zero trailing to my eyes.

Could you kindly record with a camera what is happening?

 

[LokiS]

Hi Lokis, I can not seem to reproduce the same issue you are having and in all games and the OCUK of black has zero trailing to my eyes.

Could you kindly record with a camera what is happening?

Just finished boxing the monitor back up now fella , back on the u2715h and the issue isn't there anymore, its just the same as when I tried VA for gaming a few years ago, hooking up a differen't PC to my Sony bravia TV has the same smearing its just the same. Anyway, i'll stop barking on and let others post

Oh, I did record a video of the sound bug on the issue I'm still having. The speakers make a high whining sound and can hear electric buzzing popping from them, think they're faulty on the screen. I'll edit this post when uploaded it.

Edit: Can't hear the crackling buzz as the sound is overpowering. Disabled the monitor in sound options, only way to get it to stop to to put the monitor volume to 0%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0ed63SX7M&feature=youtu.be

 

[southernorth]

Just finished boxing the monitor back up now fella , back on the u2715h and the issue isn't there anymore, its just the same as when I tried VA for gaming a few years ago, hooking up a differen't PC to my Sony bravia TV has the same smearing its just the same. Anyway, i'll stop barking on and let others post

Oh, I did record a video of the sound bug on the issue I'm still having. The speakers make a high whining sound and can hear electric buzzing popping from them, think they're faulty on the screen. I'll edit this post when uploaded it.

Edit: Can't hear the crackling buzz as the sound is overpowering. Disabled the monitor in sound options, only way to get it to stop to to put the monitor volume to 0%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0ed63SX7M&feature=youtu.be

That buzzing noise sounds incredibly annoying. Perhaps you have many faults with your monitor, from the speakers to the screen itself.

 

[LokiS]

That buzzing noise sounds incredibly annoying. Perhaps you have many faults with your monitor, from the speakers to the screen itself.

Just the speakers faulty, nothing wrong with the display itself other than just the VA tech, pixel response has always been the weakness of VA, I was hoping it would be different for these newer ones.

 

[Scramz]

The sound is faulty, I have nothing of the sort.

As for your issues with the black smearing, I noticed it badly on this monitor when I first plugged it in and turned it on. I install the latest Nvidia drivers, turned on 'fastest' response time, selected 100Hz from the display settings in control panel, sharpness on the OSD down to 20. Following this I had no more smearing of colours.

I am wondering if there is something not triggered somewhere, I can not reproduce the same smearing I saw from when I first plugged it in.

 

[P3PoX]

As owner CF791 I can confirm that Ultimate Freesync is broken for me even with newest driver from Samsung. I have flickering in bf1, Rise of the tomb raider, The Lonk Dark, overwatch. Funny is there is no flickering in AMD freesync demo. Standard freesync is working without problem in range 80-100Hz.
I had some problems to run audio through DP, but there was problem rather with drivers than monitor itself.
There is option in monitor menu called Game Mode. It reduces smearing/blurring but it also changes image quality and it looks bad. Everything is locked in menu except Brightness setting, so you can't fix it by changing others settings.
I don't use Game Mode because I don't see smearing/blurring in games..
There is video with ufotest, first part is Game Mode ON, second half is Game Mode OFF. Sorry for video quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXE7lAihIWA&feature=youtu.be

 

[Kaiketsu]

Spoiler

From the look of it you have one dead subpixel (the cyan dot means there's a dead red subpixel - check if you get a dark dot there on red background) and a speck of dust under the screen (because your "dead" pixels aren't fully dark - dead pixels don't look like that).

Their precious ISO 13406-2 doesn't protect them from DUST, only dead pixels, so IMHO you should definitively try to get it exchanged, as this is faulty beyond the scope of the ISO standard.

And if they refuse, isn't UK still technically in UE, thus allowing you to return anything purchased online up to 14 days from the day you have bought it?

 

[Scramz]

From the look of it you have one dead subpixel (the cyan dot means there's a dead red subpixel - check if you get a dark dot there on red background) and a speck of dust under the screen (because your "dead" pixels aren't fully dark - dead pixels don't look like that).

Their precious ISO 13406-2 doesn't protect them from DUST, only dead pixels, so IMHO you should definitively try to get it exchanged, as this is faulty beyond the scope of the ISO standard.

And if they refuse, isn't UK still technically in UE, thus allowing you to return anything purchased online up to 14 days from the day you have bought it?

That pixel looks exactly the same as another person on another forum with the same issue and it was dust.

 

[Nerusy]

From the look of it you have one dead subpixel (the cyan dot means there's a dead red subpixel - check if you get a dark dot there on red background) and a speck of dust under the screen (because your "dead" pixels aren't fully dark - dead pixels don't look like that).

Their precious ISO 13406-2 doesn't protect them from DUST, only dead pixels, so IMHO you should definitively try to get it exchanged, as this is faulty beyond the scope of the ISO standard.

And if they refuse, isn't UK still technically in UE, thus allowing you to return anything purchased online up to 14 days from the day you have bought it?

Good to know, thanks.

Yes, I can return it under DSR but I will not be refunded £22 delivery cost (Sunday DPD delivery) and I will have to pay for sending it back to ocuk and if I orde new one again then its another gamble and I would lose more on delivery cost, samsung QC seems to be quite bad, not the first time I see dust behind the screen on this model.

I would like to get it exchanged but I am afraid if I send it by RMA then the usual process will take weeks / months and I will have paid £800 for a monitor I would not be able to use for weeks / months

Hence the decision, go through all this or just come to terms with this dust particle.

Will contact Samsung and see what they have to say as I would imagine ocuk do not care whether it has a dust particle or not.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

As owner CF791 I can confirm that Ultimate Freesync is broken for me even with newest driver from Samsung. I have flickering in bf1, Rise of the tomb raider, The Lonk Dark, overwatch. Funny is there is no flickering in AMD freesync demo. Standard freesync is working without problem in range 80-100Hz.
I had some problems to run audio through DP, but there was problem rather with drivers than monitor itself.
There is option in monitor menu called Game Mode. It reduces smearing/blurring but it also changes image quality and it looks bad. Everything is locked in menu except Brightness setting, so you can't fix it by changing others settings.
I don't use Game Mode because I don't see smearing/blurring in games..
There is video with ufotest, first part is Game Mode ON, second half is Game Mode OFF. Sorry for video quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXE7lAihIWA&feature=youtu.be

You mean that ghosting/trail effect? Damn that is bad I'm not sure I could put up with that. I'm not bothered by noise from the speakers as I never use them I've yet to hear a monitor with decent audio.

 

[mods1965]

I can see flicker in Overwatch and SWBF at ultimate. Seems to only be on game screens that have static images. It does not seem to effect the game when the image is changing. Looks like work still needs to be done to resolve this.