Which of these 27" 1440p options?

[strumpusplunket]

After much dithering, I've shelved the idea of getting an UW for now since I'd probably only really want one of the new LG displays and they're looking likely to be expensive and rare for some time to come.

I'm now planning to get a 27" 1440p IPS panel as an upgrade from my old 1080p TN before Christmas and to tide me over for another 12-18 months whilst the UW market matures and settles.

I have narrowed it to the following:

1. One of the ViewSonic XG2703-GS, AOC AG271QG or Acer Predator XB271HU. I think these all use the same panel and look much-of-a-muchness. All are around £550-600. I'd grab whichever I find cheapest in a couple of weeks.

They'll pair nicely with my current 980Ti with G-Sync, and I'd probably upgrade to a 2070 or second-hand 1080Ti sometime next year.

2. The Acer XF270HUA (Freesync). This can be had for only £380.

I would then sell my 980Ti and grab a new or second-hand Vega 64 for (hopefully!) around £100-150 more.

Total outlay would thus be £480-530 plus any Black Friday reductions to be had.

This is a little bit cheaper, but also more hassle. However, it would mean I'd have a more capable graphics card for 1440p now, instead of upgrading a bit further down the line.


Points in favour of option 1 -

• For future upgrades there seem to be more high-end monitors with G-Sync than Freesync (unless there're things in the pipeline I'm not aware of).
• I'm not sure what the future holds for AMD's Graphics Card line-up and whether they'll keep pace with nVidia for higher-res gaming.
• I know G-Sync works really well, but is Freesync actually as good? I keep seeing things about it having a more limited sync range and increasing input lag.

Points in favour of option 2 -

• A likely cheaper upgrade path for graphics cards and monitors.
• Getting a more powerful graphics card straight away (that might even last me a couple of years at 1440p?).
• The hope that Freesync will become a more adopted standard before long.

So... stalemate!

Any OcUKers have any relevant wisdom to share?

 

[strumpusplunket]

What about va panels? Ie Samsung 27" 144hz 1440p freesync

Well, I've seen too much about VA panels being bad for gaming due to smearing and ghosting (especially in dark shades and dark-to-light transitions). I've watched videos of people gaming on some of the new VA panels with the supposedly good pixel response acceleration modes and it always looks smeary to me (watching someone climb the cliffs in FC5 was the final straw - detail in the rocks looked dreadful to me when the camera panned even slightly).

I do plan on getting back into gaming in the next month or two, and I want my next monitor to perform well for that. I think I've always been sensitive to motion-blur, ghosting and smearing, and coming from a TN panel I fear it would be a deal-breaker.

For that reason I ruled out all VA panels (I was initially interested in a couple of the recent ultra-wide G-Sync displays, but not any more).

 

[strumpusplunket]

I got the 270 version of this and it's been stunning coming from 1080p.
However, I did buy second-hand - This made it much cheaper (£280) and meant I could choose from those with decent display, rather than risk a lot of money on the lottery of too much backlight bleed and all the other 'new monitor' things people have trouble over.

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye out on the Member's Market here but haven't seen one of these models come up since I decided what to go for. Maybe as some people get their new UW displays some will pop up on there. £280 for a guaranteed result in terms of BLB and glow would be a no-brainer for me right now!

 

[strumpusplunket]

I've gained on the case, it's fine..maybe on cheaper ones

The thing is, there's so much subjective impression as to how bad motion blur, ghosting and smearing affects your experience.

Unfortunately, though, I've never seen a VA monitor playing games first-hand. I'm relying on Youtube videos, which I guess won't always give the best impression. Where I notice the smearing in these videos is on ground textures when moving around. It does look quite bad to me, which is putting my off trying one out. It's possible, I guess, that in actual use I'd be okay with it.

Did you play many fast-paced games on a VA panel? Did you not notice any smearing? Or did you notice it but it just didn't detract from your experience?

 

[strumpusplunket]

I played doom. 100fps no trails at all.

That does sound encouraging. But, this is the kind of thing I've been watching on Youtube (this with the Z35P, so a good - well, expensive - VA panel). Watch from 6:24 to 6:43 - that to me looks like terrible smearing on the ground textures and the building textures as the player approaches it:

That's pretty typical of what I've seen on Youtube videos of a fair number of the current VA panels. Would you say the video is exaggerating the effect compared to how you experience it first-hand?

The Acer XF270HUA is €350 on amazon France, I've had my eye on it for a while now but dunno how it'll be with a PS4 Pro

I've no idea how consoles work with these type of monitors, tbh. I assume the PS4 Pro does more than 60Hz then? Can it utilise Freesync as well? If no to both those there might be even cheaper options I'd guess?

 

[strumpusplunket]

I would go option 2 right now. I got a 1080 for £500 and the Xb271HU for £600 last year. It’s been an amazing upgrade from my 760 at 1080p. Only problem now is I’m locked into Nvidia and their new pricing scares me when I look at swapping out my 1080.

If I had gone freesync and Vega 64 I could have easily saved myself £300-400 at the time which would be put aside for 7nm that should come next year..

Yeah, I'm so torn on this! The price difference between Freesync and G-Sync monitors is quite jarring. The fact that I could potentially upgrade to a top-end graphics card and a 1440p monitor for the same price as a G-Sync 1440p display says it all.

But I do have concerns about how Freesync measures up. I have got used to G-Sync just working well consistently, whereas I've heard issues with ghosting on Freesync, limited sync ranges, and conflicts between Freesync's adaptive refresh and monitors' own pixel overdrive settings.

Will have to see what deals emerge to sway my thinking.

With Black Friday so close I'd hang on and see what comes up on decent deals - especially (though they seem to be low/out of stock and probably unlikely to be discounted) if the Dell S2716DG comes up at a decent price.

I'm definitely waiting to see what deals appear here and elsewhere in the run-up to Black Friday, and keeping fingers crossed I'll see something decent.

The S2716DG is a TN panel, isn't it?

I'm not completely averse to getting a 27" 1440p TN panel, but I was concerned that at that size of display the colour-shift inherent to TN panels would be quite noticeable. I have also been hearing so much about how much better colours are on IPS screens that I thought it might be a more exciting upgrade. Of course then I would would worry about BLB and IPS glow...

How are the colours on the S2716DG compared to an IPS? Is that currently the best TN for image quality? Is the colour-shift not really uncomfortable at that size?

 

[strumpusplunket]

I think the newer revisions of the S2716DG are not too bad, the early ones had huge banding problems but it looks like the majority of issues have been addressed. Obviously it's still a TN so colours won't compare to an IPS but as far as TN panels go, it's pretty good.

I'm also looking for a 1440p 144hz monitor, I've gone back and forth so many times. The IPS panel made by AUO is plagued by BLB and bad QC, I've played the panel lottery before and it's not fun going through 3-4 replacements until you find a decent one.

I'm currently leaning towards the newer and cheaper S2719DGF (Freesync) as I am not fussed about G-Sync. That or a 240hz TN until a better option becomes available.

I'm still seeing a lot of reports of colour banding. I remember it taking me ages to calibrate my current (TN) monitor to address the horrendous colour banding it came with. It's not too bad now, but hardly stellar in terms of colours. There are reports of people not being able to get rid of the banding on the Dell and Asus TN displays - and gamma issues and milky, washed-out colours, too.

I think I do want to go IPS this time, and just hope I don't have too much bad luck in the panel lottery. The four monitors I mentioned originally seem to have great reports when people get a decent unit - but it's the getting a good one that's the issue.

This monitor upgrade is by far the most headache-inducing upgrade I've ever made since I first got a PC around 20 years ago!

 

[strumpusplunket]

I can see what you mean about the ground, look's smudged.

Yeah, I've seen easily a dozen videos of the recent 27" and UW VA panels, and I've seen the same effect every time there's footage of actual gameplay. This is one of the more noticeable examples, but similar effects are there in all of them. For me, there's no way I could look at that whilst gaming and not feel put out by it.

 

[strumpusplunket]

I found this vid and it's well worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79r5rxS276Y

That 8-bit TN panels colours are matching the IPS panel and even looks more vibrant imo EXCEPT for the blacks. The price difference between those 2 at the time of filming is £170. And please do watch the video because it looked to me like the IPS screen was ghosting. Whatever that game is where he smashes the wall in and steps to the side look at the white patch on the wall it looks blurred when he's moving, and in Fallout 4 when he starts spinning that's major blur. I need a confirmation check.

Yes, that is interesting.

I'd heard lots of complaints about colour banding on that Asus TN, but looking some more it seems it might be fixable with gamma correction - at which point it should produce very good colour fidelity.

That only really leave the viewing angle issue, although that's offset by the very fast pixel response times (and no glow/BLB lottery).

In price, though, it's roughly the same price as the ViewSonic XG2703-GS, which I have been hearing very nice things about as well.

It looks like the Black Friday deals I can find will decide this one!

 

[strumpusplunket]

I personally wouldn't touch a PG278Q with a bargepole (or any other Asus monitor for that matter) I've had 3 die on me personally. But those TN panels used in it and the Dell, etc. do look very good for a TN (with a little calibration as out the box the gamma is poor). But you still don't have quite the depth of saturation in darker areas of certain colours especially red and orange, etc. as an IPS and there is still some change with viewing angle even though it isn't as bad as TNs as a whole which can be quite terrible for that.

From what I've heard those high refresh TNs used in the Asus and Dell, etc. are a spin off of AUO's AHVA (not to be confused with VA it is more of an IPS tech) development rather than coming from improving an existing TN technology so more like going at TN sideways so to speak.

So presumably it's the same panel as used in the Acer Predator XB271HUA? I've seen reports of colour banding with all of these monitors (the Dell, Asus and Acer), though. I don't know if there are any more - do BenQ make a 165Hz 1440p TN?

Some people seem to say you can fix it with changes to gamma, others say not.

I have some colour banding on my current TN as well (it's not too bad, but it's there) and I would like to get a display without it. It's one of the reasons I didn't include a TN monitor in my original set of options.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Thanks for the detailed replies and videos. I appreciate the input.

It has given me pause for thought for sure.

@Rroff, what do you mean when you say gamma tweaking? Is that in the OSD or in Windows or NVCP? And does it then hold in fullscreen apps and games?

It would also be nice to be able to guarantee a newer revision panel, but I guess there isn't really a way of doing that?

There's also only a £60 price difference between the S2716DG and the XG2703-GS right now, which doesn't make much difference either way.

Although, I did think I'd found the Dell for £318 on ******... for about 30 seconds before I realised it was (yet another) hacked seller scam. Brief flurry of excitement anyway.

 

[strumpusplunket]

So, a small update.

I spent my time on the train commuting yesterday reading up on monitors. I spent some time in particular exploring the rabbit holes of this thread, and this one (among a few others).

Now a lot of people there seem to be confusing source banding with monitor-induced banding, but there do seem to be genuine concerns with factory-calibrated gamma and the impacts that this (or attempts to correct it) can have on accentuating source-created banding on the Dell S2716DG. These threads also seem to indicate something of a panel lottery with this display - different revisions having different gamma levels, and even different levels and different colour reproduction within each panel revision. The fact that if you get a panel with poor gamma there's no option to correct it in the OSD is a bit off-putting, tbh.

I don't know if any of our OcUK monitor gurus can shed more light on this?

I did just get wind of a new Viewsonic TN monitor - the XG2760 (review here). As this is brand new I have some hopes it will surpass the now ageing Dell and Acer TNs. I don't see any availability in the UK for it yet, though, nor any indication of a likely date for it to hit our shelves.

I did also hear (whether correctly or not I don't know) that Viewsonic were releasing this to replace the XG2703-GS due to ongoing QC issues with the AUO panel it uses, which is not encouraging for the IPS G-sync displays I was looking at.

Argh, why does this have to be so difficult?! Speccing parts for three whole new PC builds at the same time was an absolute breeze by comparison. I'm almost at the point of just giving up and putting up with my old 24" 1080p panel, tbh.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Yeah, this new display research has certainly been a learning experience!

I'm now also looking at the HP Omen 27. Looks like it uses the same panel as the S2716DG and can be had for the same price. It seems to come with better gamma, but I see lots of reports of issues with brightness, black levels and washed-out image quality. Not sure how much of that can potentially be calibrated out. Need to look into it a bit more, but I guess that's another option on the table.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Doesn't look too bad that one for the money. Contrast is quite poor by the looks of it, but quite decent in other areas.

Not good enough for me to go through the hassle of switching to AMD graphics for Freesync I don't think, but if I already had an AMD card I'd seriously consider it at that price.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Ooookay. Bit of a surprise here. After going around the houses for bloody ages, then narrowing it down to the options in my first post here, then being convinced to look at 27" TN screens, I ended up just grabbing an X34P for £639 in an early Black Friday deal.

Gulp! That is the biggest impulse buy I think I've ever made! I'm all aflutter.

I hope I've made the right choice, but for that price reduction I had to grab it as it was less than £100 more than the 27" 1440p's I was looking at.

It's all @Piotr Kozak's fault for mentioning the availability of this price in the LG thread!!