Niborius on 28/1/2017 at 09:45

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Hi,

I know there are already topics around this subject, but I can't seem to figure out what type of monitor would be the best for me. I know about the different panels and what their pros and cons are.

I want a monitor with at least the following:


* 4ms or less Response time
* Ultra HD
* G-Sync would be nice
* Very good black levels (I want it to look as natural as possible)
* No ghosting/motion blur (VA-panel monitors would've been perfect for me if they didn't suffer from this.. or is it not that bad?)



I found the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQ currently for only €730 (17% discount until sunday). The monitor looks great but I can't find a lot about the black levels of the monitor (I can barely find it for any monitor tbh).

Can anyone give me some tips or recommend me a monitor?

Thanks in advance :)

Azaran on 28/1/2017 at 18:07

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Stay away from E-Machines monitors. I bought one once, and it had this horrible glare, like fog (changing the settings didn't remove it), it was impossible to play in darker areas without having the gamma to the max. I exchanged it for my current one, an Acer, it's perfect.

Honestly, I looked at Asus ones too in stores, and I think they're a good choice too

Niborius on 29/1/2017 at 08:26

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Does it mean there are no OLED monitors at all now? Ah, what a pity :/

Gryzemuis on 29/1/2017 at 14:06

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There are only a few monitors that have a VA-panel and G-Sync.
One is the Acer Predator Z35.
(http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/acer_predator_z35.htm)
I happen to have one.

The other is the newer Acer Predator Z271.
(http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/acer_predator_z271.htm)

They are expensive. Especially the Z35. Most shops sell it for ~1100 euros around here. Same price as it was at introduction a year ago. A few shops sell it for 900 euros. (But they are not webshops I usually buy from). It's a great monitor, but I'm not sure it's worth the money. I bought it because I play mostly dark games. Thief, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Dishonored, The Witcher, The Old City: Leviathan, Soma, Ethan Carter, DarkSidersII, Dying Light are the majority of the games I've played over the last 2 years. But even games like GTAV look better if you have better blacks.

I tried Acer's XB270HU. Has nice colors. Until I played in the evening. Dark game. Dimmed lights in my room. The yellow ips-glow in the corners was terrible. I'm sure a lot of people love that monitor. But if you play dark games, it's unacceptable. Got another XB270HU. Exactly the same problem. It is a problem with the panels (144Hz 2560x1440 panels from AUO, used by Acer, Asus and others). I know there are people who are happy with these monitors. But I think they just don't play dark games. Maybe they play World of Warcraft or Hello Kitty Island Adventure or The Witness. All with bright colors. Or they always have bright lit rooms.

To be honest, the colors of the Z35 were a bit disappointing when I took it out of the box. But 2 weeks later I calibrated it (with a Spyder). And the difference was big. Now I am really happy with the colors and blacks and shadows of my Z35.

Is it a bit blurry ? Yes. Sometimes. I play with G-Sync all of the time. I never use ULMB. G-Sync is great because you can keep enabling graphics features until you drop to 60-50 fps. And then G-Sync makes sure the game stays fluent even when you drop below 60 or below 50. Unfortunately you can't combine G-Sync and ULMB. So if I have to chose, I chose G-Sync all the time.

The bluriness is not worse than my old 1ms TN monitor. The only time I really notice it is when there are very obvious black to grey transitions. A few of the puzzles in The Witness had those. And when I moved my camera, the black lines of some puzzles would cause very obvious ghosting. But overall, in games like Dark Souls or Dishonored, the ghosting isn't very noticable.

It seems the newer Acer Z271 does not have this problem.
See: (http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/acer_predator_z271.htm#display_comparisons)
My Z35 has a worst case grey-to-grey response time of 51.5 ms. That must be the black-to-grey problem I am seeing. The Z271 has a worst response time of 15.3, which seems much better. Note, those are the worst-case times.

The Z35 has 2560x1080 resolution. Some people think that is too low. I think it is perfect. The lower resolution causes higher fps. And if you enable all eyecandy, you can still easily drop below 60 fps in that resolution. E.g. GTA5 with all eyecandy on, and 8xMSAA, plays at average fps 40-50 for me (with a gtx1080). Also, if you have a higher resolution, everything on your desktop becomes smaller. I find that really irritating. You can enable "windows scaling", but that makes your desktop even more blurry. Including browsing the web and watching movies. Maybe if you are a photographer or film-maker that higher resolutions are really good. But imho not for games, and not for web-surfing.

My advice ? I can't give a recommendation. The Z35 is expensive. And far from perfect. But for me, there is no better monitor on the market yet. I wanted to buy myself a present (and I really wanted a G-Sync monitor), so I bought myself a Z35. I don't regret it.

Not sure if that is possible where you live. But in the EU, webshops have to give you a 2-week period where you can buy something and return it, no questions asked. Maybe you'll have to pay transport (twice). You can buy a monitor and try it out. If you don't like it, send it back. I usually don't like that approach. But with monitors, there is very little alternatives. You have to see it with your own eyes. And even if you want to buy from a physical shop, most shops only have a few cheap models on display.