BenQ XL2746S - 240 Hz 0.5ms DyAc+ with FreeSync/GSync

[5150Joker]

Ordered one of these bad boys on Amazon on Sunday and it was originally scheduled for May 14th thanks to the Chinese Coronavirus but it got bumped up to this Sunday so I'm pretty excited to get it. I'm currently using an Asus PG278Q 144 Hz G-Sync display which has served me really well the last few years.

Brightness: Seems decent, not a whole lot brighter than my Asus PG278Q which is from 2014. It's definitely not as bright as the Gigabyte Aorus KD25F I had previously which was 400 nits+.

2D Picture Quality at 27": So a lot of people think they'll see pixelation at 1080p/27" and in my case I don't really notice it since I sit about 2 feet away from the monitor and i have it mounted on my wall. I previously had the 25" KD25F and found it too small for my liking so right now, this 27" hits the sweet spot.

3D Gaming at 27": Impressions coming soon.

Colors/Sharpness: Out of the box they're a bit dull so I just set it to user define + standard and gamma at 3 and now it looks pretty good. I also had to increase the Sharpness to 8/10.

DyAc: So this is the entire reason I bought this display, to have BFI that doesn't lose brightness when turned on. I can confirm that this monitor does not lose any brightness with DyAC enabled unlike every other competing display which tend to cut their brightness in half with BFI enabled. I briefly read about changing the vertical totals on these forums and since I likely won't hit 240 FPS even with a 9900k@5 Ghz and 2080 Ti in the games I play (Warzone/Apex Legends), I settled on 182 Hz with VT of 1350. I tested many different vertical total values out and 1350 just seemed to work best as the top/bottom of the screen had minimal blurring and the middle was great. I'm not sure if I captured this correctly using my iPhone X but this is the best I could do:




Image of the 3 UFO strip taken from the raw video (youtube caused a lot of compression artifacts):


Thoughts: I'm extremely happy with this monitor so far. It has butter smooth strobing with no discernible input lag penalty. The first time I fired up Apex Legends I was blown away by how smooth the enemies tracked. If you're on the fence about this monitor, BUY IT!

SINGLE STROBING IS NOT PRESENT. Someone asked about this over at the BlurBusters forum and I ran it at 60 Hz for them and this thing does double strobing at 60 Hz. So I guess if you're a console player, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Reviews:
http://playwares.com/dpreview/57666851

Product Pics:

 

[5150Joker]

Mine came in, it's not as bright as I expected as it's about the same as my Asus PG278Q. The Gigabyte Aorus KD25F I had before was definitely brighter than the BenQ. However, so far, the DyAc+ on this thing is stellar, a lot better than the BFI of the Gigabyte and better than my old Asus's ULMB.

 

[THUMPer]

Man, of only it was 1440p 240hz

 

[5150Joker]

Man, of only it was 1440p 240hz

Coming from 1440p I don't really notice the difference much at all in games. On the desktop there's clearly less room and it's not as nice as 1440p but to me the trade off for much higher fps in games is worth it. I have a secondary 32" 1440p 144 hz VA panel that I use for content creation, videos etc.

 

[THUMPer]

At this point in time 4k 144hz is probably the next step for me

 

[Armenius]

1080p in 2020

 

[5150Joker]

1080p in 2020

Anyone serious about fps gaming won't go above 1080p for the forseeable future.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Isn't it nice that there isn't a bunch of "frag-harder disco lights" all over it?

 

[5150Joker]

Isn't it nice that there isn't a bunch of "frag-harder disco lights" all over it?

Yeah no unsightly gamer dude curves either.

 

[5150Joker]

Just want to reiterate how amazing this monitor has been since I bought it. While $700 is a tall ask for a 1080p 240 hz monitor in the year 2020, this was totally worth it for me and my use case (FPS games like warzone/apex). DyAc+ is SUPER bright and the motion reminds me of my old Sony FW900 except w/sharper visuals. No noticeable input lag with DyAc turned on too, this thing is very well put together.

Solo plunder this morning playing casually w/dyac turned on, headshots were a cakewalk:

 

[Astral Abyss]

I really want to try one of these, but they're out of stock everywhere.

Also considering an Acer VG272, since I would want to turn it vertically for certain games, digital pinball, shooters, etc. I think the IPS screen on that would work better when rotated.

 

[Kamber]

May pick one up when they become available again. Leaning towards a MSI MAG251RX at the moment, would be interesting to do a comparison.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Just ordered one from Amazon. They apparently got some stock today and are listing it in batches of 2. Anyone interested, keep checking.

I want to get back into Overwatch and figured I might as well go all in. Last time I played OW was on a 2560x1080 144Hz VA ultrawide, so I'm looking forward to this BenQ. On a side note, my old ultrawide was a BenQ also.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Well, there was a slight change of plans. Had some buyers remorse about spending so much on a TN panel and cancelled my XL2746S order.

That same day, Amazon got in a batch of Acer Nitro XV273X 27" 1080p@240Hz IPS displays and had them on sale for $350. I went ahead and ordered one. It just arrived yesterday. Very happy so far. Screen seems fairly uniform and has no backlight bleed. IPS glow is minimal. Anti-glare coating isn't excessive and the bezel is thin and doesn't reflect. Colors and contrast is better than I had expected and the G-sync certification seems to be working well.

Gotta say though, 240fps is insanely wonderful. I don't really mind that I'm back to 1080p because I can actually see everything when I'm moving around vs just a motion blur. I'll take 1080p over a blurry mess any day.

I've got my 4k ultrawide when I need resolution and color accuracy vs motion handling.

 

[5150Joker]

Well, there was a slight change of plans. Had some buyers remorse about spending so much on a TN panel and cancelled my XL2746S order.

That same day, Amazon got in a batch of Acer Nitro XV273X 27" 1080p@240Hz IPS displays and had them on sale for $350. I went ahead and ordered one. It just arrived yesterday. Very happy so far. Screen seems fairly uniform and has no backlight bleed. IPS glow is minimal. Anti-glare coating isn't excessive and the bezel is thin and doesn't reflect. Colors and contrast is better than I had expected and the G-sync certification seems to be working well.

Gotta say though, 240fps is insanely wonderful. I don't really mind that I'm back to 1080p because I can actually see everything when I'm moving around vs just a motion blur. I'll take 1080p over a blurry mess any day.

I've got my 4k ultrawide when I need resolution and color accuracy vs motion handling.

If absolute motion clarity via dyac/BFI isn't a priority for you then there's no reason to get the Zowie imho. I bought it specifically for dyac since it has an adjustable strobe zone which let's me basically make use of backlight strobing without an input latency hit (unlike other monitor brands) or brightness loss. For me crt like smoothness at high fps was an absolute priority when shopping for a new display.

Of course now Dell is also releasing a new AW 24.5" 360 Hz IPS display which is enticing but too small for me -- I prefer 27".

Enjoy your purchase.

 

[Astral Abyss]

If absolute motion clarity via dyac/BFI isn't a priority for you then there's no reason to get the Zowie imho. I bought it specifically for dyac since it has an adjustable strobe zone which let's me basically make use of backlight strobing without an input latency hit (unlike other monitor brands) or brightness loss. For me crt like smoothness at high fps was an absolute priority when shopping for a new display.

Of course now Dell is also releasing a new AW 24.5" 360 Hz IPS display which is enticing but too small for me -- I prefer 27".

Enjoy your purchase.

I was unsure about the dyac since my framerate is all over the place in the only games I'm currently playing, Path of Exile and Overwatch. Am I correct in my understanding that I'm better off with g-sync for that situation, whereas dyac would be preferrable if I had a steady framerate?

There's no question that the BenQ is the winner in motion quality though.

 

[5150Joker]

I was unsure about the dyac since my framerate is all over the place in the only games I'm currently playing, Path of Exile and Overwatch. Am I correct in my understanding that I'm better off with g-sync for that situation, whereas dyac would be preferrable if I had a steady framerate?

There's no question that the BenQ is the winner in motion quality though.

The ideal use for dyac or any other BFI is usually when fps = Hz. So for example if you can hold 120 fps steady in those games, then 120 hz strobing would be ideal vs VRR. BUT xl2746s is built for 240 hz operation and I've personally verified (as has a Japanese review) that it doesn't do well below 144 hz due to increased crosstalk.

So you would need at least 165 fps with 165 hz dyac for this monitor to be worth it for you. Otherwise you're better off using gsync/freesync so based on what you described, the Acer nitro was probably the better buy for you.