Any good gaming monitors exist? Everything is crap!

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mls1995

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So I've been trying to find a new gaming monitor. Here's what I've gone through over the last month plus:

1 x Asus ROG Swift - dead pixels
4 x Acer XB270HU - 3 had dead pixels, all 4 had dirt under the screen
1 x LG 24GM77‑B - dead displayport, dirt under screen
1 x aoc g2460pg - (arrived today) faint, but clearly there, horizontal line across the entire screen right in the middle

I have no idea what else to even try. All I want is no dead pixels, dirt, or obvious defects. I could live with some IPS glow or backlight bleed. I can live with a TN panel. I can live with G-sync or 144hz with no G-sync. I'm not price sensitive, I just want something for gaming and I want to order something where I have at least a 50% chance or higher of no defects.

What would you guys suggest? Thanks.

Update - I'm happy with my Dell S2716DG
 
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diehard-party.gif
 
dell has the just released S2716DG (TN 1440p/144hz/gsync) on sale for $630 on black friday. they have, hands down, the best return/exchange policy for monitors in the industry. jury is still out on the monitor, worth checking out though.
 
tacos4me said:
dell has the just released S2716DG (TN 1440p/144hz/gsync) on sale for $630 on black friday. they have, hands down, the best return/exchange policy for monitors in the industry. jury is still out on the monitor, worth checking out though.
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that dell is on my radar, but not shipping for another 2 weeks. black friday is another month plus. I'm also disappointed it's not an ultrasharp. I think the dead pixel return policy is much better for the ultrasharps.

Would anyone recommend a BenQ? I was looking at the XL2430t. Has good user reviews on Amazon at least.
 
Haven't heard many complaints about QC problems from BenQ, but then again maybe I just haven't looked hard enough? Anyway I have an XL2730z coming in today to play around with. I'll let you know if it's acceptable QC wise.
 
MistaSparkul said:
Haven't heard many complaints about QC problems from BenQ, but then again maybe I just haven't looked hard enough? Anyway I have an XL2730z coming in today to play around with. I'll let you know if it's acceptable QC wise.
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That's a Free-Sync monitor, right? I'm Nvidia only these days so that would be a waste for me. Still, I'd be interested in your opinion of their build quality.
 
mls1995 said:
So I've been trying to find a new gaming monitor. Here's what I've gone through over the last month plus:

1 x Asus ROG Swift - dead pixels
4 x Acer XB270HU - 3 had dead pixels, all 4 had dirt under the screen
1 x LG 24GM77‑B - dead displayport, dirt under screen
1 x aoc g2460pg - (arrived today) faint, but clearly there, horizontal line across the entire screen right in the middle

I have no idea what else to even try. All I want is no dead pixels, dirt, or obvious defects. I could live with some IPS glow or backlight bleed. I can live with a TN panel. I can live with G-sync or 144hz with no G-sync. I'm not price sensitive, I just want something for gaming and I want to order something where I have at least a 50% chance or higher of no defects.

What would you guys suggest? Thanks.
Click to expand...

XL2720Z.
Blur reduction 60-144 hz (1 hz increments with Vertical Total tweaks (except 76hz), no dead pixels (Unless you get a bad one), no backlight bleed, no dead displayport (v4 and v5 firmware; V1-V3 had buggy displayport), no dirt under screen, strobe crosstalk adjustments possible with VT tweaks and strobe phase adjustments.

9/10 on the panel lottery earthquake win/loss scale.
(1 point off for very minor uniformity issues common on TN panels, not worse than tftcentral's review sample on mine, and for some quirky display scaled low resolution modes being identified with the wrong refresh rate (100hz reported as 120hz at 1280x720/840/960, but not 1280x1024), thus causing strobe sync issues with blur reduction on (1280x720/840/960 strobing out of sync at 100hz, which is fixable with a custom resolution (change vertical total to 988 to fix it. This bug doesn't affect blur reduction off). Definitely won the panel lottery on this champ.

At this point right now, if I had to buy any other panel *today*, it would be another XL2720Z (unfortunately NOT a XL2730Z; buggy firmware/scaler means it can't single strobe under 120hz in sync...I really wanted this screen too).

I wouldn't buy any other panel at the moment. Wait for the new Eizo (Foris FS2735) which will have a strobed backlight, or see how the new Ilyamas will do. The older gaming series Ilyamas had literally NO ghosting overdrive artifacts at all.
http://us.hardware.info/reviews/5606/7/gaming-monitors-review-on-overdone-overdrive-test-samplen3

See the overdrive artifacts on the old Ilyama prolite? Nope, I don't either...
 
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Thanks guys, I ordered a XL2720Z from Walmart. They have a good return policy.
 
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Just single strobe on/off option (for strobing refresh rates lower than 100hz) and strobe duty and strobe phase. (the windows utility can do this but limits the strobe phase to 047 to avoid shutting off the backlight).

it's a fun monitor if you ever liked the no blur on a CRT.
Just edited the thread with some nice custom resolutions (2560x1440@115 hz and 3200x1800@60 hz).

the service menu is easy to unlock and convenient to keep unlocked (button #4 pops up the service menu OSD, which does the same thing as button 5 if its not unlocked).
 
Falkentyne said:
Just single strobe on/off option (for strobing refresh rates lower than 100hz) and strobe duty and strobe phase. (the windows utility can do this but limits the strobe phase to 047 to avoid shutting off the backlight).

it's a fun monitor if you ever liked the no blur on a CRT.
Just edited the thread with some nice custom resolutions (2560x1440@115 hz and 3200x1800@60 hz).

the service menu is easy to unlock and convenient to keep unlocked (button #4 pops up the service menu OSD, which does the same thing as button 5 if its not unlocked).
Click to expand...

why run it at a resolution other than 1080p 144hz (or maybe 120hz)?
 
MistaSparkul said:
Haven't heard many complaints about QC problems from BenQ, but then again maybe I just haven't looked hard enough? Anyway I have an XL2730z coming in today to play around with. I'll let you know if it's acceptable QC wise.
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I've had the 30z for a couple months. It's my main gaming monitor. I think it's great. Big upgrade from 1080p 60hz.
 
mls1995 said:
why run it at a resolution other than 1080p 144hz (or maybe 120hz)?
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Supersampling.
Another word for downscaling.
When a game doesn't support driver level SSAA (Nvidia cards are better at forcing Supersampling than AMD cards are in some problematic games) then you can run at a higher resolution to downsample back to the native resolution. Example: if a monitor native res is 1920x1080 and you are running at 100hz, and you manage to run 3840x2160@100hz by creating an EDID override, you just forced 4x supersampling (spatial antialiasing) of the entire image. The drawback to doing this this way as opposed to enabling 4x SSAA through video card drivers is the entire image is treated like a higher resolution image on the output side rather than just the rendered data side. So this can cause mouse cursors and game huds to shrink to laughable levels, which never happens with driver level SSAA.

Also, no monitor in existence can run 3840x2160@100hz display scaled from a lower native resolution (e.g. 2560x1440 or 1920x1080). I don't even think a Titan-X can DSR to that resolution at that refresh rate either. it's just an example.
(1920x1080 + 4x supersampling anti aliasing = 3840x2160).

Nvidia DSR / AMD VSR does the same thing.
The difference between DSR/VSR and EDID overrides is you're doing the downscaling via the monitor's scaler chip instead of through the video card.
It's usually more compatible to just use DSR, but if you are into tweaking the strobe crosstalk (strobe phase), DSR/VSR can not downsample custom resolutions, so you are going to have slightly more strobe (blur reduction) crosstalk at a DSR'd 2560x1440, assuming maximum strobe phase = 100 in the service menu, vs a monitor scaled 2560x1440@100hz (due to vertical total tweak being used for this, maximum strobe phase will be 059 at 100hz).

if you get a pixel perfect monitor and decide to keep it we'll discuss some of this stuff later. I don't know if you're into tweaking stuff but if you are, you'll probably have a lot of fun.
 
Why don't you try eizo monitors? They are much more expensive, but maybe their quality control doesn't suck balls like everyone's else? They have a 1440p 144hz ahva one as well.
 
Eizo's previous gaming monitor, the Foris FS2421, (with a strobed backlight) was an even bigger panel lottery (with tons of issues, gamma, color reproduction, severe cross hatching, annoying artifacts you could see in team fortress 2, etc) than even the Asus and Acer panels were. Even though Eizo's monitor was manufacturered by Sharp, the panel lottery was worse than the XB270HU's. It was that bad.
 
baii said:
Wait for the new eizo?
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Unfortunately Eizo's gaming monitors thus far seem to have been using the panels rejected from their graphics monitors, rather than being held to a higher standard than monitors from "gaming" brands, and they don't have any G-Sync offerings. (either that, or I wish NVIDIA would support Adaptive-Sync)
Hopefully that will change with the FS2735, but we will have to wait and see.

BenQ seems like the best choice for quality control right now, the only issue is that none of their gaming monitors have IPS panels. (though none of the gaming IPS displays use an A-TW polarizer, so maybe that doesn't matter)

I just wish that someone was still making CRTs. I never had these problems with quality control, and they were better displays for gaming than even the best LCD options we have today.
 
Sorry if this is a stupid question in advance is it possible to run a XL2720Z at 2560x1440.

I have been thinking about upgrading to the XL2730Z for this reason.
 
Howard Stern said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question in advance is it possible to run a XL2720Z at 2560x1440.

I have been thinking about upgrading to the XL2730Z for this reason.
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According to Falkentyne, yes. It may not look as good as actual 2560x1440 but it probably looks better than native 1080p. You can probably ask him for more details on how to supersample to 1440p.
 
zone74 said:
I just wish that someone was still making CRTs. I never had these problems with quality control, and they were better displays for gaming than even the best LCD options we have today.
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Except most had some issues with geometry, on high res ones image quality was tied to GPU converters etc. I think many have a bit of a rosy view of CRTs.

OP seems to have just the worst luck or is getting displays others have returned. Even the most top end displays have a chance of defective pixels. I don't know if manufacturers or stores offer any zero dead pixel policies nowadays either so its best to just get a display from a vendor that has a liberal return policy.

Depending on the position I don't think one or two dead pixels are the end of the world. With 1440p+ displays they can be hard to spot as long as they're in areas where you're unlikely to notice them (such as the top portion of the display). Of course I don't like it but if end up with an otherwise perfect display then I might deal with it.
 
Howard Stern said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question in advance is it possible to run a XL2720Z at 2560x1440.

I have been thinking about upgrading to the XL2730Z for this reason.
Click to expand...

No it won't look anywhere near as good as native 1080p in the desktop. In fact it will look pretty bad. You only want to use downsampling in games.
The XL2730Z will look miles better at 2560x1440 on the desktop since that will be native.

In games it will simply be downsampling (Supersampling). Quality is identical to downsampling from AMD VSR/Nvidia DSR. The advantage over using AMD VSR is AMD VSR is limited to 60hz and 100hz at 2560x1440. You should be able to reach 115hz with the timings I posted in the thread I linked. You also will have a few extra points of strobe phase to lower the crosstalk slightly from the default (No VT tweak active with VSR=100 maximum strobe phase) 1920x1080 VSR'd to 2560x1440, although this will reduce the strobe duty also (2560x1440 with VT tweak through scaler @ 100hz=059 maximum strobe phase).
 
Howard Stern said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question in advance is it possible to run a XL2720Z at 2560x1440.
I have been thinking about upgrading to the XL2730Z for this reason.
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I mean, you could with NVIDIA DSR (and probably AMD VSR) but in my opinion anything less than 4x (3840x2160 on a 1920x1080 panel) looks worse than rendering at the display's native resolution, because you end up requiring more filtering (blurry) and you get interpolation artifacts. (shimmering edges)

kasakka said:
Except most had some issues with geometry
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Honestly, people make this out to be a lot worse than it ever was. As long as you took the time (5-10 minutes) to set things up correctly, geometry would be nearly perfect on a CRT monitor.
CRT televisions are another story entirely though, due to their larger size, limited controls, and generally worse quality control in my experience.

kasakka said:
on high res ones image quality was tied to GPU converters etc.
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Not sure what you mean by this.

kasakka said:
I think many have a bit of a rosy view of CRTs.
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There are certainly issues with CRT technology, and I understand why no-one makes them any more.
But I never had problems with things like bad uniformity, viewing angles are perfect, contrast is better than most LCDs, motion is a lot better than any LCD, and they have zero latency.

kasakka said:
OP seems to have just the worst luck or is getting displays others have returned. Even the most top end displays have a chance of defective pixels. I don't know if manufacturers or stores offer any zero dead pixel policies nowadays either so its best to just get a display from a vendor that has a liberal return policy.

Depending on the position I don't think one or two dead pixels are the end of the world. With 1440p+ displays they can be hard to spot as long as they're in areas where you're unlikely to notice them (such as the top portion of the display). Of course I don't like it but if end up with an otherwise perfect display then I might deal with it.
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I made the decision to "deal with" a single red subpixel that was defective on my current display because I was sick of returning displays due to uniformity problems or other issues, and this was a perfect panel with that one exception, and every now and then it makes itself very obvious depending on what is being displayed and I find it very frustrating.

Five years later, this panel has developed maybe 10 or so subpixel defects of varying degrees. Some are permanently stuck on one color, some only display faults when displaying certain colors, and some seem to come and go over time.
I can't help but wonder if that's just typical for a VA panel which is 5 years old now, or if that red subpixel was the "canary in the coalmine" indicating that the panel was defective.

If I am spending a premium on a 27" panel, and I consider anything more than a couple of hundred dollars "premium" considering that you can get 50" HDTVs for less than most of these gaming monitors cost, I am not willing to accept any compromises. If there are uniformity problems, backlight bleeding, "dirty panel" or pixel defects, it is defective and I will return it.
 
kasakka said:
Except most had some issues with geometry, on high res ones image quality was tied to GPU converters etc. I think many have a bit of a rosy view of CRTs.

OP seems to have just the worst luck or is getting displays others have returned. Even the most top end displays have a chance of defective pixels. I don't know if manufacturers or stores offer any zero dead pixel policies nowadays either so its best to just get a display from a vendor that has a liberal return policy.

Depending on the position I don't think one or two dead pixels are the end of the world. With 1440p+ displays they can be hard to spot as long as they're in areas where you're unlikely to notice them (such as the top portion of the display). Of course I don't like it but if end up with an otherwise perfect display then I might deal with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've had crazy bad luck over the last month or so. I did come close to keeping 1 of the Acer G-sync models as it only had some dirt under the screen. It was the equivalent of 2 to 3 dead pixels in a row on the right hand side. They were sort of covered up by the windows taskbar I considered keeping that one. The other ones were all too obvious. I had 2 Acers with stuck Red pixels right in the middle of the screen.
 
zone74 said:
Unfortunately Eizo's gaming monitors thus far seem to have been using the panels rejected from their graphics monitors, rather than being held to a higher standard than monitors from "gaming" brands, and they don't have any G-Sync offerings. (either that, or I wish NVIDIA would support Adaptive-Sync)
Hopefully that will change with the FS2735, but we will have to wait and see.
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The FS2735 is going to be using the same AU Optronics AHVA (IPS-type) panel that is on the Acer XB270HU and Asus MG279Q.

I just wish that someone was still making CRTs. I never had these problems with quality control, and they were better displays for gaming than even the best LCD options we have today.
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Imagine what kind of CRTs they could make with the technology we have today. The FW900 is 15 years old now and it's still one of the best gaming displays... provided you get someone like UnkleVito to recalibrate and restore it back to A+ grade factory quality.
 
Cool Vibrations said:
Imagine what kind of CRTs they could make with the technology we have today. The FW900 is 15 years old now and it's still one of the best gaming displays... provided you get someone like UnkleVito to recalibrate and restore it back to A+ grade factory quality.
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You can do it yourself if you pick up a cheap colorimeter, WinDAS cable, and follow the instructions here
 
tacos4me said:
dell has the just released S2716DG (TN 1440p/144hz/gsync) on sale for $630 on black friday. they have, hands down, the best return/exchange policy for monitors in the industry. jury is still out on the monitor, worth checking out though.
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Link?
 
Cool Vibrations said:
The FS2735 is going to be using the same AU Optronics AHVA (IPS-type) panel that is on the Acer XB270HU and Asus MG279Q.



Imagine what kind of CRTs they could make with the technology we have today. The FW900 is 15 years old now and it's still one of the best gaming displays... provided you get someone like UnkleVito to recalibrate and restore it back to A+ grade factory quality.
Click to expand...


The majority of the GDM-FW900 in the trade have washed out tubes with several issues from bad guns(s) to low emission and shorts.

The GDM-FW900 units we offer in the trade are Grade A+, they have calibrated tubes to Sony factory specs, and have less than 3,000 hour of use (if that). That is why Hollywood, the printing industry, high end photographers and professional high core gamers from all over the world are still coming to me for the units.

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
Well, we picked up my XL2720Z at Walmart today... and it's pixel perfect. No dead pixels, no dirt under the screen and everything I've seen works. I'll still have to check uniformity and decide if I like the picture or not but so far so good.

Thanks for the recommendation Falkentyne.
 
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the BENQ that arrived today was advertised as a gaming monitor :)

however I expect you have requirements for gsync 144hz etc. This GW2765HT I got is a 60hz IPS no gsync. Fine for me, but some people now seem to think 100+hz is a requirement :(
 
chrcoluk said:
the BENQ that arrived today was advertised as a gaming monitor :)

however I expect you have requirements for gsync 144hz etc. This GW2765HT I got is a 60hz IPS no gsync. Fine for me, but some people now seem to think 100+hz is a requirement :(
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XL2720Z is 144hz. It is not gsync, but everything I had that was gsync was garbage anyway.
 
I guess I can also vouch for BenQ quality. Got the 2730Z yesterday, my first monitor from benq and I gotta say it's probably the most well built monitor I've gotten my hands on. No defects that I can spot at all, feels very sturdy and has some nice additional features. Gonna play around with it some more before I decide if I wanna keep it to compliment my Acer or not. But great first impressions overall.

IoQXApu.jpg
 
MistaSparkul said:
I guess I can also vouch for BenQ quality. Got the 2730Z yesterday, my first monitor from benq and I gotta say it's probably the most well built monitor I've gotten my hands on. No defects that I can spot at all, feels very sturdy and has some nice additional features. Gonna play around with it some more before I decide if I wanna keep it to compliment my Acer or not. But great first impressions overall.

IoQXApu.jpg
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Yeah a BenQ $400 monitor shouldn't have noticeably better build quality than Acer's $800 monitor.. but it totally does.
 
mls1995 said:
Yeah a BenQ $400 monitor shouldn't have noticeably better build quality than Acer's $800 monitor.. but it totally does.
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The build quality on the 2730Z was superb, unfortunately the one I got had some major pixel inversion issues. I would see a pattern of fine vertical lines on moving images/scenes. It was especially bad in games.
 
The Rog Swift uses the same 8 bit TN panel as the 2730Z and some samples of that also had serious pixel inversion issues.


mls1995, how are you liking your new XL2720Z?
 
Falkentyne said:
The Rog Swift uses the same 8 bit TN panel as the 2730Z and some samples of that also had serious pixel inversion issues.


mls1995, how are you liking your new XL2720Z?
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the PG278Q and 2730Z do not use the same panel, according to tftcentral.
 
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