cybereality
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2008
- Messages
- 8,789
So I recently purchased the Aorus CV27F. A 27" 1080p VA panel at 165Hz for $319.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012008?Item=N82E16824012008
Marketing was good on this product, checked a lot of boxes: 10-bit color, high refresh, 1ms response, HDR, FreeSync 2, etc.
There were almost no reviews for this from the places I trust, but the few YouTube videos looked promising.
Ultimately, I took a gamble and I think I lost. While there are some highlights to the monitor, I think I'm going to have to get something else (and I purchased on Newegg and they won't let me return it).
Let's start with the good. The build quality is nice. Classy design without going too far over the top. RGB on the back is subtle, but looks premium. Stand is stable and solid.
It has HDR 400 and actually looks okay in a couple games (especially Gears 5) but unfortunately the photos don't do it justice.
Can use 10-bit color with full refresh 165Hz and HDR no problem. Not the best looking colors, but pretty decent for a $300 VA panel. FreeSync works.
1080p is a low resolution, but good if you want to drive high refresh with a mid-range card. I'm using a 5700 XT here, and I can get well north of 100 fps in most games.
Onto the bad (and there are some deal breakers here).
DisplayPort input did not work at first, neither in BIOS or in Windows. I had to boot up with HDMI, then switch to a DP cable, and then got picture (but this was needed every boot).
Eventually I found that the monitor has a mode DisplayPort 1.2 + HDR (enabled by default), which is incompatible with the AMD 5700 XT cards.
It's kind of crazy to me that a FreeSync 2 certified monitor would not work out-of-box with AMD's highest end card available on the market. Luckily I can switch to DP 1.2 in the OSD and everything works (HDR included) but this should not be needed.
My assumption is that Gigabyte is using a non-standard mode, or some other hack, to get HDR on DP 1.2. I tried multiple cables, even a Club 3D VESA certified, and they all didn't work. So something is wrong.
Black crush is pretty strong here. It is not as much of an issue in bright games, but in darker games like Metro or Tomb Raider, you lose a lot of detail. Look at this Metro shot.
The divider left of the door is almost completely black, all the detail is lost. That was the best photo I could get, but it is even worse in the underground sections.
Next is the black smear / motion blur / trails. It is really bad. If you run at 60Hz it is 100% unacceptable, though the effect lessens with 165Hz and Overdrive (but there are issues with overdrive as well).
That's Steam at 60Hz dragging the window in a circle. Absolute garbage. I knew VA had problems, and I was rolling the dice with a cheap panel (I think made by Samsung) but this is far worse than I was prepared for.
While the effect is not noticeable as much at 165Hz in games, it still makes the image very blurry and not clear. I can't really show this in a photo though, but you can tell.
So you can enable overdrive and it makes the image clearer to an extent. Still way worse than TN, and even worse than the newer IPS panels, but noticeably better than without.
However, overdrive causes a pixelation effect. My guess that the highest overdrive processes at 540p, because if you look closely you can see 4 pixel blocks changing (especially noticeable on white to black borders).
This was the best picture I can get, it only happens in motion. If you stand still it looks normal, as soon as you start walking forward you start to see this pixels shimmering.
Notice on the diagonal black lines, there are around 2x2 or 3x3 pixel blocks that are not there in the source texture. They only appear while moving.
This is the ultimate deal breaker for me. Disabling overdrive sucks, because it's a blurry mess and a waste of 165Hz. But with it on the highest setting it pixelates everything to the point of annoyance (especially since 1080p is low res enough, this looks like 540p).
There is also a balanced mode, which is probably the best compromise, but also the worst because it is both blurry and pixelated. So you can't win, and I'm not happy about this.
Honestly, I should have waited for the Samsung G7, so even just stuck with my 240Hz TN, this is markedly worse. Almost anything would be better here.
To be fair, Gears 5 with HDR actually did look pretty good. I also played a few hours of Forza and it was playable. So it's not that there is nothing here to like, it's just the downsides ruin what good there is.
Not sure anyone here even cares about this, but at least people searching for this monitor might find an honest review.
Definitely not buying another monitor unless it's on RTINGS or somewhere reputable (the reviews I did find said this monitor was good so they were probably smoking something or paid off).
Hope this helps someone not get burned like I did.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012008?Item=N82E16824012008
Marketing was good on this product, checked a lot of boxes: 10-bit color, high refresh, 1ms response, HDR, FreeSync 2, etc.
There were almost no reviews for this from the places I trust, but the few YouTube videos looked promising.
Ultimately, I took a gamble and I think I lost. While there are some highlights to the monitor, I think I'm going to have to get something else (and I purchased on Newegg and they won't let me return it).
Let's start with the good. The build quality is nice. Classy design without going too far over the top. RGB on the back is subtle, but looks premium. Stand is stable and solid.
It has HDR 400 and actually looks okay in a couple games (especially Gears 5) but unfortunately the photos don't do it justice.
Can use 10-bit color with full refresh 165Hz and HDR no problem. Not the best looking colors, but pretty decent for a $300 VA panel. FreeSync works.
1080p is a low resolution, but good if you want to drive high refresh with a mid-range card. I'm using a 5700 XT here, and I can get well north of 100 fps in most games.
Onto the bad (and there are some deal breakers here).
DisplayPort input did not work at first, neither in BIOS or in Windows. I had to boot up with HDMI, then switch to a DP cable, and then got picture (but this was needed every boot).
Eventually I found that the monitor has a mode DisplayPort 1.2 + HDR (enabled by default), which is incompatible with the AMD 5700 XT cards.
It's kind of crazy to me that a FreeSync 2 certified monitor would not work out-of-box with AMD's highest end card available on the market. Luckily I can switch to DP 1.2 in the OSD and everything works (HDR included) but this should not be needed.
My assumption is that Gigabyte is using a non-standard mode, or some other hack, to get HDR on DP 1.2. I tried multiple cables, even a Club 3D VESA certified, and they all didn't work. So something is wrong.
Black crush is pretty strong here. It is not as much of an issue in bright games, but in darker games like Metro or Tomb Raider, you lose a lot of detail. Look at this Metro shot.
The divider left of the door is almost completely black, all the detail is lost. That was the best photo I could get, but it is even worse in the underground sections.
Next is the black smear / motion blur / trails. It is really bad. If you run at 60Hz it is 100% unacceptable, though the effect lessens with 165Hz and Overdrive (but there are issues with overdrive as well).
That's Steam at 60Hz dragging the window in a circle. Absolute garbage. I knew VA had problems, and I was rolling the dice with a cheap panel (I think made by Samsung) but this is far worse than I was prepared for.
While the effect is not noticeable as much at 165Hz in games, it still makes the image very blurry and not clear. I can't really show this in a photo though, but you can tell.
So you can enable overdrive and it makes the image clearer to an extent. Still way worse than TN, and even worse than the newer IPS panels, but noticeably better than without.
However, overdrive causes a pixelation effect. My guess that the highest overdrive processes at 540p, because if you look closely you can see 4 pixel blocks changing (especially noticeable on white to black borders).
This was the best picture I can get, it only happens in motion. If you stand still it looks normal, as soon as you start walking forward you start to see this pixels shimmering.
Notice on the diagonal black lines, there are around 2x2 or 3x3 pixel blocks that are not there in the source texture. They only appear while moving.
This is the ultimate deal breaker for me. Disabling overdrive sucks, because it's a blurry mess and a waste of 165Hz. But with it on the highest setting it pixelates everything to the point of annoyance (especially since 1080p is low res enough, this looks like 540p).
There is also a balanced mode, which is probably the best compromise, but also the worst because it is both blurry and pixelated. So you can't win, and I'm not happy about this.
Honestly, I should have waited for the Samsung G7, so even just stuck with my 240Hz TN, this is markedly worse. Almost anything would be better here.
To be fair, Gears 5 with HDR actually did look pretty good. I also played a few hours of Forza and it was playable. So it's not that there is nothing here to like, it's just the downsides ruin what good there is.
Not sure anyone here even cares about this, but at least people searching for this monitor might find an honest review.
Definitely not buying another monitor unless it's on RTINGS or somewhere reputable (the reviews I did find said this monitor was good so they were probably smoking something or paid off).
Hope this helps someone not get burned like I did.