LG 34" 21:9 vs Asus 27" PG278Q Swift...

Small status update:

I switched back to the LG today. The colors are noticeably nicer. I am now not on the fence about stating this: The asus (colors) definitely look washed out (think car hood in the Arizona sun for a few decades) compared to the LG. The Asus's speed advantage is literally noticeable simply by sliding the mouse cursor across the screen. With the LG, when I slide the cursor left to right, you can literally see the arrow blur as it slides. With the Asus, the arrow is crystal clear the whole time and it feels like you are drawing a laser beam across the screen. I see the 144hz / g-sync tech nicely.

However, the LG suffers from a lack of "hardware" brightness, if you follow. For example, when installing a new game (just started with Shadows of Mordor today), you are often presented with a symbol or pic and told to adjust the gamma (in game settings) to the point you barely see the symbol or pic. Shadows of Mordor does this setup, as do many first person shooters and adventure games. With the LG set at 100% brightness, I still have to slide the game's gamma settings quite a way toward the bright side to achieve the recommended in-game brightness. With my previous Dell, I didn't have to do this. The Swift is so bright from the factory, you have to actually slide down the in-game gamma settings to achieve the recommended settings.

Side note: I realize now, I have never owned a TN panel. The ROG is my first one. The Dell u2711 I was using was an IPS. The LG of course is an IPS. And the Asus is my first experience with a TN. Being used to high quality IPS for so long perhaps is making it tough for me to accept the Asus.

When the GTX 980 comes (hopefully tomorrow), I will be able to run some games with it on the LG and then the Asus the next day, and provide updates.

(as well as run that other blacklight test a poster requested)
 
Thanks for the good review. Even with all the smoothness of the Asus, the size is really what gets to me even more so then the colors. For me 27in is just not big enough, using the LG I feel as if I have much better immersion when playing games. Maybe one day soon we will have the an IPS Gsync monitor, even if it is 60Hz.
 
Thank you, skypine. I eagerly await for your gaming comparisons.
 
skuko said:
tiny tom logan of oc3d is quite a reputable person and even though he has sponsors like corsair, he's quite critical about all stuff he reviews. just look at how he criticized some of the asus motherboards. i highly doubt he's paid off.
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Not from my experience. To me he's an idiot who can't take advice and doesn't admit to be objectively wrong at times.
 
I just gave up my Swift too. I can not deal with the washed out colors and now am looking at the 34" LG UM95 and the BenQ 3200PT. Look forward to reading more updates on how this turns out.
 
skuko said:
that's the point where we disagree :) i say that this monitor has no competition, there are no similar devices, be it in its price range or beyond. i simply wouldn't compare IPS and TN, different technology.



yes i saw TTLs review of it and even though it was a quite some time ago (so i may be wrong), i can't remember him saying it's on par or better than IPS. he was just saying the colors are beautiful (and quite raving about it). take from that what you will :)

tiny tom logan of oc3d is quite a reputable person and even though he has sponsors like corsair, he's quite critical about all stuff he reviews. just look at how he criticized some of the asus motherboards. i highly doubt he's paid off.
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don't get me wrong, I enjoy his reviews because he also puts emphasis on the looks aspect and I like shiny stuff. However, with that said,
1.He didn't compare this monitor with IPS when he should have since he emphasises on looks(image quality for monitors) and considering the price of this monitor.
2. Keeping in mind the above fact, he went on and on about the image quality saying how good it is - again, conveniently omitting the comparison with IPS. I mean, if the image quality is so great, then he should also say how it compares to ips.
3. If you have seen his recent review of the corsair rgb keyboard, I did find if very very odd that someone who puts so much emphasis on the looks of the product had absolutely nothing to say about the new corsair tramp stamp logo. In fact, he laughed at a few people in the comments section when they pointed out that yellow tramp stamp.
4. read points 1, 2 and 3. Now, he is sponsored by Asus and Corsair. to me it adds up to one word = shill.
 
Hey guys. Dropped an EVGA GTX 980 in just now. Its the "standard" model with the clock speed of 1126 / 1216 (boost). I overclocked it with EVGA precision X by +75 (didn't overclock the memory)

Ran some pre-made benchmarks of my own games. These bench runs are all on the LG 34" @ 3440 x 1440 with the same in game graphic settings on the Titan and on the 980. The Titan model is an EVGA Superclocked Signature edition, that I had further overlcoked by +50 with Precison X
(Update on some video benchmarks. Tried experiment with the overclock of the GTX 980. I believe benchmarks not to be super reliable after just one run. I probably should do 3 runs at each setting and average them, but I don't have the time)
Middle earth Shadows of Mordor:
Titan
Max 93
Avg 46
Min 34

980 +75 overclock +50----------+0 (factory speed)
Max 86 ------------94 -------------135
Avg 53 -------------53 ------------50
Min 22 --------------22 -----------33

Bioshock Inifinite
Titan
Max 252
Avg 75
Min 28

980 (+75)
Max 252
Avg 95
Min 10

Company of Heroes 2
Titan
Max 78
Avg 47
Min 32

980 (+75)-------(+0 factory clock)
Max 95----------88
Avg 61---------- 58
Min 22 ----------16

Batman Arkham City GOTY
Titan
Max 137
Avg 96
Min 44

980 (+75)
Max 146
Avg 102
Min 56

I noticed on every game except batman, the Titan's min is higher. Maybe I overclocked the 980 too far and it is abruptly throttling at some points? I'm also aware my mobo CPU is a bit out of date for these GPUs but Im not replacing them until I can get ahold of a next gen m2 PCI-E SSD for my boot drive (hoping December)

I will experiment with the over clock on the 980. I also physically felt the back plate during the benchmarks, and it was hot to the touch, whereas the overclocked Titan never even got warm once.

Now to play some games. Will take the black light pics that were requested tonight
 
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TNs are washed out because they are just so filthy...

I like my Swift. Its the best TN I have used - trick is to get used to an inferior panel then move up to the Swift. It will make your eyes spunk all over your face.
 
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selling the Asus on ebay. Please don't ask to buy it directly. I am an expat living in Germany so I will only ship it to EU countries anyway.

It was a tough decision. The speed advantage over the LG was awesome in games like BF4 and the hardware aimpoint was a great use in games like Heroes and Generals (and BF4)

But I play more RTS (Big Wargame Red Dragon fan) than FPS, so in the end I value the color and extra screen space more than speed.

Final edit: If I had gone from my 27" IPS Dell directly to the 27" ROG Swift, the only complaint I would have about the ROG is that the colors were a bit too light. But I would be THRILLED by the incredible speed the first time I selected refresh rate to 144hz and g-sync to ON. I'd be keeping the Asus, and would swear I would never buy another 60hz monitor again in my life. BUT..... going from the LG 34 to the Asus is a really really weird situation, ie what we call a "corner case". It simply is not a situation that most people find themselves in.

I hope 2015 brings a monitor that can satisfy both needs (a big 4K w/ >60hz g-sync and/or big 21:9's with >60 hz and g-sync)

Thx for listening to my babbles.

/end thread!

PS: I am really tempted to get the curved LG when its available in Euro land and put the flat one on Ebay.
 
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Thank you skypine27 for your review on this. I'm planning on picking mine up next week or perhaps this week based on whether I'll have the time to go get it. The curved one 34UC97 is nice but I need my VESA mounts!

Too bad this monitor isn't around the 600-800 range. That's my only qualm I have about this monitor.
 
In the end, you came to the same conclusion that I did. The speed and fluidity of a 120hz+ monitor is great, but in the end my gaming experience is enhanced more by increased immersion and superior image quality.

I wish there was one monitor that would combine the strengths of the better ones that are available because as it stands, we have to make compromises and give one thing up to gain another.
 
imyourzero said:
I wish there was one monitor that would combine the strengths of the better ones that are available because as it stands, we have to make compromises and give one thing up to gain another.
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Choosing a monitor is sort of like picking a car: No one car is perfect for every situation, but what do you want to get out of it the most?

For example, a guy like me may prefer the luxury driving experience of a grand tourer, even when there are all-out sports cars that make sacrifices on comfort for better performance, some for much less money.

But that doesn't mean those choices will be for someone who needs the versatility of something like a truck or van or sedan.

And then if you're rich you may tend to look for something more exotic or exclusive. Or maybe just an upcoming special edition of a previous release.

Yet with all the great choices available today, to many out there nothing will ever take the place of classic muscle...
 
I hate car analogies.

If you still have your swift, try turning up the digital vibrance in the nvidia controls so that the colors will be more saturated. Of course ips will show more % of the color spectrum (and won't have a TN shift "shaded gradient band" near the top or bottom), but a good TN gaming screen can still show lush color for games.

I asked about the color saturation of the swift repeatedly in the swift thread and got some good answers in the last few days. From what I've been told recently after inquiring about the setting myself - increasing the vibrance setting makes the swift colorful, not pale.. just not color accurate and as large a % of the color spectrum.That's the problem with threads like these - it's a microcosm and you are getting only a small fraction of the details and replies available from the main threads on the monitors where many of these arguments and criticisms are addressed in much more detail, and by more people with more information and perspective to add.

From what i know about these two monitors, the swift is motion clarity (50% less blur at 120hz, 60% less blur at 144hz, or 'zero' blur with ulmb mode) and greatly increased motion definition, motion articulation, and even animation cycle definition at high fps. The 21:9 ips has the aspect ratio for immersion and better color accuracy (not necessarily pale vs colorful though if the nvidia vibrancy seting bumped up on the swift makes it saturated). The 21:9 ips obviously doesn't have 120hz -144hz, g-sync/ulmb, and 1ms response time. So it's a major tradeoff especially for 1st/3rd person gaming. It has the worst baseline 60hz non-minimal response time blur of the entire game world as you , relatively speaking, move the game world around our screen every time you mouse look and movement key, and has a 60fps-hz motion articulation / motion definition limit. It also lacks the option for g-sync to eliminate fps ceiling cutoffs and possible lag of v-sync while still eliminating tearing and judder.

If there were a 3440x1440 1ms TN with 120hz-144hz input and gsync/ulmb similar to the swift I'd prob get one. By the time one of those or a 4k 120hz input on dp1.3 with gsync, or oled versions come out.. the oculus rift might be in play.
 
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