[elsac]

Hi, I am looking for a new monitor for some gaming and media consumption. I am not planning to use this for work (not much anyway). I usually sit around 30 inches away from the monitor and due to ergonomic reasons, I can’t fit a monitor larger than 24 inches on my table. I also find larger displays not that comfortable at that distance.

I tried IPS displays from LG, but the IPS glow was distracting while watching movies. If I reduce the brightness enough, it became manageable, but sometimes that made the images look dull. I am looking at VA displays and came across your reviews of these two models (C24FG70 to be exact). The review puts them too close to each other and both sound like really good displays for the price point. Where I live, I have both on Amazon, but the AOC one is around 35 USD costlier (availability issues, I guess, since C27G1 is available for the same price as C24G1). That is a difference I can ignore, I guess.

As the two reviews were done about 2 years apart, I think the language used might have changed a bit (happens with the changes in the experience of the reviewer). So I have a tougher time understanding which is better. But I see that you are recommending AOC C24G1 more now, though I am not sure if that is after taking the Samsung one into account.

So, my questions.
1. How do they compare on gamma and colour shift with viewing angle, “black crush”, colour accuracy and uniformity?
2. As I am not a competitive gamer and doesn’t play too many fast-paced games (I do, once in a while), will I be better off with a 60 Hz display? If so, do you have any recommendations?

Now on a side note.
1. How much of the out-of-the-box colour issues can be corrected via OSD without using a calibration tool (visual comparison with standard colour charts)
2. I have heard that each piece of display panel differs from another. So, how close will I get to accurate colour if I use the colour profile that you have made available?

PS: I know I am asking a lot of questions, but these are the questions that I couldn’t get proper answers from other sources. A lot of the time, the answers I got were biased (owners of certain models) or hear-say. Some people would only give opinions, not reasoning. And no other source seemed to do analysis at this depth.

[PCM2]

Hi elsac,

To be completely clear, the recommendation for the AOC C24G1 takes all competitors including the Samsung into the account. Most of these are discussed in this thread. I’ve included a key comparison for you below.

A few people are understandably wondering how this model compares with the Samsung C24FG70/73. There are some key points of comparison, most of which are raised in the written review.

– The AOC has a better design in my opinion. The Samsung’s stand is a desk space hog, it’s too deep.
– The AOC has more flexible pixel overdrive. You can choose between low overshoot and more widespread (but not extreme) weaknesses in pixel responsiveness or very snappy overall pixel responses with some overshoot. The Samsung has notorious issues from ‘bright overshoot’ (‘purple trailing’) which you can’t escape.
– The AOC performs better over a range of refresh rates. Important if you’re using FreeSync, where the ‘bright overshoot’ is a killer on the Samsung.
– The strobe backlight setting (MBR, Motion Blur Reduction) is superior to the Samsung alternatives due to the excellent brightness adjustment range.
– The Samsung has more vibrant colours, whereas on the AOC they’re varied and natural (but still vivid). Personal preferences come into play there.
– The AOC has a steeper curve. It’s still subtle, but gives slightly more depth to the experience than on the Samsung. It’s a nice change but nothing revolutionary.

I’d also add that the Samsung seems to have something of an input lag lottery going on as noted in our C24FG70 review. The C24FG73 also has this according to user feedback. Very odd. So the AOC C24G1 is simply the superior product in my view. The only real potential advantage of the Samsung is the wider colour gamut.

And on that note, you’ve been talking about “accurate colours”. Why is that? Do you intend to use the monitor for colour critical work, or do you just prefer colours to look as intended by the developers? If it’s the latter, the Samsung offers a good ‘sRGB’ emulation mode. Most users misuse the term “accurate” colours and they actually mean they want shades to look vibrant but still quite faithful to the original source. That’s something the AOC will do nicely. As per the review things still look pretty nice without the ICC profile, but that’s the icing on the cake and adds a bit of extra richness. Ideally you’d profile your own monitor with your own colorimeter due to inter-unit variation, but users report the included profile working well if they adjust their own colour channels appropriately. It seems to correct the gamma well in most cases.

[elsac]

Thanks for the reply. As for accurate colours, I do UI design (not as colour-critical as photo/image editing) and use colour calibrated IPS displays at work. So I got used to sRGB colours and how they look. So, sometimes some displays look weird to me if the colours are off. This is for personal use at home, where I would be only occasionally using it for work. So, either the sRGB emulation of Samsung or manual calibration (I don’t have a calibrator, but have colour charts for quick inspections from my work) or ICC profiles from here would be fine, but I can be sure only after I get the monitor. I think I will be able to get adjusted to whichever I pick, but I thought it would be easier if the starting point was better.

About the comparison, I think the enhanced Freesync range would be good. Some games that I play hardly reach 60fps on my rig, some goes to 170fps. I am mostly a casual gamer, so I don’t notice response time as much, but I sure do notice the natural feel from the fluidity of the motion.

I have seen some videos of the purple trailing. I initially thought it only affected moving objects but forgot that the whole scene is moving when you move your view. That large scale purple smearing was really cheap looking. Reminded me of buggy graphic drivers and games of old.

I agree with the stand part. Even though the CFG73 models have improved stands, the disc base just wastes too much space on the table. Though I have to say, I have been planning to get a smaller table and get an articulating arm mount and build an SFF PC. Going minimal 🙂

I guess I will look at the AOC for now. Amazon do let me return it if there are any issues.

[Nagorak]

Having used both an AOC C24G1 and also a Samsung C27FG70 (which should be pretty similar to the CFG73), I’d strongly recommend the C24G1. The adjustable overdrive setting makes a big difference in terms of adaptive sync usability. Unfortunately, the Samsung monitors seem to have overdrive set too high to work well at lower refresh rates, resulting in a lot of overshoot. They’re good monitors otherwise, but the lack of overdrive adjustment really lets them down.

[elsac]

Thanks for the comparison. I am more interested in the adaptive sync than the actual 144 Hz (though having it is a bonus). There are very few good VA Freesync 24 inch monitors, with DP connection, and even less available at my location. I wanted one with decent performance with Nvidia GPUs, since they now support it. C24G1 seems to have better support for Nvidia GPUs.

[Author]

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