[setu36]

Suggest me monitor which is colour accurate and ideal for 3D design work in under $400.

the list on here suggests gigabyte m27q but I just wanted to confirm if there is a better option out there. Originally I was thinking of buying either Benq PD2705q or Asus pro art 278qv.

Thankyou in advance 🙂

[PCM2]

Hi setu36,

The Gigabyte M27Q (original revision / Rev 1.0 – as we’ve reviewed and as our links through to Amazon point to) is recommended for photo and video editing or more broadly for colour-critical work because it is one of the most affordable options to offer strong Adobe RGB coverage (95% recorded), offering excellent flexibility with colour spaces. If your design work focuses on the sRGB colour space only then this isn’t an advantage. And actually its sRGB emulation setting isn’t really all that well calibrated, or wasn’t on our unit – this assumes you don’t have a colorimeter, which I’d highly advise considering if colour accuracy is important to you regardless of the monitor you’re considering. I understand if might be something to think about longer term rather than an initial investment. There are some ‘fringing’ issues to be aware of with the M27Q due in part to its subpixel layout, which you may consider minor and not even notice. But with design work specifically, if your work includes fine edges with contrasting backgrounds it could be a potential issue.

The ASUS PA278QV offers a strong all-round performance within the sRGB colour space, even using its full native gamut – hence the recommendation. Using the native gamut rather than the a restrictive sRGB setting means the full OSD flexibility is available with nothing locked off, including colour channel adjustment which can be very useful. The 75Hz refresh rate can be a nice little boost over 60Hz, even on the desktop – though the M27Q’s 170Hz even more so. You may be perfectly happy with 60Hz, and that’s understandable, but it’s just something to consider. Also be aware the backlight isn’t truly flicker-free as it uses high frequency PWM – such a high frequency it won’t bother most people, as noted in the review. But there are some people who would prefer a truly flicker-free backlight for viewing comfort reasons and that’s what the Gigabyte and BenQ offer. I’d recommend looking through this thread for further details on that model. This post there includes a comparison with the M27Q as well.

The main reason the BenQ PD2705Q isn’t recommended for colour-critical usage, but is for productivity, is based on the calibration of our unit. The gamma tracking strayed a bit further from the ‘2.2’ curve than it should – nothing terrible, but something I wouldn’t expect given the promised factory calibration. Because of the native gamut extending quite a bit beyond sRGB towards the red corner, you’d really need to tame that. The ‘sRGB’ setting could be used to do that and was good in some respects, but the gamma tracking was again off on our unit and you can’t adjust that setting in the OSD using that preset. I have received user feedback from others that suggests we might’ve got a bit unlucky with the factory calibration and that model isn’t alone in there being some inter-unit variation in that regard. Even if a strong factory calibration is promised. If you had a colorimeter or alternative device (as noted earlier) this isn’t an issue anyway. And I did like the overall build quality of the monitor and particularly liked its screen surface. That’s relatively ‘good’ in my book on all of the models you’re considering, but the BenQ had the lightest matte screen surface of these offerings and I feel it helps retain fine-edge clarity just a bit better as a result. Small margins but something to consider. 🙂

[setu36]

Thankyou for a detailed reply!
So I think I might go forward with Asus proart PA278QV.

Are there any other monitors under $500 that can fit my needs?

[PCM2]

None that I’d recommend over the ones you’ve shortlisted. But you can consider ‘4K’ UHD models as well, such as the Philips 288E2UAE (288E2E). Though that’s again a model where investing in a colorimeter would be particularly worthwhile due to its native gamut and how restrictive the sRGB mode is.

[setu36]

So I think Asus pro art PA278QV would be a great option to go with my use case.

Thankyou!!

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