[PCM2]

Further comments on the EW277HDR vs. older non-HDR models here. To quote from there:

“Whilst I agree that HDR is nothing more than a marketing gimmick on that model and any other of that sort of price, it doesn’t actually add significantly to the price. Given that I feel the feature is next to useless and make that clear in the review, I would never recommend it based on that. The EW277HDR is worth its price even if you discount the feature entirely. It isn’t just ‘HDR’ that sets it aside from the EW2775ZH, for example, it is the superior backlight which provides a vastly broader colour gamut that comes closer to DCI-P3 and extends much further past sRGB. That’s what you need for the sort of experience you’re after.

And just in case I’m not stressing the point enough regarding how good I feel the value of this model is, I recently recommended it to a user who was put off because he thought it was too cheap. He was very pleased with the image quality, because it punches well above its weight in that department and gives some much more expensive models a run for their money.”

And agreed that appropriate lighting is important, regardless of panel type. If you like to view in a dark room then bias lighting or a light source surrounding the monitor will enhance perceived contrast and give a somewhat deeper appearance to dark shades.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I made another post here https://forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/cheap-gaming-monitor-for-gtx-1080-ti/#post-50425 and had a follow up question but didn’t want to hijack the thread.

Currently i’m using the C24G1. I’ll just keep this simple, at this point in time are there any VA monitors that you know of that don’t have noticeable bleeding of darker shades and also which VA monitor currently has the best pixel response times? I realize they are slower than TN but just curious of the current state of VA panels.

[PCM2]

I’ve put your post here as it’s an appropriate place I feel and I’d like to slightly revive this thread.

To confirm, when you say “bleeding” you’re referring to trailing with a ‘smeary’ appearance or what I might refer to in a review as ‘break-up trailing’. All VA models have this to a degree, or in some cases overcome it well enough by using fairly aggressive pixel overdrive. The LG 32GK850G really impressed me with its distinctly ‘un-VA-like’ performance. Using its ‘Faster’ response time setting there was nothing I’d really describe as “bleeding of darker shades” (or ‘smeary’ trailing, or ‘break-up trailing’). There were some weaknesses in terms of there being what I’d describe as ‘powdery trailing’. Some users would find the overshoot using that setting on the LG to be a bit too noticeable, but individual sensitivity to that varies. It isn’t as obvious as the overshoot on the AOC with its ‘Strong’ setting, for example.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that information. I appreciate it. I’m not sure I know the difference between the smeary vs powdery trailing, but it’s good to know that they all have an issue with at least one or the other at this point in time. I’m tempted to try an IPS panel but I’m not sure I could handle the other issues it has such as IPS glow ect, and I really don’t want to play the IPS lottery. I’ll read through this thread and see what people say. If there was a FHD 24″120Hz+ IPS that would be what i’d want to try. I’ve tried a 27″ 1440p VA it was the JG50 and wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be compared to 1080p. I’m thinking I’ll probably just have to wait longer for what I really want.

[horrigun]

What about AOC C27G1? Is it worth to buy 27 instead AOC C24G1?

[PCM2]

Only if you specifically want a larger screen at the expense of pixel density. There could be other differences as it uses a completely different panel, but I don’t have experience or user feedback to share so couldn’t be more specific. Based on other models using the 27″ variant, I’d expect largely similar performance overall.

[strumpusplunket]

I have a question about smearing, motion blur and ghosting on VA panels, so I hope it’s okay for it to go here.

I think I’m quite sensitive to smearing and motion blur in particular, and I’ve only ever owned CRT and TN monitors.

I’m weighing up upgrade either to 34″ UW (perferably) or 27″ 1440p (if I can’t find an UW that ticks all the boxes). One option that’s immediately obvious is there are a range of both IPS and VA panels.

I’ve read dozens of reviews, here and elsewhere, but obviously they all note how subjective being bothered by smearing and blur is.

I’ve also watched a large number of video reviews of these monitors, and one thing I’ve noticed is that for me the smearing and blur on every VA panel I’ve seen being used in videos looks horrible. Not something I could tolerate in my own use, I don’t think.

So my question is whether you think that videos of gameplay actually give accurate impressions of what smearing and blur look like first-hand? So if it looks bothersome to me in videos, is it very likely it would be bothersome in my actual use? Or do videos somehow make this look somewhat worse than it actually appears to the user? I know the camera can accentuate BLB and glow, so it would be good to know how much store to set by what I’m seeing in gameplay and review videos.

Thanks.

[PCM2]

Great question, strumpusplunket.

Our article on responsiveness explores the concept of perceived blur and breaks it down into two key components:

1) Perceived blur due to eye movement, closely linked to refresh rate and frame rate.
2) Perceived blur due to weaknesses in pixel responsiveness.

The first point is not shown in videos, so videos can’t accurately represent what the eye sees when it observes motion on a monitor. The second point, weaknesses in pixel responsiveness, can certainly be reflected in a video. It’s not possible to capture or show weaknesses in pixel responsiveness exactly as you’d see them in person, but the videos can still give you a good idea of some standout weaknesses. If you are watching our videos on YouTube and notice some smeary trailing or overshoot etc. at times (especially when I’m trying to point it out) but not other times then it is highly likely you’d find it noticeable on the monitor first hand. Given that you can see these issues in the videos and have indicated you’d find them bothersome, I feel that the IPS route might make more sense for you.

[strumpusplunket]

Thanks for your answer, PCM2.

That does help me feel more confident I should be looking primarily at IPS panels.

I’ve even noticed some reviews (not yours 🙂 ) in which reviewers are praising the responsiveness of a VA screen, and I’m thinking “but the ground is all smeared when you move, I can see blur on fast moving objects, there are trails from scenery when you pan the camera, etc….”

Maybe I’d get used to it, but also maybe not. I mean, I did return my first two ever TN monitors because I thought the blur or ghosting (can’t quite remember which now) was so bad they must be faulty! I did eventually get used to the difference between TN and CRT, but adding any more blur could be a step too far for me.

IPS it is for this upgrade!

Cheers.

[hiczok]

I’ve got Benq ew277hdr last week and while I agree it’s a fine and very proper monitor, it’s very basic and lacks freesync (it would be useful even with 60hz monitor). I’ve also noticed that black crush in the middle of my view is annoying me more than I would’ve hoped and that banding is more visible on this va screen, even though it has nice 2.2 gamma in the middle. Ghosting is a bit worse than typical ips monitor but it’s very good for a VA screen. Colors also seem more washed out than I am used to.
The black field is indeed very dark and uniform but gray field looks terrible like a crumbled paper and shows an obvious “dirty screen” effect.
All in all – It’s a pretty good monitor for the price and very well made but personally, I think ips is more to my liking.

Are there 1080p or 1440p IPS monitors with freesync that work ok on nvidia?
I think 25-27″, 1080p-1440p, 75hz freesync IPS monitor would be ideal but I am not sure if those even exist, since most seem to be HDMI and nvidia requires DisplayPort for freesync to work.
If 1440p – it would be nice if 1080p scaling was somewhat decent (consoles) and/or if there was 4k support (also useful for consoles so monitor accepts 4k and downscales to 1440p).

In General, I’ve recently got rtx 2070 and based on Metro Exodus performance as indicator for the future, there is no point getting 144hz either at 1080p or 1440p. 75hz freesync monitor would hopefully have better image quality than 144hz options which often suffer in iq department.
having 144hz over 60/75 is always nice but not at the cost of image quality, especially seeing that I would not utilize 144hz in many games (I play dark souls games on pc which are 60fps locked and I also play ps4 slim).

[PCM2]

I’m afraid you’re going to have to rely on user feedback for which models work well with Nvidia’s G-SYNC Compatible mode. Unless we’ve specifically tested them. It’s a very new thing and retrospective testing isn’t something that is practical for us to do. You should probably consider the ASUS VG279Q as users confirm that works nicely with Adaptive-Sync on Nvidia GPUs. I know the refresh rate is overkill for you, though. Aside from that you’d have to scour forums etc. and see what users say.

[hiczok]

The Asus is a good idea. I will look into it. If I will not be able to find 1440p 75hz freesync model with displayport, then vg279q should be a good fallback

[leopold13]

To be honest, I don’t understand people buying an IPA for games. For the average user, this gives nothing; without calibration, the color rendition is the same, ms is large. For professionals too. As for me, VA is an excellent choice, a strong middleweight in everything.

[PCM2]

IPA (India Pale Ale) is not conducive to a good gaming experience, I agree. As for IPS (In-Plane Switching), the advantages that brings are clearly laid out in this thread and in our reviews of relevant products. Such models have an edge in colour consistency. Although some VA models are relatively good in this respect, there’s always some degree of saturation lost towards the flanks and bottom edge, even from a normal viewing position. And there are distinct shifts even with slight head movement. To some users these differences are quite subtle, to others they’re very noticeable even when gaming.

The main reason users shy away from VA models for gaming, though, is the inferior pixel responsiveness. There are, without exception, some weaknesses for certain transitions. Obvious spikes in response time, giving ‘smeary’ trailing in places and ‘heavy powdery trailing’. With a well-tuned and capable IPS model you don’t have that issue.

[PCM2]

I feel this thread could do with a little love. There are some more recent threads which offer discussions on IPS and VA models, sometimes more specific than this one. But this thread is still a popular one for viewers who are new to the forum. I’ve just created a thread with some relevant discussion of the VA viewing experience if you’re sitting some distance away, perhaps below the screen on a bed or sofa.

[Neruc]

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to share a bit of my experience looking for a 27″ monitor for PC gaming, therefore aiming for >144hz and 2k resolution. But first of all, I’d like to appreciate the effort and work that is put into this website with the thorough reviews, I very rarely become active on this type of communities, but after reading so much during these days I kind of felt I had to give something back, and hopefully this might help someone trying to make a decision on what to buy.

After looking at multiple reviews I decided to go for the well known AOC CQ27G2U / BK, being it the first entry in the recommendations list in this very same page I was very excited about it. It took very little to arrive and I installed it on my 2-arm VESA mount, so far so good, installation was very straight forward, I can’t really talk much about the esthetics since I didn’t use it’s original stand but the monitor itself was pretty nice, it barely had any borders, felt very light and very neat in general.

After doing some settings tweaking I just realized how AMAZING colours were rendered, I was very impressed with how alive every colour felt and the HDR settings on the OSD were a nice touch, it mostly gave an oversaturation touch to warm colours, which I personally like as I tend to configure my monitors like that, but I can see this being an issue to people who prefer more natural colours, however, the OSD felt quite complete and I’m sure that you will find configuration that suits your preferences.

So, next step, playing my to-go game nowadays, World of Warcraft… And it was at that moment when I realised what buying an VA panel means… When not moving the character or the camera everything looked pretty, beautiful, colourful… But as soon as I did any movement, the smearing was ripping my eyes, every single shadow or border became blurry and darkened and every dark coloured box or element left a trace of itself with the movement. I was utterly surprised by this, I’d read about AVs before, but I also read that this monitor didn’t suffer so much from such problems, but my experience says otherwise. I have to say, though, that this problem was less noticeable on Call Of Duty: Warzone. I’m not sure if it might be related to how old WoW is or it’s cartoonish art style which makes contrast between colours and shadows deeper, but it didn’t work for me.

Another issue I found was heavy flickering with G-Sync enabled, when FPS are very stable it works okay, but as soon as your frame rate drops, even a little, the flickering kicks in and it’s very annoying, I ended up disabling G-Sync entirely.

I personally was against curved monitors as my previous experience was quite bad, I decided to give them a second chance and so glad I did, it’s curve angle was really nice, with the lights in my room off I could really feel that immersion feeling it’s supposed to provide. It has completely changed my opinion on curved monitors for good. But, sadly, the smearing and ghosting problems were too heavy for me to bear with, so the day after it arrived, I was already buying an IPS monitor. I regret now not recording more of it, but I’ll leave a short video at the end of the post with a few seconds I recorded showing this problem.

So yeah, now it’s the time, going all in with the IPS! I digged a bit deeper on this forum and I saw a few of very interesting options, some of them out of my budget, some others quite competitive. I came across the M27Q monitor from Gigabyte.

I just got it today, I have only had it in front of me for a few hours so take this information with a pinch of salt, I might even come back to this post some time in the following days to expand my shared thoughts.

Once again, mounting it was very straightforward, as the review says the stand it comes with is kind of basic, not very appealing, but mounting it on the VESA mount was very easy, everything as expected. When it comes to weight, it’s not as light as the AOC monitor, which in my case is a plus as it’s closer in weight to my other monitor, making my VESA mount better balanced. It also has a couple of handy USB 3.0 ports (ideally to use it’s KVM functionality, but you can use it to plug-in a PS4 controller, for example).

Colour-wise, it’s really good and crispy, but I feel that it doesn’t get to the AOC level. Although this monitor also has HDR capabilities, it can only be enabled through the Windows configuration, which heavily limits the OSD options on the monitor, making it kind of a useless feature to me. AOC monitor allowed me to enable HDR through the OSD and not depend on Windows for it. I’m still getting familiar with the options, and while I’m enjoying the colours displayed, I feel it can get better with some tweaking. That being said, it’s a massive improvement from my previous TN panel.

So far I can say that G-Sync works smooth as silk (it hasn’t been certified by Nvidia yet, so you get an info message when enabling it through Nvidia Panel, but it works anyways). When it comes to it’s OSD, I think the word to describe it is “basic”, it doesn’t have any interesting option or effect, the most remarkable one might be “Super Resolution” which makes everything sharper, other than that, you have the typical array of profiles with settings you can play with.

After trying the same games I tried with the AOC monitor, response time is way better, no issues at all so far. Now, the only drawback I’ve experienced is fringing issues with the text, making it blurry and very difficult to read. Although it was mentioned in the review as minor, I think it should be considered as a bigger issue, while it’s true that Windows ClearType and Sharpness settings might help, it won’t get rid of the issue, and it’s very annoying. The ultimate workaround is to turn upside down your monitor and set Windows to flip every content displayed, this will completely remove the issue, however, it’ll introduce new ones (also, you need a VESA mount for this as the original stand can’t rotate that much).

Googling around I’ve learned that G-Sync doesn’t work properly on flipped monitors, furthermore, flipping your monitor will skyrocket the input lag, in the case of M27Q, from 3.2ms to ~15ms (reference article below). Given that this if the first KVM monitor ever, you would expect it’s thought not only for gaming or media content, but also for work related tasks, however, this issue with text clarity completely defeats that purpose. I fail to understand the decision of using a BGR Subpixel layout for this unit, with a standard RGB panel this monitor would be the perfect buy. In my case, I think I’ll stick with it as I can use my second monitor for reading long texts, but if it were my only monitor I’d probably had to return it as it’s very difficult to read anything, it makes me feel as if I had eyesight issues.

Aaaaand I think that’s everything I had to share for now! This came out way longer than I originally thought, but hopefully it’s not too bad of a read and it helps someone. While I’m happy with my purchase, I can’t help it but to feel slightly disappointed, it feels that there’s no monitor similar to what I was looking for without it’s own issues… But thanks to sites like this you can get to know them beforehand.

[PCM2]

Hi Neruc and welcome,

I’ve merged your thread with this one as it’s a suitable place and I’d like to resurface it as there are some interesting comments here. I appreciate you sharing your observations. A couple of notes:

– Interesting that you preferred the colours on the AOC CQ27G2(U). In what way did you prefer them? The colour gamut is significantly narrower and colour consistency weaker, so things should appear less intensely saturated and less vibrant. Perhaps you prefer that look? Or it could be due to how you’ve set up each monitor. Because of the strong contrast, some shades actually ‘pop’ more especially with darker backgrounds on VA models like the AOC. I mention this earlier in the thread, so there are definite bursts of extra ‘situational vibrancy’.

– You can’t enable HDR on any monitor without an HDR signal. You’re talking about an HDR effect or ‘filter’ on the AOC CQ27G2(U) which you can use under SDR. Glad you like the look of that, but there’s nothing ‘HDR’ about it.

– The ‘fringing’ issue on the Gigabyte M27Q is definitely make or break, but it’s still something that only bothers a minority of users. It’s unfortunate you’re in that minority, but that doesn’t make it a major issue and it’s something users will need to see and judge for themselves. Rather than a reason to be put off even trying the monitor. As you said, if it wasn’t for that issue the monitor would be “perfect” for you. Considering it isn’t an issue for most people, that’s a good reason for them to try it before giving up on it.

– I don’t see the article you mentioned regarding a raise in input lag if you flip your screen, did you forget to link that (and the AOC motion video for that matter)? Interesting if so, I wasn’t aware of that although I did my testing with the screen completely upside down (physically) when talking about flipping the screen. So any input lag was the least of my concerns – I’d add that to an extensive list of reasons not to flip the screen anyway.

– A range of alternatives with regular RGB subpixels exist, as discussed in this thread. They rarely offer the same value of the M27Q or have other issues instead. One model on my radar that’s nicely priced but not yet widely available is the ViewSonic XG2705-2K. Shame about the name given my point below, but a potentially interesting model that I’d like to review if possible.

– Please don’t use the term ‘2K’ to describe the 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution, it’s inaccurate and misleading.

[Neruc]

Hey,

Apologies for not using the proper terminology, I’m not an expert on these subjects, thanks for pointing them out and correcting so it’s more clear to everybody.

I did indeed forget to add the links I mentioned, so here they are:

– This is the article I mentioned regarding text clarity, they used M27Q as a an example, and they mention how impactful turning it upside down was to G-Sync and it’s tax on input lag. You probably can tell better than me whether what they say makes sense or not.

– And this is the video I recorded while playing WoW, not the best quality, and it doesn’t capture the whole issue (I didn’t record those shadows left behind dark elements), but I think it shows what I tried to describe. I’m actually not even sure that “smearing” is the proper term for the issue shown.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing the article, a very interesting read. Even without the additional latency when you flip the screen, the loss of Adaptive-Sync capability is very unattractive. And then there’s the fact you’d need a different VESA 100 compatible stand or mounting solution as the M27Q‘s stand doesn’t pivot. The ports would be at the top so you’d have to make sure cables are long enough and not too tight, putting undue pressure on the ports. The thick bottom bezel would be at the top with an inverted ‘Gigabyte’ logo and the OSD would be upside down (OSD Sidekick use advised). Even then, only some fringing issues would be solved by doing this anyway so it might not be enough for those who find such issues bothersome.

Thanks for sharing the video as well. I wouldn’t describe that as ‘smeary’ trailing, but it’s certainly caused by distinct weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. I described a similar scenario in the CQ27G2(U) review: “For intricate mixtures of light and dark, such as a rocky wall with plenty of shadows and indentations or some vegetation, there’s a blending together of shades that essentially makes the textures appear dimmer than when there isn’t movement. Some of these shades will appear brighter when the movement ceases, so alternating between these two states can appear as a sort of flickering.”

[asiafan]

I checked on the recommendations lists on this site, and I found most of them are IPS monitors. So I am curious about something, currently are IPS monitors the best LCD panels for pretty much everything? And how are the recent VA panels, are they comparable to the IPS panels now? Also is that same goes for budget options?

[Author]

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