Looking for the best Competitive Gaming Monitor

[Hexadecimal]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for the best possible monitor for competitive gaming. I'm a highly competitive gamer looking to go pro and want to make sure my hardware is the best possible as when you reach the highest tier it's extremely important to get any advantage you can. You guys seem like the most informative people as far as monitors are concerned so I would love to hear your opinions. So far I've narrowed it down to two main monitors:

BenQ XL2420Z
or
Asus VG248QE

I'm leaning towards the BenQ XL2407. However, I'm really hesitant to purchase this since the announcement of G-Sync. I know that there are other posts on this, but I want to know from a competitive gaming stand point - not just what makes games look better. I have a very good computer and am planning on running games at 144fps to match the monitor's 144 refresh rate.

I read in other forum posts that G-Sync doesn't really affect anything that much once you surpass 90 fps. I'm also worried if I wait for the first gen of G-Sync monitors there might be bugs or wouldn't be supported for certain games.

All that matters to me is what will help me perform better such as increasing my reaction time or being able to dodge better from seeing things clearer. I don't care about what looks pretty - I just purely want what will give me the best possible competitive edge.

I'm not exactly made of money, but I'm willing to spend around $500 for the best competitive gaming monitor. I would hate spend that kind of money only to find that G-Sync monitor's give even more of a competitive edge.

So to conclude:
What monitor do you think is the best for competitive gaming and why?

Does G-Sync offer a competitive advantage over non-gysync monitors if you're running at 144fps with 144 refresh rate?

I'm a competitive gamer looking to go pro - should I wait for the G-Sync monitors to be released or do they offer no real competitive edge?

I know there are other posts closely related to the questions I'm asking, but I feel like none of them have stressed competitive gaming over just gaming in general. I take gaming very seriously since this is how I want to make my living. I want to make sure my hardware is the best on the market as far as giving me a competitive advantage.

Thanks in advance, I'm very appreciative to anyone who takes the time to help me and answer some of my questions.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Good afternoon! (From my time zone, anyway)

Having talked to many competitive gamers of your caliber, some things first:

- You will want to evaluate if blur reduction adds too much lag at your leagues in the games you play, as that feature (trade names "LightBoost", "Turbo240", "BENQ Blur Reduction" and "ULMB") adds very slight lag (average 4ms). It is useful for the use cases of ultrafast motion (e.g. Scout character in Team Fortress 2, fast movement such as identifying camouflaged enemies in high speed helicopter low passes) where the faster reaction times from the lack of blur can outweigh the lag for average players, as seen in the positive rave reviews from casual/recreational online gamers. Of all the strobe tech, BENQ's implementation has the lowest lag of all of them. But for your elite goals, 4ms is a huge deal, you may tend to turn the blur reduction feature off in most games. That said, the very same monitors (that have blur reduction features) are often also the lowest latency monitors available. Most elite game players, including fatal1ty, do not advocate the use of LightBoost, so bear this in mind.

- GSYNC is a new and has unknown reputation in the elite leagues at the moment. It is showing potential good benefit for competitive gamers but it is still a very new technology with very minor kinks, that you may prefer to buy non-GSYNC now and see how GSYNC improves later. Also, there is a tiny millisecond or so extra latency, reportedly, due to a GSYNC poll mechanism, that NVIDIA is working to eliminate. Fortunately, GSYNC monitors all also support VYSNC OFF too as well. But the first one has limited picture adjustments, such as high gamma that can be a competitive advantage. See the GSYNC input lag tests at http://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/preview2/ to see a specific situation that requires a slight framerate capping to eliminate the latency of GSYNC. Pay close attention to GSYNC tech, especially if you see it making inroads in the competitive leagues when more factory-built GSYNC monitors come out.

- There is always CRTs as the gold standard, but you can't really bring them to competitions or LAN parties, so you will want to focus on me monitors.

- Take good care of your mouse choice. 500Hz vs 1000Hz settings is a preference you will have to find, based on all the pros and cons. 500Hz has been a mainstay, especially on 60Hz displays and slower computers and inferior mice. However, generally, technological progress has started to favour 1000Hz when playing on 120Hz+ monitors, especially with GSYNC or blur reduction. But it will be a personal preference, as accuracy at 500Hz used to be better at the elite leagues. On some specific mice, there are issues with some of them, such as filtering and angle snapping which you do not want. The Blur Busters Mouse Guide is aimed at high end casual/recreational competitive gamers, and has some really interesting discussions back and fourth in the Comments section.

Based on what I know, and also the Instant Mode capability, you will probably want to lean towards BENQ, such as their XL2420Z which has consistently among the lowest input lag measurements found in several reviews, including TFTcentral's. If you keep Blur Reduction turned off (since all blur reduction strobe tech adds at least a very tiny bit of lag) then V1 versus V2 may not matter, but it is a nice-to-have anyway, for certain use cases. The VG248QE is low latency as well, practically the same, though has fewer compete-related picture adjustments that BENQ likes to champion.

All of the newer TN 120Hz+ monitors listed in the Official 120Hz+ Monitor List are capable of sub-frame input lag, and the recent BENQs lag have tended to stand out in the newest reviews for the pro gamer needs, where color isn't a priority. You chose two good candidates, and in this case, I would lean "Z".

[Hexadecimal]

Man, I don't even know where to start. Thank you so much. You have no idea how helpful this is. To have someone who actually knows what they're talking about taking the time to explain everything you need to know is so amazing - I'm very grateful.

Just to clarify the game I play competitively and looking to pro in is League of Legends. In this game you still have to dodge abilities, land abilities on moving targets, time your attacks with health bars that are constantly updating. It's not as intense as Counter Strike GO (which I do play regularly and have played since 1.6), but it's still important that my monitor is the best.

In regards to what you said about blur reduction adding input lag. In the case of me playing League of Legends would it be more beneficial to have it disabled? There are fast moving projectiles and abilities, but nothing as intense as the Scout in Team Fortress. In your opinion would it be better to disable or enable the blur reduction feature of what ever monitor I choose since I play League of Legends?

Also, at the moment I have a razer deathadder set at 1000hz polling rate with a 60hz asus monitor. I have a high end computer. I'm a bit confused about what you said about polling rates - I did read the article it linked to though. Should I be running 1000hz polling rate on my mouse when my monitor is 60hz?

It sounds to me like I'll be going with the BenQ XL2420Z. I have read elsewhere on the forum about the V1 and V2 thing - how amazon likely still has V1. I'm not entirely sure what the benefits are between V1 and V2 or how to even tell if the product I'm buying (or when I receive it) is V1 or V2. I saw the post about how you can buy the hardware to update to V2 for $40. Is having V2 really necessary? As in, will it give me a competitive advantage? I don't really understand the benefits of V2.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write everything you did. I know how annoying it can be having to re-type and re-explain the same old questions to new members. I truly appreciate you giving me a detailed reply. It helped me immensely.

[Trip]

In competitive gaming the most important aspect is concistency you can only become really good if you keep using stable settings. Dont try to change your mouse sense every day (learned that the hard way in fps games). Keep your frame rates steady not ultra high and going low and high the whole time. Steady 60 fps can be better then fps going from 100 to 200. This does not mean you should be using vsync though as in its current form its really bad for competitive gaming just use in game fps limiting.
I dont know if g-sync is finally going to change this but I really hope so. I can imagine that if framerates are nice and steady and the monitor is always showing full frames instead of torn apart frames this will help a lot to improve your aim. Most of your gaming skills comes from practice and practice not from hardware I have seen people who game on laptops with bad frame rates bad resolution and they still top the charts. That said I dont know which new technology is going to be the best to use in competitive play but I am leaning towards strobing. Why? Well if you can spot the threat earlier you can respond to it earlier pixel persistence adds loads of bogus information for your brain to process. With strobing you essentialy see only the important bits and the rest gets filtered out nicely by staying in the dark.

Also, at the moment I have a razer deathadder set at 1000hz polling rate with a 60hz asus monitor. I have a high end computer. I'm a bit confused about what you said about polling rates - I did read the article it linked to though. Should I be running 1000hz polling rate on my mouse when my monitor is 60hz?.

Just run the mouse at a 1000hz assuming it is stable you can test this via some software btw I dont know what deathadder you have but most deathadders are best kept at 1800dpi/1000hz if you find 1800 dpi way to high adjust it down with the markc mouse fix or just in game. A program to test your mouse if it is functioning correctly(including polling rate) is enotus mouse test just google it. If polling is not stable just lower it to 500hz but optimal is 1000hz.
Also if you are a competitive player I think you will already be so happy with the increased refresh rate from 60 to a 144. Everything is so much nicer at high hz's I still remember my first try in cod4 playing at 120hz 250fps it was magnificent. You will never ever want to go back to your 60hz screen.

In short I would pick the benq and enable strobing in your case

[ericl]

As a guy that wrote a book on competitive gaming (Quake and Counterstrike), I can certainly appreciate how important having the best hardware is. In addition, I've been playing DOTA, WC3 and Starcraft 2 at masters level.

The Chief already gave you all the info you need... and BenQ XL2420Z / Eizo FGG is probably your best choice for overall gaming:

Your field of view is important:
24" is likely the best size for competitive gaming because you can easily see the entire screen without moving your eye. (Most people don't consider this.) 27", 28" and 30" requires you to move your eye if you want to scan the top right portion of the screen. This is a big deal in games such as Starcraft, WC3, Dota and LOL where you have to monitor resources on a regular basis.

Lightboost in RTS-style games:
- For games like SC2, LOL and Dota, lightboost does NOT give you an advantage. It's better to have a brighter image with more contrast so you can see the units better (as opposed to reducing motion blur).

As someone that demands the fastest screen for Quake Live, Titan Fall and CS:GO, I can tell you that the story is entirely different for games like SC2.

To gain the maximum competitive advantage, you're going to want a monitor that can adjust the COLORS the best in order to be able to easily see the units & small details around the map.

The easier it is to see, the faster your brain will be able to interpret it and the faster you'll react.

If you're serious about being competitive, then you'll also want to get something that will be similar to the screens used in actual tournaments. Usually the players that have hardware that closely matches the hardware they train with at home will have the competitive advantage.

ie: Dreamhack Budapest just used Eizo Foris fg2421 screens... and it seems most North American tournaments used the BenQ 2420z screen.

p.s. The most important thing will be developing muscle memory with a good mouse, keyword and mousepad. Good luck!
p.s.s. Update: It's too bad that the http://www.benq.ca/product/monitor/rl2460ht/ RL2460HT isn't a 120hz/144hz screen... otherwise it sounds like it would be perfect. They developed a new feature that allows you to highlight specific colors. (Although I think you can already do this with tools like rivatuner)

[flood]

don't mean to cause a debate or anything, but I do not believe that 500 vs 1000hz affects the game experience or performance on any monitor. There's no way that 2ms vs 1ms of mousing position jitter is distinguishable when gaming, especially when network latencies, frame rendering times, server timings, etc... fluctuate by the same order of magnitude. honestly it's probably as much of a difference as having 10 ping vs 12 ping... 10 ping is better, but it doesn't really matter whether you have 10 ping or 12 ping.

well maybe I'm wrong and someone can prove me wrong with a blind test (not some anecdotal impressions which are subject to confirmation bias).

[Q83Ia7ta]

As a guy that wrote a book on competitive gaming (Quake and Counterstrike), I can certainly appreciate how important having the best hardware is.
The Chief already gave you all the info you need... and BenQ XL2420Z / Eizo FGG is probably your best choice for overall gaming:

Many competitive gamers notice input lag causing by Lightboost and it's only 4ms but noticeable. Eizo has much more input lag (16-18ms) than Lightboost models (4ms).

[flood]

Many competitive gamers notice input lag causing by Lightboost and it's only 4ms but noticeable.

I'd take that with a grain of salt.

[Hexadecimal]

Thanks everyone for all the replies - I read each one of them fully and took something away from each one. Even if in some cases you guys might disagree on some points it's still very informative reading each of your opinions. So far you have all helped answer my questions.

My last question is in regards to the V2 and V1 firmware in BenQ XL2420Z. I live in Canada so I can't purchase via BenQ's us website. I'll be purchasing the monitor through newegg.ca. I read in another forum post that certain online retailers sell the monitor's with V1 firmware still. Are there any competitive advantages of having V2 firmware over V1?

Also, can I just update online to firmware V2 once I have the monitor or do I have to purchase the add-on for $40 that I connect with a usb and monitor cable in order to get firmware V2?

This is the last question that is holding me back from purchasing the monitor. I just want to make sure that when I order the monitor I don't end up with old firmware that results in a loss of potential advantages. I know it sounds silly, but these kinds of things bother me. I want to be sure that nothing is holding me back and everything is optimal - I'm some of you understand and are the same way ^_^.

Thanks again for all of the detailed replies. You guys have literally been the most helpful in the process of doing research. No amount of random internet articles can match intelligent, informative people answering your questions directly.

[Trip]

Also, can I just update online to firmware V2 once I have the monitor or do I have to purchase the add-on for $40 that I connect with a usb and monitor cable in order to get firmware V2?

The best you can do is ask for a serial number on the monitor since some monitors already have v2 pre-loaded this is indicated by certain serial numbers. Though I dont know if the seller will agree with this one. To get from v1->v2 you need that piece of hardware since else you cant upgrade to v2. About that serial number it should be floating around the web some where or on this forum though I dont know exactly where maybe someone else can help you with that.