Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

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lulz
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Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by lulz » 19 Jul 2017, 17:22

Hi. I've been researching this topic for the last few days, read tons of reviews and forum threads.. but still can't figure out which one to buy, so asking for your help. I need a monitor for gaming, 90+% of use is competitive shooters (PUBG, BF1 etc). Right now I'm using QNIX QX2710 (1440p PLS 96 Hz) and I don't like how it's all kind of blurry when I do fast pans of the camera. The computer I'm buying this monitor for is going to have 2 displays connected to it, one of which is a 4k IPS, so all the "color sensitive" work like photo/video-editing will be done on an IPS screen. Which means for gaming purposes I'd rather have a monitor with a TN panel (I suppose they're a tiny bit faster than IPS/*VA/PLS? And also cheaper). I've got a gtx 1080 ti and it looks like AMD is not going to compete with nvidia in the high-end segment of the market any time soon, so having a G-Sync monitor is a plus (I think)?

That's where I'm getting confused. I haven't experienced any of these new sync technologies (g-sync/freesync) and haven't seen blur reduction in action as well. Where I live, S2716DG and XL2735 cost pretty much the same. All the reviews I've seen say that they've got almost identical panels. Both support blur reduction tech. But — Dell supports G-Sync and BenQ doesn't! Seeing how I'm likely to stick with nvidia cards for quite some time, it does seem like I should buy Dell simply because it costs the same as BenQ but offers more (G-Sync). But then the more I read forums like this one, the more I see how people say that G-Sync is only beneficial for games that run well under the monitor's refresh rate. And if you constantly get 120+ FPS then you're better off using blur reduction tech (which can't be used together with G-Sync/Freesync?). So I guess that's what I'm going to be using for shooters most of the time (motion blur reduction)? And looks like Dell only works at 120 Hz with ULMB, while BenQ's blur reduction tech (DyAc?) works at 144 Hz. So, if I'm not going to benefit from G-Sync (most games do run 120+ fps for me), should I just buy BenQ instead and have 144 Hz with DyAc instead of having 120 Hz with ULMB if I'd buy the Dell? I've read how people say that 120 Hz vs 144 Hz is not a big deal and most don't even notice it, but if I'm not going to be using G-Sync, I might as well just get the monitor with a (little bit) faster refresh rate (which is xl2735)?

Going crazy here, could someone help me choose between these two? :lol:

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RealNC
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by RealNC » 19 Jul 2017, 21:49

G-Sync is a must, imo. When I first got a g-sync monitor, you couldn't get me away from the PC for three days straight :mrgreen:
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Falkentyne
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by Falkentyne » 19 Jul 2017, 22:00

If you do go with the XL2546 (this also applies to the XL2735) and you have an AMD Video card, PLEASE go into the service menu and DISABLE DyAC and see if "Freesync" becomes available in Radeon Settings.

I've asked about this many times, multiple months, up to over 6 months ago (for the XL2735 at least), and not one person has even attempted to try this.
We do know that the XL2540 responds like this. The XL2540 has "Benq Blur Reduction, aka DyAc" disabled by default in the service menu, while the XL2546 and the XL2735 both have it enabled.

lulz
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by lulz » 20 Jul 2017, 00:54

RealNC wrote:G-Sync is a must, imo. When I first got a g-sync monitor, you couldn't get me away from the PC for three days straight :mrgreen:
Did you play competitive shooters back then? :) Or was it some other type of games? It just seems to me that for online shooters having as little motion blur as possible is more beneficial than having g-sync? Ideally we'd have both simultaneously, but looks like at the moment we have to choose one or the other. That's purely theoretical for me though, since I have no real experience with either of those. I'm still not sure what g-sync does exactly. I get the "no tearing" part, but then again I haven't seen any tearing for years, and I never enable v-sync. I guess tearing is not much of a problem when fps is equal to or higher than the refresh rate? But then some people say that g-sync also reduces "stuttering", making the gameplay a lot more "fluid". I've no idea what's more important for fast-paced shooters though, having this super smooth motion, or having less motion blur..

If it would be possible to use both g-sync and ulmb @ 144 Hz (or even 120 Hz) with Dell S2716DG, I'd definitely get it over the BenQ XL2735. But since I'd have to choose either one or the other.. I don't know, I'm lost here. What do people use for competitive shooters? Most of the comments I've found on the internet suggested that ULMB is preferred for this type of games, while G-Sync users are usually the ones playing "slower" games — RPGs etc. Or am I wrong here and there are people out there that choose G-Sync over ULMB for fast-paced online shooters that run at 120+ FPS? If I'm only going to use Motion Blur Reduction, then I suppose I'd rather go with XL2735 which can run @144 Hz with DyAc (as opposed to the Dell than can only run @ 120 Hz with ULMB). Is having G-Sync beneficial for competitive online games?
Falkentyne wrote:I've asked about this many times, multiple months, up to over 6 months ago (for the XL2735 at least), and not one person has even attempted to try this.
Yeah, I did quite a bit of searching and reading before I finally decided to ask for an advice here. I saw you asking people this exact question many times in this forum. :lol: I do have an R9 Fury in one of my desktops, but it's not in the same location where my primary rig is.. If I end up buying the BenQ, and it ever meets that amd card, I might test it for you (no promises though).

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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by lexlazootin » 21 Jul 2017, 12:37

I Agree with the "G-Sync is a must", i'm also a massive fan of G-Sync.

I think it's great for competitive fps like CS:GO. It's something you really can't experience till you try it. Super smooth motion in your games is pretty wonderful.

Not to brag but i got the Half-Life RTA WR a few days ago on g-sync monitor, it's definitely not just for slow games. I would recomend the Dell as well.

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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by RealNC » 21 Jul 2017, 16:05

lulz wrote:
RealNC wrote:G-Sync is a must, imo. When I first got a g-sync monitor, you couldn't get me away from the PC for three days straight :mrgreen:
Did you play competitive shooters back then? :) Or was it some other type of games?
The only competitive game I play is CS:GO. G-sync is not as important for it because I get 250FPS+ on that game. I still use g-sync for CS:GO too though, but it doesn't improve things as much as other games.

For stuff like Witcher 3, Deus Ex MD, Fallout 4, Doom 4, etc, etc, etc, g-sync turned out to be indispensable. I can't stand tearing, nor stutter, nor input lag. Previously, there was no way to reliably check all three of those marks. I had to use a bunch of custom refresh rates with CRU, and apply the "low latency v-sync" trick. It was an OK solution, but nowhere near what g-sync gives me now.

If you reliably get 200FPS+ in all your games, then g-sync might not be as important for you. If however your FPS often falls below your refresh rate and you always use vsync (but hate the input lag of vsync), then g-sync is a game changer.

Blur reduction for me is not important in some games, but is important in others. Most of the time I use g-sync, but for some things I use ULMB + the "low latency vsync" trick (mostly racing games; Grid Autosport is my prime example.) I can only do this for games where I get good frame rates though. At 1440p, that's often not possible. Getting 85FPS minimum at 1440p with a 980 Ti is difficult with many latest gen games (85Hz is the minimum with ULMB with most monitors, including mine.)

Also keep in mind that your current monitor (the QX2710) is not a good performer when it comes to motion blur. It is OCable, which improves fluidity of motion a lot, but unfortunately the panels on those monitor are quite blurry when overclocked. I would dare to wager that a "proper" high refresh monitor with good pixel response and a good overdrive implementation will look "crystal clear" compared to your QNIX, even at the same refresh rate of 96Hz. As a side-note, G-Sync monitors usually have the best overdrive implementations out there (it's implemented by nvidia, not the monitor vendor.)

So I guess my "TL;DR" here is: it's nice to have both options (g-sync and ULMB) and switch between them according to what you're playing. And a native high-refresh panel is going to lower motion blur a lot compared to your QX2710, even without activating motion blur reduction (strobing.)
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lulz
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by lulz » 21 Jul 2017, 16:19

Thank you guys, really appreciate your comments! Dell it is then.

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RealNC
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by RealNC » 21 Jul 2017, 17:51

One thing you should be aware of: you're going from a PLS panel (which is similar to IPS) to a TN panel. Expect worse colors, worse black levels, worse viewing angles, and color shift at the edges of the screen :P
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by Haste » 22 Jul 2017, 04:29

lexlazootin wrote:Not to brag but i got the Half-Life RTA WR a few days ago on g-sync monitor, it's definitely not just for slow games. I would recomend the Dell as well.
Congrats!

Is this you?

phpBB [video]


I remember long ago someone recorded a 120fps video of his run. I think I found it:

http://hl21.xtreme-jumps.eu/
Monitor: Gigabyte M27Q X

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lexlazootin
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Re: Dell S2716DG vs BenQ XL2735 - going crazy here

Post by lexlazootin » 22 Jul 2017, 13:14

Yea, this is me. I cut out the first 4 minutes of the run since most people that watch these runs already knows what happens. The initial trick seen in this video were i go flying in the air was actually found by me a while ago after a few runners told me it was impossible. in theory at the time if it could be done it would save a minute of time, A few days later i uploaded a run with the trick executed beating the WR by 30seconds.

HL21 is a segmented run of Half-Life that's actually cheated based on today's standards. They were using the latest stream version of Half-Life which has a few advantages, with a mod that actually removes the bhop cap and does a few other things that aren't possible on the Steam version. It's a cool run, but impossible to do on a vanilla client.

To have a legit run nowdays you need to be running a older version of the game that has a few restrictions like a 100fps cap, this makes it perfect for G-Sync.

The next milestone would be to beat "Half Life in Half Hour" which was the first big segmented speedrun by Spider-Waffle which was done in 29:41. All i need to do is save a few more seconds and i could beat a segmented speedrun done in 2006 in RTA category.

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