Is there something off with Asus monitors?

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darzo
Posts: 211
Joined: 12 Aug 2017, 12:26

Is there something off with Asus monitors?

Post by darzo » 09 Feb 2018, 02:22

There are some who think that because the panel is the same different monitors are identical. In that case Asus monitors wouldn't have a peculiar yellow tint, yet they do. But arguably a difference like that may be deemed minor, which brings me to my experience. I have tried the Asus 240hz monitor as well as the Acer 27-inch 240hz monitor. If anything, according to pixel density at these different sizes, the bigger Acer's picture should look a little worse. However, my impression was it's picture was better.

Right now I have two monitors on my desk, the Asus pg278qr, 1440 TN at 165hz, and the aforementioned TN Acer. I'm seriously inclined to pick up either the 4k 144hz monitor or the upcoming ultrawide so in part because of that I gave the Asus monitor another shot in Overwatch. At a higher resolution and many of the settings set to ultra in Overwatch, even with an increased render scale (without it as well), I found the picture to be funky. A little dull or just off in some way. I increased the saturation and contrast but that had a gimmicky result- colors that stood out more but overall repulsive. The picture just kind of sucks either way. I changed gamma values as well. I also disabled the 165hz overclock. The Acer, despite the lower resolution and all settings set to minimum, looked normal, decent. I have no issues with its picture.

Anyone else have a similar experience with Asus monitors? The color levels behave differently, on the Asus I just crank them up to 100 as they are at like around 80-90 on default I think, whereas on the Acer they are defaulted to 50 and it's very clear you shouldn't be pushing them up to 100. I wonder whether this could be an explanation but then again at lower saturation and contrast the Asus looks just kind of dull despite the colors set to 100.

If there's something to this I'd like to hear more. I hate the idea of a company pulling ahead while providing inferior products to a competitor.

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k2viper
Posts: 293
Joined: 23 Jan 2018, 06:30

Re: Is there something off with Asus monitors?

Post by k2viper » 09 Feb 2018, 03:00

In my experience in past, high refreshrate Acer TN monitors tend to have richier colors then other TN's I've seen and used (asus and benq).

I owned Asus VG278H for a couple of years, then got a new LG 27" 240hz, and guess what? Even LG have richier colors and more vibrant picture, then VG278H.

On Asus, lowering gamma helped me a bit. Just setting colors to 100 wont work, you may need to find a better balance between gamma and OSD contrast, its not the color level issue.

darzo
Posts: 211
Joined: 12 Aug 2017, 12:26

Re: Is there something off with Asus monitors?

Post by darzo » 09 Feb 2018, 04:14

BenQ was the weirdest I've used. It's so strange you'd have to say it isn't true but it was my impression. Sometimes on the BenQ, playing the same game, the picture would look terrific to me. Interestingly, without g-sync the picture seems more stable to me than it does when not using g-sync on Asus and Acer monitors and uncapping fps. But anyway, the colors themselves would look quite good. Then at other times it would strike me as washed out. Perhaps that's in-game versus desktop? Although I do recall having negative impressions in-game as well. Possibly I'm mixing my initial impression (BenQ was the first gaming monitor I bought, 144hz) with having gotten used to it.

In the future I'll be buying Acer, but BenQ is interesting. Acer to be safe, but you're liable to thinking worse of BenQ based on what some people say and based on there being no g-sync than it actually is. What bothers me about Asus is that they are ahead in the market and based on my experience I have serious doubts whether their products are deserving of that status.

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