Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

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Endy
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Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Endy » 22 Apr 2018, 20:13

Which monitor is better the ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?

GammaLyrae
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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by GammaLyrae » 22 Apr 2018, 23:57

The two monitors have fairly different panels and capabilities that make them more suited to different use cases. The different panel technologies also come with various pros and cons, completely independent of the technology supported by the underlying electronics (variable refresh rates, backlight strobing, etc). It would be easier to offer advice if we knew more about what expectations you had or what kinds of panels you're already accustomed to.

TFT Central has some pretty in-depth reviews of both of these monitors, which can help you decide for yourself which monitor might be preferable for you.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_s2716dg.htm

pros: Gsync, ULMB, fast TN panel response time, good horizontal viewing angles (for a TN panel). TN technology practically guarantees the absence of backlight bleed, and no "glow" to speak of.
cons: pixel overdrive only has two settings, and even the slowest one comes with significant overdrive artifacting. it's still a TN panel and vertical viewing angles are not any better or worse than other TN panels. awful out of the box color performance that required the intervention of ICC profiles to correct, which isn't a real solution for every use case. Gsync requires paying "the gsync tax" as the manufacturer must implement a separate hardware module and pay licensing fees to utilize the technology. Nvidia has recently been engaging in anti-consumer business practices, which some people take issue with and may no longer wish to support them whenever possible.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/asus_mg279q.htm

pros: freesync, IPS-tier viewing angles since it is using a cloned IPS-like technology, acceptable out of the box color performance
cons: pixel overdrive is not tuned anywhere nearly as well as the PG279Q model. You have more settings to play with, all of them are inferior in some way to the 3 total options provided by the PG279Q. Getting an AMD graphics card that can push 1440p resolution at 144hz isn't practical right now, any savings you might reap by purchasing this monitor instead of the PG279Q will immediately be lost on purchasing a Vega 56 or Vega 64. This is largely thanks to the current cryptocurrency boom that has been responsible for a GPU shortage. IPS-like panel technology comes with "IPS glow" and the potential for backlight bleed. Correcting colors still requires an ICC profile as the panel controls alone are not enough.

my conclusion: I wouldn't buy either of these! I am sensitive to issues like 6ms+ pixel response times, overshoot artifacts, and poor viewing angles. However, many people do seem quite happy with the Dell model, and their implementation of ULMB raised the bar - it is the monitor all others are compared to for ULMB performance.

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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 23 Apr 2018, 01:55

It really depends on a person's priorities. Color quality, ULMB, etc.

Many others (who want a good solo game or other light competitive uses) don't care about 6ms+ pixel times as long as the colors are much better than TN. For others, well -- milliseconds are very much more important.

Endy, if you could list your priorities (e.g. gaming, artwork, movies, low-lag competitive game play, etc) that will help narrow things down.
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Endy
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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Endy » 23 Apr 2018, 05:02

Thank you so much for your concern! Your site helped me a lot! Both these models cost 600 dollars. I'm using the Benq gw2750 (VA, 60hz). My video card GTX 780ti (if necessary I can buy 980ti or 1080). I prefer online games (where I need feedback) and role games - The Witcher3. I love beautiful videos about nature in Yutube. Sometimes watch movies. The question is, what is better: 1) ULMB, G-sync. 2) IPS with beautiful colors.

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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Endy » 23 Apr 2018, 15:38

There is another option: Acer xb272bmiprz Predator(240Hz, TN, full HD.)!?

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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 23 Apr 2018, 18:31

Endy wrote:There is another option: Acer xb272bmiprz Predator(240Hz, TN, full HD.)!?
If 240Hz is a high priority, but remember if you're not playing ultra-competitive sports (e.g. eSports, paid championships, etc) and you said you want to watch movies -- then considering high-Hz IPS is a worthy consideration, especially since it'll still be a lag-improvement over practically any 60Hz VA.

I love 240Hz and would prefer CS:GO with a 240Hz. If as a very competitive/professional/career player, I'd be all over the ultra-low-lag TN monitors. But if you're not THAT competitive, just more casual online like you probably already do with your VA, and you do a lot of videophile stuff (video), TN is non-ideal for video... So for a more all-around, I'm going to have cake and eat it with the below:
Endy wrote:1) ULMB, G-sync. 2) IPS with beautiful colors.
You can get all of the above with these monitors:

ASUS ROG PG279Q - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Acer Predator XB271HU - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
AOC AG271QG - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Viewsonic XG2703-GS - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC

They are more expensive for your budget, obviously, but high-Hz IPS G-SYNC panels do exist. Both Jorim and RealNC has them, and they are pretty good, supporting IPS, G-SYNC, ULMB, 1440p, 165Hz. You will actually have slightly less input lag on these display than on existing 60Hz VA display. Not as low lag as TN, but you're still getting a big lag upgrade over a VA + 60Hz panel.

ULMB isn't perfect on IPS, but you actually have access to ULMB. And you've got G-SYNC which you may play more often with, 1440p, 165Hz, and good movie watching, in one panel. Modern GPUs and video players now scales 1080p so well to 1440p, that I don't even notice it's not native resolution when watching content on YouTube, and I can play 4K videos which looks sharper at 1440p. So unless you're a picky pixel watcher, the 1440p isn't a problem for 1080p and 4K watching; it still looks nice.

G-SYNC can be "treated" as an alternative to a too-expensive graphics card upgrade (thanks to cryptocurrency mining raising graphics card prices). The G-SYNC price premium, can be evaluated as being worthwhile in this scenario -- since a framerate look & feel better, e.g. G-SYNC improves the look of a low stuttery ramerate as much as increasing framerate by 40%.

By adding G-SYNC, you can then somewhat postpone an even-bigger GPU purchase until a little bit later, or simply do a lesser upgrade (Used 980's instead of overpriced 1080's) and G-SYNC'd 980s still look better than non-G-SYNC'd 1080s for lots of types of gaming like Witcher, so, might actually be a more efficient financial spend (but it depends on a person's preferences). Unlimited budget? Buy the 1080 or 1180 or Titan, price be damned!

But if you're balking at something, one has to decide what to balk at instead of the other. I badly want to buy a 2nd GeForce 1080 Ti Extreme to SLI for virtual reality, but the crypto prices do even make Chief Blur Buster balk, too. Ouch. G-SYNC does make the waiting-out GPU prices less painful.

If you have never seen G-SYNC, see TestUFO Simulated Animation of G-SYNC to help you decide -- the real G-SYNC and the higher-Hz looks better than this -- but the concept shows that framerate fluctuation can be de-stuttered by the variable refresh rate capability.
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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by RealNC » 24 Apr 2018, 11:51

Chief Blur Buster wrote:ASUS ROG PG279Q - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Acer Predator XB271HU - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
AOC AG271QG - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Viewsonic XG2703-GS - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC

They are more expensive for your budget, obviously, but high-Hz IPS G-SYNC panels do exist. Both Jorim and RealNC has them, and they are pretty good, supporting IPS, G-SYNC, ULMB, 1440p, 165Hz. You will actually have slightly less input lag on these display than on existing 60Hz VA display. Not as low lag as TN, but you're still getting a big lag upgrade over a VA + 60Hz panel.
It's not just "slightly less", really. It's huge. Years ago I upgraded from an old-school 60Hz gaming TN (77Hz OCed) that already had near-zero input lag (tested by Prad,) to a 144Hz TN and then to my current 144/165Hz IPS. Both the high-refresh TN and the IPS provide hugely reduced input lag compared to the 60Hz TN simply due to the higher refresh. And the TN and IPS feel the same to me lag-wise when both run at 144Hz. Actual lag tests do reveal small input lag differences in favor of the TN, but this isn't something I can actually feel. These differences come down to numbers that to me only seem interesting to high level competitive game players.

TL;DR: do not be afraid of lag issues on these IPS displays. They might have other issues (more ULMB crosstalk compared to TN, IPS glow, BLB QA issues), but input lag isn't one of them.
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KindOldRaven
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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by KindOldRaven » 24 Apr 2018, 14:39

RealNC wrote:
Chief Blur Buster wrote:ASUS ROG PG279Q - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Acer Predator XB271HU - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
AOC AG271QG - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Viewsonic XG2703-GS - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC

They are more expensive for your budget, obviously, but high-Hz IPS G-SYNC panels do exist. Both Jorim and RealNC has them, and they are pretty good, supporting IPS, G-SYNC, ULMB, 1440p, 165Hz. You will actually have slightly less input lag on these display than on existing 60Hz VA display. Not as low lag as TN, but you're still getting a big lag upgrade over a VA + 60Hz panel.
It's not just "slightly less", really. It's huge. Years ago I upgraded from an old-school 60Hz gaming TN (77Hz OCed) that already had near-zero input lag (tested by Prad,) to a 144Hz TN and then to my current 144/165Hz IPS. Both the high-refresh TN and the IPS provide hugely reduced input lag compared to the 60Hz TN simply due to the higher refresh. And the TN and IPS feel the same to me lag-wise when both run at 144Hz. Actual lag tests do reveal small input lag differences in favor of the TN, but this isn't something I can actually feel. These differences come down to numbers that to me only seem interesting to high level competitive game players.

TL;DR: do not be afraid of lag issues on these IPS displays. They might have other issues (more ULMB crosstalk compared to TN, IPS glow, BLB QA issues), but input lag isn't one of them.
'Feel'-wise any and all 144hz (and obviously 240hz) monitors I've had felt much more responsive input-lag wise than any 60hz panel (when run at native refresh rate, of course). Even the Samsung CFG70 (at least the 24'') that was tested by pcmonitors.info reportedly only had +-4.14ms input latency input-to-screen-action, and that's a VA-panel (the faster Tn's going around +-3.2 according to that site), so I doubt if input lag is an actual thing to worry about with any of the popular, quality 144hz panels.

Am I off here?

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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 24 Apr 2018, 14:55

Yes, the best 144Hz of each panel tech, the brute Hz can quite compensate enough to be preferable over even a 60Hz TN.

Meaning, the best 144Hz+ VA and best 144Hz+ IPS, can feel preferable (latency-wise) to even a 60 Hz TN.

Now, the OP is playing on a 60Hz VA. So pretty much anything 144Hz+ will feel better, unless it is one of the laggier models (very old 120Hz monitors like the Samsung S23A700D did have quite a bit of lag) but modern 144Hz panels advertised as a "gaming monitor" will not unplayability except in the elite situations (paid career eSports players) where single-milliseconds begin to matter more. But for the majority, I wouldn't worry about latency of a panel tech. Likewise, there are good colorful TN panels almost as good as IPS/VA as long as you sit square-and-center in front of them, and not too close (no closer than one outstretched armlength) -- then the viewing angle of TN doesn't matter much. But monitors optimized for gaming, often don't prioritize color quality. If you want 240Hz with better TN color quality, I like the ViewSonic XG2530 as they precalibrate for better-than-average TN colors. But you are using an NVIDIA card and probably you prefer to have GSYNC (there also happens to be the ViewSonic XG2560 GSYNC monitor).
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Re: Difficult choice! [ASUS MG279Q or Dell S2716DG?]

Post by KindOldRaven » 25 Apr 2018, 03:04

Chief Blur Buster wrote:Yes, the best 144Hz of each panel tech, the brute Hz can quite compensate enough to be preferable over even a 60Hz TN.

Meaning, the best 144Hz+ VA and best 144Hz+ IPS, can feel preferable (latency-wise) to even a 60 Hz TN.

Now, the OP is playing on a 60Hz VA. So pretty much anything 144Hz+ will feel better, unless it is one of the laggier models (very old 120Hz monitors like the Samsung S23A700D did have quite a bit of lag) but modern 144Hz panels advertised as a "gaming monitor" will not unplayability except in the elite situations (paid career eSports players) where single-milliseconds begin to matter more. But for the majority, I wouldn't worry about latency of a panel tech. Likewise, there are good colorful TN panels almost as good as IPS/VA as long as you sit square-and-center in front of them, and not too close (no closer than one outstretched armlength) -- then the viewing angle of TN doesn't matter much. But monitors optimized for gaming, often don't prioritize color quality. If you want 240Hz with better TN color quality, I like the ViewSonic XG2530 as they precalibrate for better-than-average TN colors. But you are using an NVIDIA card and probably you prefer to have GSYNC (there also happens to be the ViewSonic XG2560 GSYNC monitor).
If only that was available in Europe... The XG2560 can't be found anywhere here it seems :(

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