BenQ Zowie XL2546K 240hz TN

[speancer]

Tested displays: ASUS VG259QM • ASUS VG279QM • HP Omen X 25f • BenQ Zowie XL2546 • MSI MAG251RX • Acer Predator XB273 X • Acer Predator XB271HU

Could you tell, which one is your favorite and why?)

ASUS VG259QM and Zowie XL2546K (currently using/testing this one) are definitely my favourites so far.

VG259QM does an amazing job, for an IPS panel, in terms of motion clarity and FPS gaming performance, thanks to its 280 Hz refresh rate, extremely low input lag (slightly below 2 ms) and low average GtG response time (about 2.5-3.7 ms), all that with practically no overshoot (on overdrive set to 60), and it's really cheap for what it offers. Amazing ergonomics as well, wide variety of adjustments, compact design (I appreciate small stands, more room for my mousepad, easier to organise my peripherals like I need them).

XL2546K is by far the best TN monitor I've ever used (and I have a preference for IPS panels, so that's a big compliment), incredibly fast with about 1.7 ms GtG average response time (no noticeable overshoot on 'High' overdrive setting, at least to me), very low input lag (about 2 ms), great features, it's also free from pronounced pixel inversion artifacts (common in TN panels), quite pricey though. Same as ASUS, very good ergonomics and compact design.

I'm trying to decide which one I like more, gonna make a direct comparison in a few days, as I am not sure if paying so much more for the Zowie is justified, with VG259QM performing so well, and because of obvious TN panel downsides on the Zowie, as well as me not really being a huge fan of DyAc, even though I admit it's really good strobing tech.

[CortexFPS]

Tested displays: ASUS VG259QM • ASUS VG279QM • HP Omen X 25f • BenQ Zowie XL2546 • MSI MAG251RX • Acer Predator XB273 X • Acer Predator XB271HU

Could you tell, which one is your favorite and why?)

ASUS VG259QM and Zowie XL2546K (currently using/testing this one) are definitely my favourites so far.

VG259QM does an amazing job, for an IPS panel, in terms of motion clarity and FPS gaming performance, thanks to its 280 Hz refresh rate, extremely low input lag (slightly below 2 ms) and low average GtG response time (about 2.5-3.7 ms), all that with practically no overshoot (on overdrive set to 60), and it's really cheap for what it offers. Amazing ergonomics as well, wide variety of adjustments, compact design (I appreciate small stands, more room for my mousepad, easier to organise my peripherals like I need them).

XL2546K is by far the best TN monitor I've ever used (and I have a preference for IPS panels, so that's a big compliment), incredibly fast with about 1.7 ms GtG average response time (no noticeable overshoot on 'High' overdrive setting, at least to me), very low input lag (about 2 ms), great features, it's also free from pronounced pixel inversion artifacts (common in TN panels), quite pricey though. Same as ASUS, very good ergonomics and compact design.

I'm trying to decide which one I like more, gonna make a direct comparison in a few days, as I am not sure if paying so much more for the Zowie is justified, with VG259QM performing so well, and because of obvious TN panel downsides on the Zowie, as well as me not really being a huge fan of DyAc, even though I admit it's really good strobing tech.

Hi, like you, I have been testing for over a month on Vg259qm and XL2546K are two excellent monitors, the best I've ever tried, but I think there is no reason in 2020 to choose TN instead of fast ips, even though I thought zowie has more in terms of reactivity in the most frenetic situations. Having said that, this week I'm going to have the new alienware aw2521h 360hz, because I'm trying to make the best choice to spend my money well. My question is, why are you not considering a 360hz? You don't think it's worth it? Because here in Italy, for example, zowie 2546k and alienware 360hz have the same price. (I need advice and advice from other users, so I thank you in advance)

[sk1p]

Tested displays: ASUS VG259QM • ASUS VG279QM • HP Omen X 25f • BenQ Zowie XL2546 • MSI MAG251RX • Acer Predator XB273 X • Acer Predator XB271HU

Could you tell, which one is your favorite and why?)

ASUS VG259QM and Zowie XL2546K (currently using/testing this one) are definitely my favourites so far.

VG259QM does an amazing job, for an IPS panel, in terms of motion clarity and FPS gaming performance, thanks to its 280 Hz refresh rate, extremely low input lag (slightly below 2 ms) and low average GtG response time (about 2.5-3.7 ms), all that with practically no overshoot (on overdrive set to 60), and it's really cheap for what it offers. Amazing ergonomics as well, wide variety of adjustments, compact design (I appreciate small stands, more room for my mousepad, easier to organise my peripherals like I need them).

XL2546K is by far the best TN monitor I've ever used (and I have a preference for IPS panels, so that's a big compliment), incredibly fast with about 1.7 ms GtG average response time (no noticeable overshoot on 'High' overdrive setting, at least to me), very low input lag (about 2 ms), great features, it's also free from pronounced pixel inversion artifacts (common in TN panels), quite pricey though. Same as ASUS, very good ergonomics and compact design.

I'm trying to decide which one I like more, gonna make a direct comparison in a few days, as I am not sure if paying so much more for the Zowie is justified, with VG259QM performing so well, and because of obvious TN panel downsides on the Zowie, as well as me not really being a huge fan of DyAc, even though I admit it's really good strobing tech.

Thank you. I have been using VG279QM from the March, this is the best low input lag panel I ever used, but not satisfied with motion clarity and FullHD on 27. Cost of XL2546K overpriced for me in my shops, I will be waiting Asus vg258qm.

[axaro1]

My question is, why are you not considering a 360hz? You don't think it's worth it? Because here in Italy, for example, zowie 2546k and alienware 360hz have the same price. (I need advice and advice from other users, so I thank you in advance)

I feel you, I instantly bought my XL2546K from Amazon.it because it happened to be at an all time low price the 6th of November at 560 euro(a big thanks to camelcamelcamel, I was lucky to get the last one on stock) but I don't think a price of 600+ euro justify this monitor.
I bought my VG259QM for 450 euro from a spanish site when the monitor was just released (it was the lowest price that I could find in europe).

IMO if you can get the Benq at the same price of the Alienware definitely go for the latter, at the end of the day 360hz is 360hz.

As for 240hz monitors the Benq is imo the best on the market for competitive gaming, wether you like strobed or not the G2G performances are outstanding, I'm easily beating every single Kovaak high score that I previously got with the VG259QM.

For +100 euro I'd say that choosing the XL2546K over the VG259QM is still justified mostly because of the response times and having the best strobing on the market but it's not worth 150 or 200 euro over the Asus.
The OSD on the Benq is so much better, thankfully I don't have to deal with buggy sharpness due to the bad vividpixel implementation and I'm not having as much eyestrains from dyac+ as I was previously getting with ELMB-Sync.

Overall the VG259QM is a very solid monitor for the price and it should be considered if you want a good-for-all monitor due to the better content consumption experience that you get from IPS (+ many tricks such as the 10bit trick and having 7 overdrives if you consider OD120 so people struggling with sensibility to ghosting/inverse ghosting can still find the best overdrive for their needs), the Benq comes at a premium price and it can be worth the higher price tag only if you are very competitive, in this aspect the difference in motion clarity can make a difference.

[speancer]

Hi, like you, I have been testing for over a month on Vg259qm and XL2546K are two excellent monitors, the best I've ever tried, but I think there is no reason in 2020 to choose TN instead of fast ips, even though I thought zowie has more in terms of reactivity in the most frenetic situations. Having said that, this week I'm going to have the new alienware aw2521h 360hz, because I'm trying to make the best choice to spend my money well. My question is, why are you not considering a 360hz? You don't think it's worth it? Because here in Italy, for example, zowie 2546k and alienware 360hz have the same price. (I need advice and advice from other users, so I thank you in advance)

The most important factor is my rig, I still use GTX 980Ti, it simply doesn't support 360 Hz refresh rate, so I deleted ASUS PG259QN from my to-test list when I found out about this, and consequently, I am not interested in testing 360 Hz monitors at this time. As I basically only play CS:GO, I don't need to upgrade my PC, and I'm currently not planning to do so, I'm getting 320-340 average fps in a competitive match anyway.

The second factor surely is the pricing, new 360 Hz monitors are very expensive. PG259QN costs twice as much as VG259QM (at least where I live). Is it worth the upgrade? If you can push constant 360 fps, then probably yes, for the most responsive and buttery smooth experience money can buy, but I haven't tested it, obviously, so I'm just assuming.

Another thing would be 360 Hz weak link, like mouse polling rate. There have been discussions about it around here, and standard 1000 Hz poll rate actually seems to be too slow already for 360 Hz display, according to Chief Blur Buster. Click here to read Chief's article on that matter.

Thank you. I have been using VG279QM from the March, this is the best low input lag panel I ever used, but not satisfied with motion clarity and FullHD on 27. Cost of XL2546K overpriced for me in my shops, I will be waiting Asus vg258qm.

You're welcome. Perhaps you should give VG259QM a try? I've heard it has better motion clarity than its bigger brother, at least according to the author of this thread. I personally don't remember, because I tested VG279QM a few months ago and didn't make the comparison at that time. And yes, XL2546K is not cheap, I'd expect VG258QM to be priced the same as it's IPS brethren, which would make it a very affordable high-performance monitor.

[mgabee]

wow, 27" version would be dream: XL2746K an VG278QM. Any info abou the VG258QM release date?

I did not find any information about the release date, I messaged ASUS in this regard.
Just out of curiosity, why do you prefer 27" over 24.5" display with 1080p resolution?
[/quote]

My daily driver is a 27" IPS 1440p panel, and after that a 24" is too small. 1080p is not a problem for me in a game, but 24" size is annoying. I have to sit closer to the monitor and not comfortable.

[Ogmilkman]

I've decided to keep the XL2546K. I opened Valorant's practice range and wide A-D strafed while eye tracking (not touching the mouse) a still bot 5-10m away. I saw very small stutters as the bot moved across the screen while the movement is completely smooth on the XL2546K. This was done at 280hz with elmb sync and without at 120 OD.

Not something I noticed with blur tests and probably not something I'd notice in game but it bothers me knowing that it's there. I wonder if it was just my monitor that had this problem.

I'm running a 5600x which gets me 700-1000fps in practice range but I've capped that to keep a constant 300

EDIT: ELMB just makes it easier to see the issue. At 280hz the stutter can be seen at ELMB and without at OD greater than 40. At 270hz the stutter is less prominent with ELMB and with ELMB turned off you can't see it unless you try. At 240hz ELMB is as smooth as the XL2546K. I wonder if you could just add .6ms to the rtings 280hz response time numbers for the numbers at 240hz?

[axaro1]

There is a 0 to 15 OD slider in the factory menu, what I assume is OD High is set to 1 at stock, so you can only increase the amount of overshoot, set it to 0 to mitigate the standard overshoot (saw no difference at all on my unit).
Did anyone find out how to enter the service menu? What was the service menu procedure on the XL2546S?

Edit: There is a very minor improvement in motion clarity if you:
1) Enable Dyac+ Premium/High
2) Enter the factory menu (Switch off then boot while keeping the 5 way weel pressed)
3) Change OD Gain to 15

Premium is set to 12 on my unit, High is set to 1(tested High with Dyac off idk if it behaves differently when Dyac is enabled).

[hoozr]

Hello guys!

Today I bought this monitor, all I like, but I have some confusing thing. When I open OSD menu in game (CS:GO) it shows it is running 1920x1080@144hz . But it is 240hz turned on and I have 1280x960 4:3 resolution in game (look attachment). Is it false info or I got some defective instance?

My graphic adapter: AMD Radeon 5700XT. Using full panel scaling and custom resolution 1280x960.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Today I bought this monitor, all I like, but I have some confusing thing. When I open OSD menu in game (CS:GO) it shows it is running 1920x1080@144hz . But it is 240hz turned on and I have 1280x960 4:3 resolution in game (look attachment). Is it false info or I got some defective instance?

Launching CS:GO, sometimes refresh rate goes down.

- Try adding "-freq 240" to the CS:GO command line
- Try using ToastyX CRU to delete 144Hz from 1280x960 so that it's force to use 240Hz.
(You can use reset-all.exe to restore deleted refresh rates for specific resolutions).