BenQ Zowie XL2546K 240hz TN

[daviddave1]

Hey Axaro, This might be a little off subject but I’ll do my best in trying to keep this post short and simple. I purchased a vg259qm in December when it went on sale to replace my XG2402. Mind you I mainly play FPS games valorant being my go to. After a good month of use age and really researching the monitorI came to the conclusion something wasn’t right. I felt as if I was missing a lot of shots, my bullets not registering etc. well tonight I happened to stumble across your post about the asus monitor and how you mentioned how you performed much better after going back to the xg2402. So I went ahead and did the same thing and oh my you were 100% correct. I’m super bummed about the monitor due to me really wanting a new upgrade but after my first game back on the xg2402 I was absolutely destroying enemies hitting everything I had previously not been able to. I’m going to go ahead and return the monitor but what would you suggest I do in terms of upgrading now. Really appreciate the post/feed back

Definitely get the XL2546K.

The thing is that the XG2402 is insanely fast in terms of G2G with just 2.9ms in a 7.2ms refresh window(1000ms/144=7.2ms) , so only 40% of the window is occupied by a completely overshoot free pixel transition.

When you upgrade to the VG259QM you definitely notice better smoothness and slightly lower input lag, both at 240 and 280hz, but these two refresh rates have respectively 88% and 103% (yes, it cannot complete the average transition at 280hz) with it's overshoot free overdrive, once you crank up the overdrive you immediately notice that 10%+ overshoot on IPS panels can be extremely bad unless it's restricted to a single pixel transition.

The XL2546K is 1.7ms of G2G with AMA High (which is without a doubt the best overdrive) so 40% of each refresh is occupied by a pixel transition.

I have the ViewSonic XG2402 ( 144hz) now. I am orientating for a new monitor. I had my eye on the VG259QM and 360hz monitors. I understand these high hz IPS panels show beautiful image quality, but have higher input lag compared to the TN panels. I care the most for low inputlag.
I play PUBG, Valorant, MW and Quake Live. The thing that raises the most question marks with me are the pages https://prosettings.net/valorant-pro-se ... gear-list/
https://prosettings.net/cs-go-pro-settings-gear-list/
https://prosettings.net/pubg-pro-settings-gear-list/

Without question the monitor that is most used is the two year old BenQ ZOWIE Xl2546. the BenQ ZOWIE’s Xl2546K is almost not there on those 3 lists. The VG259QM is totally absent. Also no 360hz monitor is used by the pros.

I can get a month old Xl2546 for 250 euro. ( a customer opened the box, tested it and returned it) That's halve the price for practically a new one with 2 year guarantee.

in edition:
In May this year i expect some extra euros from my work. I am going to upgrade my gpu then from a GTX1080 to a RTX 3080. I got the money then also to go for a xl2546K instead of a xl2546. My gut feeling said the xl2546K is better then the xl2546 inputlagwise.

Shall i go for the xl2546 or go for the Xl2546K ?

[RestTarRr]

https://prosettings.net/valorant-pro-se ... gear-list/
https://prosettings.net/cs-go-pro-settings-gear-list/
https://prosettings.net/pubg-pro-settings-gear-list/

Without question the monitor that is most used is the two year old BenQ ZOWIE Xl2546. the BenQ ZOWIE’s Xl2546K is almost not there on those 3 lists. The VG259QM is totally absent. Also no 360hz monitor is used by the pros.

The Benq is likely better than most 240 hz IPS monitors on the market and I'd probably pick that monitor if I had the money to buy one but that doesn't mean that your source information is good. You can't look up what pro players use and then say that this is proof that it's the best one. The reality of the situation is that these are the monitors that their org forces them to play on because they are sponsored. Before 240hz monitors hit the market, benq was still dominating the pro scene market despite their monitor being objectively worse than a lot of monitors. You are much better off looking at reviews and making up your own opinion rather than blindly looking at what pro players "chose" to play on, because 99% of them definitely didn't choose what they play on. The xl2546k could very well be the best 240hz on the market but that won't be confirmed by a useless and biased stat.

[UNKKit]

@axaro1 I'm about to upgrade from my Acer XF252QX and and only play competitive FPS shooters. Do you think the 360hz of the Alienware AW2521H beats out the Dyac+ strobing of the XL2546K? The prices are very close between these two monitors.

Edit: the new ASUS VG258QM TN is also a contender and roughly half the price of these options.

[Ron]

Hello,

I've recently had success using a larger VT combined with RTSS scanline sync. I figured I'd share the highest VT I've been able to achieve which was 1360. I receive out of range error when using 1361VT and higher.

220.jpg (43.89 KiB) Viewed 6635 times

202.jpg (45.46 KiB) Viewed 6635 times

Using this custom resolution I am running the horizontal clock and pixel clock slightly higher than what my monitor was running at its highest refresh rate. Please do your research and use these values at your own risk.
Running RTSS with a scanline sync of -60 moved the tear line just above the top edge of my screen. I'm using Dyac+ premium and AMA premium which provided the smoothest motion clarity I've ever experienced while gaming.
Of course, when using these values you must make sure your frame rate = refresh rate. I encourage you to test your own values and share your results! Thank you Chief for making such thorough and helpful guides.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Running RTSS with a scanline sync of -60 moved the tear line just above the top edge of my screen. I'm using Dyac+ premium and AMA premium which provided the smoothest motion clarity I've ever experienced while gaming.
Of course, when using these values you must make sure your frame rate = refresh rate. I encourage you to test your own values and share your results! Thank you Chief for making such thorough and helpful guides.

Congratulations on achieving a Holy Grail of all these simultaneously:

- Lower-latency DyAc+ from Quick Frame Transport of Large Vertical Totals (using RTSS Scanline Sync negative indexes for End-of-VBI frame presentation, critical for lowering latency)
- Reduced-Crosstalk DyAc+ from Vertical Totals
- Easier tearline hiding
- Perfect jitter-free strobing (no DyAc-amplified microstutters)
- 240fps 240Hz RTSS Scanline Sync

This stuff is not easy to do, but you've got almost the Holy Grail! Most XL2540/XL2546 users have to reduce to 180-182Hz to get framerate=Hz, but pulling this off at max Hz is very hard. Especially due to Why is Refresh Rate Headroom Good For Strobing [Low-Hz Strobe on High-Hz-Capable LCD], but these BenQs, combined with some games, can do an acceptable job at framerate=Hz.

[axaro1]

Btw for those of you interested in the difference between AMA High/Premium when using Dyac Premium, these are my results:


There's barely any difference aside from the UFO afterimage with the dark green background going from being a faint visible ufo to being replace with some minor corona artifact.

When testing with AMA Premium with Frog Pursuit the color lights show more overshoot in some specific transitions while providing no motion clarity improvement.

As of today the best Dyac/AMA combination for the XL2546K is Dyac Premium with AMA High. I didn't put Dyac High into this tests because the BFI phase is slower compared to Dyac Premium so it does not bring any motion clarity improvement and UFO afterimages are more visible.

More Ufotests (currently at 1080p60fps, both videos will be 4k60fps in a few hours):

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

@Chief I tried to test slow mouseturns with 400DPI x 8 sens and 3200DPI x 1 sens in Overwatch while using Dyac with Vsync ON (at both 720p480fps and 1080p240fps) but I was unable to see any difference between slow mouseturns improvements during very slow, slow-medium movements (with sniper scope zoomed in [1:1 hipfire-zoomed FOV with 37.89 multiplier and using Widowmaker]).

Do you recommend me to test with a different engine or a different setup? I'm trying to make videos visualizing the benefits of high DPI (and how different frame rate limiters can ruin/improve motion clarity when strobing, mainly fps<strobing freq, fps=strobing freq and fps>strobing freq [both slightly higher, so something like 250fps when strobing at 240hz, and overkill 400+ framerates scenarios while strobing at 240hz])

If you guys have any request for specific ufotests on the XL2546K let me know.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Great work!

Valorant is way more hi-DPI friendly than Overwatch. Its mouse math is better.

Make sure you mouseturn at TestUFO-similiar speeds, e.g. 960 physical pixels per second or 1920 physical pixels per second, while eyetracking the motion scrolling past. This is most noticeable during framerate=Hz matching techniques.

You need
(A) mouse movement speeds more pixels per second than the mouse DPI value, and
(B) mouse movement speeds slow enough to eye track
(C) eye track motion, not stationary gaze

This means (without motion blur to hide jitter), the 400dpi becomes jittery at 500-3000 pixels per second motion, which is still slow enough to eye track.

Also, some people notice this more from strobing in crosshairsless games (e.g. no stationary gaze objects that don’t benefit from motion blur reduction), like Rocket League.

Which mouse do you have - the new Razer 8KHz Viper?
1. Another weak link: It needs its own dedicated USB chip, don’t hub it with a 1KHz gaming keyboard. All that shared USB traffic adds jitter. Motherboard USB group are hubs! Get a USB PCIe card if need be (make sure the Razer is the only device connected to it).
2. Another is mouse pollrate should be a least 4x to 6x higher than display Hz. Jitters also become visible when display Hz becomes too close to mouse Hz. 360Hz monitors require mouse at true 2000Hz+ to hide human visible weak links.

[masterblaster]

I have a small dilemma. I am looking for a 240hz monitor. So many have been out of stock for so long.

Anyways, I seem to have narrowed down my search to the Asus VG259QM 280*hz monitor and Zowie XL2546K.

So I am a fairly long time experienced gamer in lots of types of games, but always fps games for sure. I actually purchased both of these monitors about a month or so ago and used each of them for about 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I kind of liked both monitors for different reasons. I guess I am looking for someone to help me pick one of the two.

I am very conflicted. Heres my thoughts:

BenQ Zowie XL2546K: $500
TN Panel of course. So poor viewing angles(dont care) and not the best colors. Kinda washed out I noticed. I like this monitor for the dyac+ and it was pretty sweet and useful in fps games...not so much in any other type of game though. The monitor is fairly expensive and I would describe it as not worth $550(after tax). I felt like youre pretty much paying $200 extra for dyac+ because I tried comparing the monitor without dyac+ on and it wasnt anything special and definitely not worth it without it. It would be an insanely overpriced panel at $500 without dyac+ enabled. It was however pretty smooth gameplay with dyac+ on in fps games, probably the best of any other monitor? Also, no other OSD game features like some other gaming 240hz panels have, thought that was kinda lacking as well.

Asus VG259QM: $320
Great monitor. IPS panel, so better viewing angles, better colors etc. Better colors than the BenQ. It was basically the first 240hz IPS panel ive ever tried. Pretty smooth and for some reason, it was hard to put my finger on, but feels a bit different from 240hz TN panels. It has some like nice overall "smoothness" feel to it? I would describe it as close to the same performance as the XL2546K but maybe slightly worse in the fps gaming department, but I still had no issues. I also like that this monitor is $320 versus the Zowie at $500..... I was a little concerned picking it only because I know it was an IPS panel and TN panels have to be better regarding input lag etc... Has good OSD features, crosshair and stuff like that, probably wouldnt use much of them though.


I just cant decide. The XL2546K would probably be my pick if it was $320 as well, but.....they are so close. Asus, cheaper, better colors, similar performance and probably the better overall monitor. XL2546K, slightly better for FPS games and would probably enjoy using it for just that purpose, super overpriced and not the best monitor overall. Terrible colors.

I kind of value low input lag and performance and speed over colors etc, but....when its a $200 price difference. And the speed of the asus is very close to the XL2546K. I cant say I played better or worse on either, I dunno.

[Falkentyne]

Sounds a lot like you are focusing a lot on the colors, so I would just get the Asus, and wait until the next iteration of monitors comes and then see if you want to jump to that (you can always sell the previous one or keep it for a backup!)

[masterblaster]

Sounds a lot like you are focusing a lot on the colors, so I would just get the Asus, and wait until the next iteration of monitors comes and then see if you want to jump to that (you can always sell the previous one or keep it for a backup!)

If it sounded that way, I would say thats not necessarily true. I am about performance and speed. The thing is, the Asus is pretty close to the XL2546K. In all honesty, I would rather buy that MSI Optix 240hz IPS, but that model has been OOS for forever.

Thats the problem, I feel like the Benq is slightly better for fps games and im having a hard time deciding if that little benefit is worth $200 more to also have worse colors, worse OSD, etc. The XL2546K is worse in everyway, except kind of what counts in fps games, motion clarity and input lag.