Post
by GammaLyrae » 28 Jul 2021, 01:42
Pretty happy with it so far. First thing I tested was 60hz PureXP+, and picked the best real world, fast motion game I have access to, Sonic Mania on Switch
Ultra is tuned very nicely out of the box for my tastes. It feels plenty bright for my needs (I am used to tuning for a dark room to optimize HDR experiences on an OLED, and keep these kinds of settings even for PC use, so your mileage may vary). I did not detect any corona effects in real world content. Some colors respond a little slower than others, so as one example, while the screen was largely smooth from top to bottom, certain items like Rings could appear with a duplicated image effect given enough speed. I would say the effect was fairly minimal, and a clear double image to me is preferable to a tuning that introduces corona effects (I personally find those very distracting)
I don't have tools to measure contrast, but having come fresh out of the XG270, the contrast seems to be in the same ballpark range. RTings measured the XG270 as having 1058:1 contrast ratio, which is in the upper end of average for an IPS display. I feel the XG2431 exists somewhere near that same contrast.
I shifted through the following refresh rates: 60hz, 120hz, 144hz, and even 240hz with PureXP+ enabled. 60, 120, and 144hz in the UFO test appear to exhibit similar levels of performance, which I think is a fine achievement. Between the XG270 and the XG2431, I believe the XG2431 does 240hz better and this will likely result in a higher score from a website like RTings which prioritizes performance at the highest refresh rate. This is a difficult refresh rate to fix a game to (you really need a top of the line PC or to be playing simple esports-like titles), so I'm not sure exactly how useful a 240hz strobing mode will be to me personally, but I am glad it is there for people with more performant PCs / people that play older or lower spec games. Overall, I feel the PureXP+ tuning is much better out of the box and works more like how I expected it to, so big props to the Chief for really nailing this. I am happy enough with it that I don't feel like I need to try tuning it myself. I think it's still important to have support for an app like the strobing utility that was just published and should definitely remain a requirement for any potential future versions of the Blur Busters approval program.
Next I turned off PureXP+ and booted up Guild Wars 2. This is a difficult game to run at a consistent frame rate and sees FPS ranging between 40 and 140 for me typically. This seemed like as good of a candidate as any to see how VRR performs especially in the lower end range. I set the response time to 'Advanced'
I'd say motion isn't quite as crisp as I experienced on the XG270 at low frame rates (40-60fps), but a pleasant surprise is that "Advanced" response time appears to be adequate for the entire refresh rate range. This does likely mean some response time is left on the table, but my sensitivity to corona effects tends to make me prefer something that is more set and forget, even if something is slightly blurrier than it otherwise could be.
Default color settings out of the box appeared adequate. I am generally more forgiving of color accuracy in gaming oriented displays. Others may find they need to at least set the color profile to custom and adjust the R/G/B levels to their own taste. If you have a habit of calibrating your monitor professionally, this display isn't magical and will probably need more fine tuning if you want to use it for more professional tasks like photo or video editing.
Overall, even once the honeymoon phase passes, I think this is a fine monitor, especially for the price. If I had any criticisms for it, it'd be that the buttons to control the menu are far less intuitive to use than the joystick style control the XG270 had. If any one monitor could have a dedicated app to adjust display settings, this is one that would benefit strongly from it. I launched the Elite Display Controller (which I still had installed since I just swapped monitors out), hoping it would work, knowing that it probably wouldn't - and it didn't.
tl;dr I think an apt summary of this model is it's as good as the XG270, even better in some ways, and brings higher quality PureXP+ modes to every refresh rate - including the coveted 60hz mode. The buttons to navigate the menu are not great, but this isn't uncommon in the arguably lower priced sector of monitors. Still disappointing if you came from a more premium model (The Viewsonic XG270 or ASUS PG279Q come to mind), but not unusable.
Last edited by
GammaLyrae on 28 Jul 2021, 01:49, edited 2 times in total.