I am currently owning a 32" WQHD Samsung C32JG52, a BENQ XL2311T and a BENQ XL2420G. Originally I bought the Samsung for media consumption and sometimes singleplayer games but mainly used the BENQ XL2420G for general windows, competitive FPS and most games. But a few months ago I tried the Samsung as my main monitor and I am absolutely in love with 32" and 1440p for everything, be it gaming or desktop use.
That is why I am currently planning to sell my Samsung and get another monitor instead, because I cannot stand the black smearing and I will gladly accept the tradeoffs the other panels bring with them. But at first I have a clarificatory question regarding the black smearing because in all my hours of research I am not sure what the usual technical term for it is. So what is it correctly called?
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Now to my puchase decision: I already read hours upon hours of forums and blur busters articles and I basically know what I want now, but still there are some questions that I could not get answered, in part because I did not know how to correctly google the "black smearing" phenomenon:
Are all VA panels that bad concerning the black smearing (I know my Samsung is no high end model) and if not, what is it depending on mostly? The exact model? Panel lottery? Refresh Rate? Basically, is there any indicator how bad the smearing is other than a review, which are often problematic for me, because they often do not talk about the smearing at all (which could be because all VA panels smear and they assume you know that and are ready to accept it) or are very binary subjective.
If I turn up the backlight setting of my Samsung the smearing is reduced or even gone of course, but at some point colours become unnatural (which is fine in games like CSGO, but it really damages the atmosphere in dark single player games).
The features I would like for my new monitor are:
- 32" with WQHD/1440p
- At least 144Hz, preferably more
- Good GtG response time
- G-Sync
- Preferably curved but optional
- Blur Reduction tech optional
- Colour is very low priority
- My budget cap is max 700€, preferably less ofc
For finding possible candidates I used the blur busters best monitors list, display ninja monitor list, and pcpartpicker. The problem is, in the blur busters list, which I highly regard, the only WQHD 32" G-Sync are VA panel:
- LG 32GK850G-B
- Acer Predator Z321QU
On Displayninja I could filter for some IPS 32" WQHD monitors, but they are not on the blur busters list, and most of them are FreeSync and only 144 Hz. I will buy a Nvidia GPU, so I would prefer G-SYNC. I read here in the forums that Nvidia and Freesync can work, but I would prefer for it to surely work and work well of course. Especially because I want good input latency for CSGO.
If you say the drawbacks of the 32" models in some aspects could be severe I would consider going down to 27" WQHD (or something inbetween). Another idea would of course to sell all 3 monitors and try to get a singleplayer focused 32" and a CSGO focused 27" monitor, but I would really prefer sticking with one main monitor honestly.
One small question for the end: I read in some post here today, which I unfortunately did not find again, that there is some advantage of having a higher refresh rate monitor, even if you dont have the same fps. (I know higher fps than refresh rate reduces latency, and I am also aware of the stutter if Hz ≠ fps). EDIT: I found a part that said 120Hz strobing, correctly set up, can be smoother on a 240Hz monitor. I guess that is what was meant in the forum.
I hope I did not break some post length limits and thanks to anyone spending their time reading it. Hopefully I supplied all the information needed and I am happy for every opinion
