I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

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DugT
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I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 04 Sep 2021, 13:49

I don't need ultra speed because I only play single player FPS games. I'm 70, enough said. :-) But I do appreciate quality hardware and eye candy. I mostly play Far Cry 5 Arcade games. Yesterday I bought an Asus Strix XG27AQ for $430 open box and now I'm having these doubts about it:

Is my RTX 3070 fast enough to take advantage of its ELMB-Sync? Does it matter?
Dynamic Dimming is questionable depending on what review you believe. I tend to believe RTings that it will be too blotchy.
HDR is marginal depending on depending on what review you believe. I'm inclined to think it is marginal with IPS monitors.
The contrast is between adequate and excellent depending on what review you believe. Toms H loves it, RTings not so much.
It seems to have fast response time and low lag but that is not scarce on good monitors.
Is the XG27AQ overkill for speed?
It has good hardware and OSD switches. That is not disputed.
It has a useful manual. An Acer Preditor I considered has no manual.

The monitor it will replace is a 2015 Dell U2515, 25" - 2K - 60Hz, monitor that performs adequately but 27" will be better and faster than 60 Hz will be much better.

Thanks for any comments. I'll accept constructive abuse at this point.
Last edited by DugT on 04 Sep 2021, 17:18, edited 1 time in total.

DugT
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 04 Sep 2021, 16:15

I'm old but I'm immature and I think that has paid off in the long run. Also, I mt bike and snow ski a lot.

I bought the Asus Strix XG27AQ yesterday but I won't get it for a week. It probably won't be shipped until Tuesday so I have time to cancel. I'm sure it will be a big improvement over my 60Hz 25" monitor but I'm wondering if I there is a better monitor for me since I probably won't use many of its features because of there drawbacks. ELMB, HDR, Dynamic Dimming, Dynamic Shadow Boost, all sound good theoretically but they all have disadvantages. However, Adaptive-Sync (VRR) should be a big advantage. Maybe it is still an excellent basic monitor without the questionable bells and whistles. I guess that is my question. Is it my best option for $430?

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RealNC
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by RealNC » 05 Sep 2021, 04:10

Well, it's supposed to be a good monitor. "Shadow boost" has very limited value anyway. The only case where I ever used that stuff on my monitor (a 144Hz/165Hz IPS 1440p 27") was in CS:GO to kind of "cheat" a little and see enemy players easier in dark areas. I never use that feature normally, because it obviously ruins the image quality. And pretty much every monitor has this "feature" anyway. It's not like it actually cost money. It's just a rather simple processing tweak in the monitor's firmware.

The "HDR" of this monitor, like many, many other displays out there, is what I (and many other people) call "fake HDR." It's not really HDR, since it only has 400 nits. For actual HDR you need 1000 nits. Fake HDR might be arguably better than no HDR, but don't buy the monitor expecting to get a true HDR image. This is not an HDR display.

Dynamic dimming seems to improve image quality in games somewhat, so it's good to have.

The key elements of this monitor are the IPS panel, 144Hz native refresh rate and VRR (meaning g-sync support.) All of these are actual, genuine features that are very useful to have. This monitor should be a true upgrade compared to your existing 60" display. If you're anything like me, you'll be running almost always in VRR mode @ 144Hz (or 170Hz overlocked mode if you feel it looks better) in games, and in 120Hz on the desktop (better for watching video), and from time to time (although rarely) use ELMB but then disable it again because it degrades image quality somewhat and it also forces dynamic dimming to be switched off.
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Discorz
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by Discorz » 05 Sep 2021, 04:26

Comments from this post were deleted yesterday so I'll just put mine back since its active again.

You sure sound young for 70 :)
Do you mean you need a second monitor to replace U2515? Because XG27AQ (1440p 170Hz IPS) should already be a good monitor.

$430 is alot of money for refurbished monitor I noticed. There are brand new ones for same or even cheaper price.
So you won't really use features like ELMB, HDR, Dynamic Dimming, Dynamic Shadow Boost? This is what I understood, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I found new GIGABYTE M32Q (32" 1440p 170Hz) for $400 the other day. Its first one to actually have a good implementation of Aim Stabilizer Sync (blur reduction + adaptive-sync, like ELMB-SYNC), plus its bigger.
About 3070 being enough to push 170fps at 1440p, I see on yt Far Cry 5 is around 90-120fps with a good cpu which means its not fully utilized. But if you enable adaptive-sync it will be the same experience as on 144Hz display (with a minor latency diffrences).
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DugT
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 05 Sep 2021, 08:46

Thanks, RealNC. Now I have a better idea of what to expect from this monitor. Now I think it's fundamental qualities will be as much of an upgrade as I need.

I might be pleasantly surprised with the marginal HDR because my expectations are low because of what I have read about it. I haven't seen HDR on a real HDR monitor or an IPS monitor. I'm a photographer so I'm familiar with the effect.

By the way, my current monitor is 25". I will sell it or repurpose it.

DugT
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 05 Sep 2021, 10:12

Discorz wrote:
05 Sep 2021, 04:26
Comments from this post were deleted yesterday so I'll just put mine back since its active again.

You sure sound young for 70 :)
Do you mean you need a second monitor to replace U2515? Because XG27AQ (1440p 170Hz IPS) should already be a good monitor.

$430 is alot of money for refurbished monitor I noticed. There are brand new ones for same or even cheaper price.
So you won't really use features like ELMB, HDR, Dynamic Dimming, Dynamic Shadow Boost? This is what I understood, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I found new GIGABYTE M32Q (32" 1440p 170Hz) for $400 the other day. Its first one to actually have a good implementation of Aim Stabilizer Sync (blur reduction + adaptive-sync, like ELMB-SYNC), plus its bigger.
About 3070 being enough to push 170fps at 1440p, I see on yt Far Cry 5 is around 90-120fps with a good cpu which means its not fully utilized. But if you enable adaptive-sync it will be the same experience as on 144Hz display (with a minor latency diffrences).
Thanks, Discorz.

I don't know why your previous post was deleted. Now my second post looks out of place. I edited my first two posts to improve accuracy and when they were going through the approval process your post was deleted.

The ASUS Republic of Gamers STRIX XG279Q 27" that I bought normally sells for $500 new. The one I got is a like new return from Amazon, not a refurb. I can check it out and return it free if I don't like it.

You asked, "So you won't really use features like ELMB, HDR, Dynamic Dimming, Dynamic Shadow Boost?" My goal was to ask if any or all of them are useful. Now it seems that the answer is maybe occasionally but it really doesn't matter because, even if I don't use those features, the monitor will still be a big improvement because of its speed and size and other 2021 performance qualities. By the way, Adaptive Sync and EMBL can be enabled simultaneously but then the response time is fixed at too high a level.

Since Far Cry 5 gets a max of 120 FPS with an RTX 3070, I probably won't be using ELMB because I think ELMB works best at frame rates above 120.

The Gigabyte M32Q (32" 1440p 170Hz) for $400 is a real good value but a 32" monitor would be too big for my desk. The 27" version of this Gigabyte model is only $300. I will consider it. A monitor snob said I should only consider Acer or Asus monitors but I should be more open minded. It looks like the Gigabit has all the performance of the Asus but not as good ergonomics. Now swivel or rotate are examples. However, I really like that you can adjust all of the usual OSD options using a mouse and keyboard instead of controls behind the screen.

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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by Xehet » 05 Sep 2021, 10:23

DugT wrote:
05 Sep 2021, 10:12
I really like that you can adjust all of the usual OSD options using a mouse and keyboard instead of controls behind the screen.
Various brands have such software, such as Asus DisplayWidget and Gigabyte OSD Sidekick. I believe most high-quality monitors have some kind of a software.

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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by Discorz » 05 Sep 2021, 10:30

I think you will like the XG. Just enable adaptive-sync and you're good to go. Asus monitors usually have locked overdrive with ELMB-SYNC enabled, especially XG and VG series. Most of the people have all the features above disabled anyways since they're not very good. Monitor tech lacks in these areas.

M27Q has an older generation of IPS panel and it has slower response times.

Let us know how do you like your new monitor when it arrives.
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DugT
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 05 Sep 2021, 14:40

Thanks, Discorz. I think I will like it too. I like the esthetics, and that is important to me because it will be in a large semi formal living room. I doubt if I would notice any minor performance differences between it and a similarly qualified monitor. My only remaining concern is "Why was it returned to Amazon". I will do a thorough pixel level inspection when I get it.

Thanks, Xehet, for the info about DisplayWidget! That is a handy tool.

DugT
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Re: I need advice picking a Monitor with good quality and performance @144 Hz

Post by DugT » 05 Sep 2021, 18:36

The Asus Strix XG27AQ has high input lag at 60 Hz. Is that a problem? My RTX 3070 should be able to keep the lowest refresh rate well above 60 Hz but maybe at 80Hz the input lag will still be annoyingly high. Here is a chart from RTings comparing the input lag of the Asus and a Gigabit M27Q. RTings says anything less than 15ms is good and a difference of 5ms is noticeable. At 60 Hz the input lag of the Asus is 32 Hz which is 4 times slower.
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