Purchase advice for low motion blur in fast paced FPS games

[konr]

Hey guys, I used a LaCie CRT monitor for a long time and ran my games at 640x480 with perfect colours and no motion blur what so ever. It eventually broke and years ago I got a BenQ XL2411T (original version) which I'm semi-used to but not entirely happy with.

I can't play most games that I play (Overwatch, Quake, TF2) at all at 144hz because the motion blur gets to me and I can't process the information on the screen very well at all. To remedy this I use Lightboost and run at 120hz along with it. It's not perfect by any means, but it does remove a lot of motion blur. Recently I've noticed I'm getting some screen tearing at times and due to the nature of the games I play Vsync is not an option for me.

I have been looking around to purchase another monitor but honestly I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information because most people that are asking are either not playing the same sort of games or just not looking for the same thing in general. I want to have low motion blur without it completely butchering the colour on screen. I don't mind how that's done, I'm open to suggestion and appreciate any help you can give me.

Another part that isn't /as/ important but certainly should be considered is that I am a graphic designer by trade. I've calibrated my monitor a little so that when I set it to 144hz I can have decent colours at least to an okay standard for a TN panel, but it would be nice if my colours could be good AND motion blur low enough to not have to switch everything around all the time. I realise this is asking for quite a lot. I'd prefer to spend under £400 for this monitor and can wait for a deal if need be. Things don't need to be perfect, but they can definitely be better than my current setup.

Below are my specs. I run most of my games on low settings.

• Motherboard - ASUS H170 Pro Gaming
• Processor - i5 6600 3.3GHz
• Video Card - nVidia GTX 970
• RAM - Corsair 8GB DDR4

Thanks!

[konr]

No?

[Chief Blur Buster]

Most newer strobe backlights are much better than old LightBoost already.

Almost anything you buy today will have better colors than LightBoost. But one thing LightBoost won, was it had super-low strobe crosstalk -- but the way it did it was to destroy the colors in order to get nearly zero crosstalk. So that'll be the only "minor downgrade" you might be getting when upgrading from LightBoost.

See the list of brand names of "LightBoost clones" at Motion Blur Reduction

1. If you want brightest blur reduction, consider a 24-inch 240Hz monitor of either ULMB or DyAc. Those are 300 nits, about 4x brighter than your old LightBoosted XL2411T. They are still much better colors than LightBoost. Be noted current 27-inch 240Hz are dimmer (at this moment).

Very Brightly Strobed TN with ULMB
Acer Predator XB252Q - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC
ASUS ROG PG258Q - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC
Dell Alienware AW2518H - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC
Viewsonic XG2560 - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC
NOTE: ULMB monitors are limited to 144Hz strobing at 240Hz to minimize strobe crosstalk.

Very Brightly Strobed TN with DyAc
BenQ ZOWIE XL2546 - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz FreeSync
NOTE: DyAc can strobe up to 240Hz if you prefer choice of strobing at higher Hz and don't mind increased crosstalk

2. If you want the best colors (even if there's a bit of strobe crosstalk or more ghosting), consider either Samsung CHG series (VA panel) or the 1440p 165Hz IPS monitors.

Strobed High-Hz VA:
Samsung C27HG70 - 27" 2560x1440 VA 144Hz FreeSync
Samsung C32HG70 - 32" 2560x1440 VA 144Hz FreeSync
NOTE: For cold rooms, almost all VA panels often have lots of strobe crosstalk. Warm up for 30 minutes to reduce common VA ghosting to acceptable levels. The HG series fix the purple ghost bug of early-CFG-series, though you will still get the usual typical VA ghosting in dark greys. You'll get massively better colors. Be warned, VA is laggier and got certain ghosting characteristics, but CHG is one of the best if you are fond of VA colors and high contrast ratio.

Strobed High-Hz IPS:
Acer Predator XB271HU - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
AOC AG271QG - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
ASUS ROG PG279Q - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
Viewsonic XG2703-GS - 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz G-SYNC
NOTE: You will get slightly more strobe crosstalk than TN. However, you get IPS colors with strobing.

Bonus Tip that affects all monitors: If you are concerned about strobe crosstalk, some of it can be fixed by adjusting brightness & contrast to raise black levels a little bit above full-black. This reduces contrast ratio and worsens colors but removes a lot of strobe crosstalk. At least, with ULMB monitors, you do have the choice of doing that or not -- a bigger continuum of keeping better colors versus getting reduced-crosstalk.

If you're playing strobed during eSports, you want lowest lag and high Hz. For that, XL2546 DyAc may be your best bet since it's so tunable -- it will single-strobe any Hz above ~75Hz -- whether it be 85Hz or 180Hz or 240Hz or 144Hz.

[konr]

Thank you very much for all of the effort put into the above, my dude. I'll have to think about what's most important!