Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Ask about motion blur reduction in gaming monitors. Includes ULMB (Ultra Low Motion Blur), NVIDIA LightBoost, ASUS ELMB, BenQ/Zowie DyAc, Turbo240, ToastyX Strobelight, etc.
Void_Shockwave
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Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by Void_Shockwave » 25 Sep 2018, 08:41

I'm interested in purchasing a 240hz monitor preferably one with good motion blur reduction. While looking at the popular options such as the BenQ XL2546 I stumbled across the Asus XG248Q which advertises strobing at 240hz with ELMB. Sadly there doesn't seem to be many reviews on this monitor or panel considering it is different than the 24.5" panels because it is only 23.8" . This panel was also advertised as being optimized for 240hz unlike the other 240hz panels on the market and it is considerably cheaper. I was wondering if anyone had any information or technical details about this monitors blur reduction or if it has any major issues with crosstalk.

DeltaCain
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by DeltaCain » 13 Oct 2018, 23:34

Very curious about this monitor too. So far I have only seen one review on YouTube and it's rare to see this monitor in stock at the major online retailers.

Anyone here has this yet ?

yehaw
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by yehaw » 16 Nov 2018, 15:28

It's definitely better than the previous 240hz. The coating is better and lighter, everything looks sharper, and overdrive doesn't appear blurry at low FPS like it did with my previous TWO DIFFERENT 240hz models. That's about all the good I can say about it.

The bad, it has the worst clouding I've ever seen on a monitor... EVER. There are weird horizontal patches that stick out during dark content (even on lighter-medium grey content), and they span across the entire screen. I exchanged it, same exact issue on replacement. During white content, you won't notice it, but deal breaker for me, as it ruins all dark content. If you hate stuff like black light bleed, this is 20x worse.

Waiting on the 0.5ms 240hz from MSI now, but likely going to be too expensive for me at the rumored $550 price, which is absurd for 1080p 25".

Malinkadink
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by Malinkadink » 23 Nov 2018, 20:21

yehaw wrote:It's definitely better than the previous 240hz. The coating is better and lighter, everything looks sharper, and overdrive doesn't appear blurry at low FPS like it did with my previous TWO DIFFERENT 240hz models. That's about all the good I can say about it.

The bad, it has the worst clouding I've ever seen on a monitor... EVER. There are weird horizontal patches that stick out during dark content (even on lighter-medium grey content), and they span across the entire screen. I exchanged it, same exact issue on replacement. During white content, you won't notice it, but deal breaker for me, as it ruins all dark content. If you hate stuff like black light bleed, this is 20x worse.

Waiting on the 0.5ms 240hz from MSI now, but likely going to be too expensive for me at the rumored $550 price, which is absurd for 1080p 25".
I really hate the 1ms 4ms 0.5ms form of advertising. It's so misleading. It basically means some transitions will hit that target or better, while others can be far longer like 5ms or 10ms on some monitors with really poorly implemented overdrive. I'm not sure if any of the current 240hz monitors advertised as 1ms can actually consistently maintain G2G transitions under 4.16ms for perfect 240hz usage with little to no reverse ghosting. I've done the trick where you drop your contrast ratio to rock bottom like 20 or so on my Dell S2417DG and increase the pixel response from normal to fast and its definitely less blurry, and i've done the same on the AW2518H to even better results, but the picture just looks horrible.

I don't know if 0.5ms will be a huge difference from 1ms, i found the 240hz 1ms monitors already very very good in clarity with fast motion, at this point i'd rather have a 1ms 240hz IPS preferably 1440p as i just dont want to use 1080p anymore.

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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 23 Nov 2018, 20:25

It gets far more complex than that, it's an average of many GtG transition pairs.

On TN Panels with really good overdrive, GtG90% can be relatively consistent nearly bang-on to the spec within error margin -- while on VA panels it can be super-inconsistent (espeically in the dark->darker and darker->dark transitions) -- with an order-of-magnitude differences in GtG for different color pairs.

And the published GtG numbers is speced as the time to 90% transition, not 100% transition. Those creates massively different numbers. A pixel doesn't have to go to 100% to be human visible, so it can be visually subjective to use GtG100% when the human eyes are really just seeing merely GtG50%. A good compromise is GtG90%

I'd love them to use improved terminology, like GtG90% (for time of pixel transition from GtG 10% to 90% points in curve), GtG100%.

And need I remind, "1ms GtG" is not the same thing as "1ms MPRT".

Some advanced reviews do publish 3D bargraphs of GtG transitions, similar to this:

Image

But these can be hard for the average layman to understand. These days (once the panel manufacturer did their due diligence) -- even monitor manufacturers do not always do much of this for many models, since monitor models have become cheaper and LCD panels have gotten faster than the bad old 33ms days. But in the Hz stratosphere (especially 480Hz+), manufacturers may yet fiddle once again with this stuff, above-and-beyond panel manufacturers.
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kabforks
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by kabforks » 25 Nov 2018, 16:03

Okay, so I have used this monitor for a few days. Primary Overwatch.

The clouding issue mentioned earlier, can be confirmed. It's pretty bad when it's all black. However, it's not noticeable at all when playing games. I'm not returning it because of this.

As a 240hz monitor, it does what it says on the box. It feels lightning fast. Noticeably more smooth than my 165hz PG278QR. As it should be.

Color, contrast and brightness is pretty good as well. I actually thought it would be much worse, after everything I've read about 240hz monitors. It won't blow you out of the water, but it's definitely good enough! I'd say the PG278QR is a tiny bit better, but the XG248Q isn't far behind. Of course, IPS monitors will always be better.

Considering the price I paid for it (vs the 25" XG258Q), I think it's a good buy. Your milage may vary.

Interestingly enough, the monitor is now not only out of stock, it's completely out of the assortment to webshop. It looks like they won't get any more. Strange.

I'm attaching a photo of the clouding, if anyone is interested.
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 26 Nov 2018, 03:36

TN cloudiness in blacks is quite common and unfortunately considered as par for the course. I see it in most TN monitors. IPS has IPS glow behaviours, and VA has gamma nonuniformities, and TN clouding is its own distinctive look, so these are panel quirks.

Also, TN cloudiness can sometimes get a little bit worse during blur reduction modes (ULMB, ELMB, DyAc, etc), especially if the digital black level is raised upwards as a strobe crosstalk reduction technique. (Dynamic range narrowing is done to reduce strobe crosstalk via adding overdrive overshoot room below black and/or above white).

Fortunately, most photos exaggerate the clouding that is actually visible in real life and in gameplay.
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yehaw
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by yehaw » 28 Nov 2018, 12:17

kabforks wrote: The clouding issue mentioned earlier, can be confirmed. It's pretty bad when it's all black. However, it's not noticeable at all when playing games. I'm not returning it because of this.
.
Same exact issue I had with two separate models. The worst clouding I've ever seen on a monitor, I've never seen anything like it before. I've had a lot of TN panels and I've never noticed clouding issues that stand out like that. Typically clouding I've seen is where the colors kind of fade in and out of the "cloud" spot, which doesn't make it look that bad and much harder to notice. The "cloud" spots on this new ASUS have sharp edges and have really harsh color transition in and out of the "cloud" spots. It doesn't blend in well and sticks out so bad.

Stay away from this monitor and return it if you can. I warned people previously of this issue with this panel. Here was my last one before going back:

Image

kabforks
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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by kabforks » 06 Dec 2018, 14:51

When playing Overwatch, it's not noticable. Neither is regular browsing or Youtube. But when playing Battlefield 5, it's pretty apparent between maps (the cut scenes). But I can't seem to experience the color transitions :/

It does 240hz really good. And that's why I bought it. I got other monitors for other tasks. One monitor can't do it all.

It Norway, it retails for 527 dollars, and the PG258Q retails for 645 dollars. I got this one for 375 dollars. These things considered, I'm keeping it.

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Re: Asus ROG Strix XG248Q ELMB

Post by RealNC » 09 Dec 2018, 22:49

This being noticeable in a completely dark room and with a black image is normal. All LCDs suffer from this more or less. However, if you can see it during normal use, then that's bad. I'm sure you owned other monitors prior to this where this wasn't noticeable during normal use.

You might still find it acceptable, but that's up to you.
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