Asus XG279Q with ELMB-Sync

[Dmoney405]

Moderation Note to Dmoney405
While I agree RLSContender has often been polarizing, that phrase is beyond our Be Nice To Users rule. My reread suggests it is a "seeing overdrive in a test" versus "not noticing overdrive in a real-world game" as a disreprecancy-explainer. But I have to remind that everyone sees differently, and notices overdrive issues differently.

I ask all to temper their individual "best monitor" claims given the complex factors (GtG complex, human vision complexities, measurement complexities, differences between different units of the same model of monitor for any reason even as simple as adjustments).

10-4. I edited it to be more inline with forum guidelines.

[Dmoney405]

Hi all,

New to the forum and thought it would be good to get some advice on this monitor which has just arrived today. My first IPS monitor and wow the colours look amazing, I've just come from a TN DELL SG27DG Gsync monitor and the first thing I noticed was the colours. I have a few questions I was wondering if any owners could help with. Only issue is some BLB and one red stuck pixel so amazon will be exchanging it.

ELMB - is it best on or off on this display, I've noticed when I'm in racing mode (which I believe is the best out of the box setting? Correct me if I'm wrong) and you turn ELMB ON the display almost halves the brightness, not sure I could use it that dim, however with it off the screen brightness is sky high.

Refresh rate - again read some conflicting stories, most saying keep it at 165hz? What is best? 170hz with ELMB off and 165hz with it on?

HDR - Seems pretty useless on this screen TBH, although I certainly did NOT buy it for this, I'm totally spoilt with my LG c9 where the HDR is stunning so this was never going to come close, it just seems really poor to me.

What are the best settings generally? I've currently got it in racing mode, ELMB OFF, 165hz, gsync ON.

Thanks for the advice guys!

First thing I would recommend is getting off of Racing mode if you value the accuracy of the image. Using a large gamut display in an RGB space game makes the colors waaaaaaay oversaturated and racing mode does not allow you to change the saturation for some reason. There is nothing special about this mode and 5 minutes spent on 'User Mode' can make them identical while allowing more knobs to turn for different situations. In the games I've tested the only way to use a wide gamut color space is to enable the games HDR mode, which as you stated is horrible. You will then have correct colors but CRUSHED blacks and whites because this isn't a true HDR display. The solutions I choose depending on the situation is turning down the saturation to 40, using the built in RGB mode, or using the HDR mode if it isn't too horrible. (I think destiny 2 was the only one I found almost acceptable). Keep in mind no ELMB-Sync with HDR mode.

ELMB isn't best on or off. It's just something you have to decide. In my opinion the screen gets far too dark and any motion clarity advantage is removed by artifacting that can not be calibrated out and harder target acquisition in darker spaces. The darkness can be calibrated a bit by upping the gamma in User / Racing mode from 2.2 to 1.8 (lower is brighter), setting the brightness to 100%, setting shadow boost to dynamic, and upping the contrast to 90-95%. Another way is to use FPS mode which saturates the colors a bit more and changes the gamma space closer to 1.8 even on it's default of 2.2. Definitely turn the saturation down to a minimum of 40 on FPS mode if you value your eyes though.

The suggestions above will brighten the screen to a more usable level during ELMB sync but it will look washed out with much less fidelity. Putting it on FPS mode and also changing the gamma to 1.8 will be awful so make sure to keep 2.2 gamma with it. So try these things out and see if you can stand the bleached look to your games. If you can, great. I hate it though and choose not to use it outside of CS. The biggest issue with all of this is that it is an IPS display. You don't buy an IPS to have a crappy picture. Going through all of this to end up with a half usable low motion blur mode with a picture that makes TN panels look amazing is just....dumb. If I were to do it again I could have just bought both a decent TN for FPS and a decent VA panel for eye candy movies and games for the $600 this thing cost.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Using a large gamut display in an RGB space game makes the colors waaaaaaay oversaturated and racing mode does not allow you to change the saturation for some reason.

Agreed!

That said, I can't really diss those people who sometimes need it -- Some of us love the oversaturation -- especially those with slight color blindness. The saturation amplification is a partial method of compensating for a partial color-blindness, and some of us are rather fond of abusing these profiles as a pseudo-assistance mode. It's quite eye opening (pun intended)

Just like even though we are Blur Busters, we respect motion blur has its place and time. (I'm old-fashioned relating to 24fps movies, even if I respect 1000fps UltraHFR as the sequel to 120fps HFR).

[Dmoney405]

I am fond of saturation as well but like to control how much I have depending on the game. Some games look good with a high amount and some look good with a low amount the default mode just doesn't allow you to change it at all for some reason so changing to User mode, which is still the same wide gamut space, allows you to have a more personal level of calibration.

League of legends is one of the ones that you need to turn it down a lot. The red and green lifebars were so bright it was distracting to me. CSGO also looks bad with vibrance IMO. The sand and skins have a dominant red hue with higher vibrance levels that makes it seem a bit off and unnatural. Other games like destiny, rocket league, and borderlands look good with the extra punch.