XB241H factory oc white lines

Talk about overclocking displays at a higher refresh rate. This includes homebrew, 165Hz, QNIX, Catleap, Overlord Tempest, SEIKI displays, certain HDTVs, and other overclockable displays.
Post Reply
Modin
Posts: 11
Joined: 02 Jul 2018, 09:52

XB241H factory oc white lines

Post by Modin » 29 Dec 2018, 09:19

So I finally upgraded to 144hz, and it looks amazing !

I've got the XB241H which can be overclocked to 180hz (through the on screen display), but when I do so, bright white horizontal lines maybe 1 pixel or half a pixel wide appear every 4 or 5 pixels. They're easy to see to the left of the screen but gradually fade out to the right, and become invisible roughly halfway through the screen. On top of a fixed image like this website's background right now, they almost look like a cool filter, but they get rather annoying on videos or games.

I tried making a crude reproduction of the effect : http://oi67.tinypic.com/98fry8.jpg look at this in 50% zoom and it almost looks like my predicament. The real lines are somewhat dimmer and they all have the same brightness, so they're not as noticeable as the example, but that gives you a rough idea.

Going back to 144hz reduces the lines' brightness, but they're still there. Just so dim they're almost unnoticeable. I found a thread filled with people having the same problem with the same monitor and it seems like this is something that happens a lot with high refresh rate TN monitors. (here it is http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id- ... oblem.html )

What's up with this ? Is it widespread ? Does it have a name ? I don't reckon there's any way to fix it ? Any idea why higher frequencies make it worse ?

Edit : I bought used so I've got no idea how it looked fresh out of the box.

User avatar
RealNC
Site Admin
Posts: 3740
Joined: 24 Dec 2013, 18:32
Contact:

Re: XB241H factory oc white lines

Post by RealNC » 29 Dec 2018, 14:54

Indeed it is widespread with TN panels. If I've got a dollar every time I see someone posting they can see horizontal or vertical lines on their monitor, I'd be a millionaire by now :P

I also see people saying they don't notice anything. But you can't be sure if that's because the artifact isn't there or because they simply don't notice it.

One interesting thing though is that I've never seen a monitor review where the reviewer points this out. I can only assume that reviewers only ever get sent "golden samples", meaning units that are as perfect as possible to get good reviews. Some units might suffer from this more than others. But this is the reality of display reviews. You depend on getting review samples, you can't possible buy all these displays yourself. And that means review sites mostly get golden samples, the best pre-selected draw of the panel lottery.

Also, many monitors use the exact same panel, so changing to another monitor model or brand is not guaranteed to give you better results.

IPS does not have this issue from what I've seen. At least I don't see reports of "lines" on IPS displays. I don't know about VA.
SteamGitHubStack Overflow
The views and opinions expressed in my posts are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Blur Busters.

Modin
Posts: 11
Joined: 02 Jul 2018, 09:52

Re: XB241H factory oc white lines

Post by Modin » 30 Dec 2018, 06:16

Sounds like this is something I'll have to live with. Thanksfully the problem is way less noticeable at 144hz, and there isn't much difference between it and 180hz.

Post Reply