Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pics!)

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lexebidar
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Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pics!)

Post by lexebidar » 14 Mar 2018, 15:06

So(sorry for being so down and whiny!)...
Few months back I've finally sold my VA Iiyama(xb2483hsu) and got my first G-sync monitor - AOC AG251FG. 240hz, gsync, 24'5" and 1080p. Newest and bestest. After all, You don't get a new monitor every day.
Seems perfect for my gtx 1060. I don't even game online but I just like good picture quality and was kinda sick of VA ghosting.
And holy crap, the 240hz is amazing and brings back memories of my old 2000 eizo crt running at 120hz. Ulmb also is great especially for older games.

But one problem - Picture quality. I just returned my 2nd AOC AG251FG and both units had the same problems - 1.9 gamma at darkest (gamma3) setting and terrible backlight bleeding around the edge lit bezels. On all 4 sides of the monitor... Only not visible on very bright backgrounds, so playing any game or watching a movies, I would constantly see this backlight. None of those problems is in review units on pcmonitors which is just a scam from AOC by sending cherry picked units.

Here is a very oversaturated pic. It shows the edge bleeding very well but kinds lies about the rest of the monitor. Generally I was happy with contrast and black levels and unhappy with edges and gamma:
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Those 2 units apparently were produced in June 2017 so I might be very unlucky and retailer sent me old stock (I ordered 2nd unit last week).

I had old tn's, ips monitors, va and generally some of each type and this is the worst quality I've seen and this monitor was like 3 times expensive than my previous monitor.
I will have my 500$ back next week and figuring out what I should do with it....
Now I am using old HP W2207H TN monitor and it looks great. Black is black, gamma 2.2, no bleeding. My friend gave it to me for now. It looks nice and have 22400 hours worked over :D It's glossy and I now love glossy monitors... seriously, this edge lit backlight is killing pc monitors. Who cares how thin it is.

Here are my options now:
1)I really like gsync and could try further with other gsync monitors. I am afraid that all 240hz models have the same issue (same panel), Dell G-sync monitors are sketchy at best with weird banding, plenty revisions and random gamma. Also no way I am paying up for Gsync ips monitors. They have also terrible qc and I don't even like ips that much.
2)I could forsake Gsync dream and just look for other high refresh rate monitor. So maybe I could still find something with good picture quality (with proper gamma and without that terrible blb) and 120+hz. And with those I would only miss out on Gsync since those high hz monitors also have nice strobing modes if I want to use them(like strobing with retro games). But without Gsync I guess, framepacing would be very bad if I was not reaching 144hz constantly (with or without strobing).
3)I could forsake both Gsync and high refresh rate (and strobing) and just looks for some "very good" normal standard 1080p 60hz monitor. Best quality I could get with a standard monitor.

So. Any ideas for this wall of text? :D
I am really out of ideas and the moment I've looked at 300 high refresh rate monitors I got overwhelmed... with gsync there is only like 10 to choose from in ~500$ range, without Gsync tax there is apparently hundreds more models.

send help

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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 14 Mar 2018, 18:03

My Viewsonic XG2530 has much better blacks than that. I hope it's just a panel lottery issue, but you have tried two AOC monitors...

I have default gamma 2.2 that I've confirmed with a test. ViewSonic does calibrate default colors better than the average monitor vendor. They have both a FreeSync and a GSYNC version.

That said, I have not seen the AOC, and can't make a comparison.
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by RealNC » 14 Mar 2018, 18:28

I don't have the XG2530 myself, but from what I've read, it seems to be the monitor with the least reported issues. Including frame skipping (the other 240Hz monitors are prone to frame skipping, but ViewSonic fixed the firmware for the XG2530.)

Overall though, all the current 240Hz panels seem to have lower image quality characteristics compared to "normal" monitors. If you value image quality more than having the highest refresh rate, you might want to look into "normal" 144Hz-ish monitors.
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 14 Mar 2018, 21:09

Depends on what you define as "normal" monitors. 60Hz IPS monitors.

I've seen users say that their Dell Alienware AW2518H (240Hz) looked better than their older ASUS VG248QE (144Hz). Both being TN panels.

My experience is that the 240Hz monitors (both GSYNC and FreeSync) can look better or worse in terms of black uniformity, color quality, etc. There's a lot of overlap.
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lexebidar
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by lexebidar » 15 Mar 2018, 01:28

I just want a decent picture quality(even if I was lenient, the pics I posted are terrible) , high refresh rate and possibly Gsync for ~500$. But as we can see picture quality suffers from 240hz and/or is crappy on gsync monitors. Especially at 1080p panels. Or maybe I really had a bad luck and should try other gsync 1080p montiors (or make a jump to 2k but I am skeptical for that res and underpowered). My initial goal was to get a gsync monitor but apparently each of them have it's own problems. I've only tried 240hz AOC models so far and each had blb and bad gamma. Maybe other gsync monitors don't but I've seen people posting pics of pg258q looking similar and dell S2417dg. Especialyl on the bottom bezel blb.

@RealNC
Viewsonic XG2530 is as expensive as 240hz gsync monitors. What gives? I suppose it uses the same panel as all other?
if 144hz monitors have better picture quality than 240hz panels then sure, I don't need that 240 hz. But it better have gsync or at least strobing.

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lexlazootin
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by lexlazootin » 15 Mar 2018, 04:56

"I want everything for $500 please."

Yea, not going to happen. All of the 240hz use the same panel and they are not going to look as good as a IPS.

Photos of your monitors back light is useless, like completely useless. With the right camera setting you can make any Backlight look identical to yours. everyone loves to post their pics saying how bad the backlight bleed is. You didn't get unlucky, that is how they all look. You can even see how overblown the images are based on the GLOWING mouse cursor.

"picture quality suffers from 240hz and/or is crappy on gsync monitors."
"My initial goal was to get a gsync monitor but apparently each of them have it's own problems."

What's the problem with G-Sync exactly?

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k2viper
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by k2viper » 15 Mar 2018, 05:16

That may be the case that 24,5" 240hz panels and monitors were on the market first, and 27" panels and monitors were delayed for a year or so. I cant say that my 27" 240hz LG has seen-by-an-eye borders blb. Even if I try to see it, its not there. Why should I think that "all 240hz are the same"?
Sure TN will not have such colors and angles as IPS, but as for backlight bleeding there are good quality panels/monitors on the market.

lexebidar
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by lexebidar » 15 Mar 2018, 08:14

lexlazootin wrote:"I want everything for $500 please."

Yea, not going to happen. All of the 240hz use the same panel and they are not going to look as good as a IPS.

Photos of your monitors back light is useless, like completely useless. With the right camera setting you can make any Backlight look identical to yours. everyone loves to post their pics saying how bad the backlight bleed is. You didn't get unlucky, that is how they all look. You can even see how overblown the images are based on the GLOWING mouse cursor.

"picture quality suffers from 240hz and/or is crappy on gsync monitors."
"My initial goal was to get a gsync monitor but apparently each of them have it's own problems."

What's the problem with G-Sync exactly?
I cannot agree. These photos are showing the edge blb very well. It can be clearly seen in reality. I started the monitor after unpacking and it was terrible at first glance. Can be seen in any darker content, so in games, movies, shows... Only not visible when browsing because there is scroll bar on the right and pages I browse are usually white.

Not all TN monitors look like that. I mean - maybe all gsync TN monitors do, but in overall I think that TN monitors look great and even better than IPS. I have a 10yo tn at home and it has none of that bl crap, has 2.2 gamma and looks good. But it's 60hz old 16:10 screen. The question I am raising - are all gsync TN monitors this bad? Or are all high refresh TN monitors? or all TN nowadays?

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lexlazootin
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by lexlazootin » 16 Mar 2018, 07:40

This is a photo of your monitors panel taken with the cameras exposure set to the other monitor
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This is with the exposure you did...
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Omg my backlight bleed is so bad Xxdxdxdxd. The monitor next to it is a DELL IPS that looks pretty good but you can do the same trick to that monitor as well. without a reference or exact camera settings, the picture is useless.

TN sucks, especially high refreshrate TN, There are some "Better" TNs out there but if you want good picture quality get a IPS or a VA, Dell does a pretty good job. Also idk why you think G-Sync has any effect on the panel quality, but it doesn't.

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RealNC
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Re: Looking for 1080p monitor... no luck so far (AG251FG pic

Post by RealNC » 16 Mar 2018, 08:14

Well, to be fair, his picture seems to have been taken with the room lights on...
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