BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

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.
.c0dy
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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by .c0dy » 07 Sep 2019, 17:47

First of all, thanks to everyone involved that made this possible and more convenient! :)

I can also confirm that this works with my XL2411Z with V4 and DVI with up to 200Hz.

I've noticed two possible "issues" though.

1) After installing a new/different driver it'll stay out of range, even with OORBuster running. Maybe the same will happen if the driver is lost due to OC in some applications/games? Maybe OORB could monitor ETW events (in case device loss is logged with these).

2) 200Hz worked for a retrospect on Netflix but after that, if a Netflix window (chrome with the player or Win10 App) was opened, it resulted in the whole screen being unusable. It's almost like one of those gray-screens on an old TV back in the day, as you can see here: https://i.imgur.com/HfrDLTE.jpg

As soon as the app or browser-window is closed, it works fine again.

I haven't rebooted yet, but I assume it would fix it (at least temporarily), since it worked once before. It also might be related to the Nvidia driver. I haven't tested a different one yet. I'm on 436.15 currently.

The Netflix issue does not exist with Hz <= 144Hz though. Can anybody confirm/verify this?

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by hleV » 08 Sep 2019, 03:37

  1. Yes, OOR Buster isn't perfect and doesn't account for all scenarios such as driver installation or occasionally deep system sleep, where it would not apply the fix after system wakes up. There are probably other scenarios too. If you have OORB on autostart, restarting should fix it.
  2. Probably the OC is unstable. I have the same monitor as you (same FW, etc.) and it's only truly stable at 180Hz, as going higher will eventually result in a white unusable screen (which OORB also fails to detect I believe, turning monitor off and on should in theory apply the fix but I don't think it does).
OOR Buster is due an update (gonna have more detection along with UI for settings/monitor presets), but I don't know when I'll have the time to finish it. It's open-source if anyone's eager to hotfix it.
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.c0dy
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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by .c0dy » 08 Sep 2019, 15:29

Hm, I guess I'll try an older driver next.

I've just tried 180Hz and I had the same issue. Also happened with Firefox instead of Chrome.

However, even if the netflix-window is on the second display, the primary one still becomes that gray static mess.

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 09 Sep 2019, 15:16

This is an HDCP issue. (High Definition Copy Protection)

Netflix use HDCP to protect their content from being recorded by a screen recorder or re-streaming from your system (e.g. NVIDIA ShadowPlay), etc.

It is possible that HDCP fails during an overclock, or maybe that HDCP is incompatible with 6bpc.
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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by Tyllo » 10 Sep 2019, 02:16

Thanks for this! Was able to get my dated XL2430T up to 180Hz with hleV's tool. 190Hz also tests fine, but 200Hz won't pass. Looking at softMCCS it seems to do a full rescan whenever I set it to 200Hz and by the time its done the test run is already reverted. I have no idea where I've placed my S-Switch unfortunately as I haven't used it at all. Might try activating blur reduction and see where that gets me.

Do I need to pay any special attention to the Total pixels-values? It defaults to 2056/1098.

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 10 Sep 2019, 10:42

Tyllo wrote:Thanks for this! Was able to get my dated XL2430T up to 180Hz with hleV's tool. 190Hz also tests fine, but 200Hz won't pass. Looking at softMCCS it seems to do a full rescan whenever I set it to 200Hz and by the time its done the test run is already reverted. I have no idea where I've placed my S-Switch unfortunately as I haven't used it at all. Might try activating blur reduction and see where that gets me.

Do I need to pay any special attention to the Total pixels-values? It defaults to 2056/1098.
The smaller totals, the higher you can overclock.

The larger the totals, the better the blur reduction is.

Motion blur reduction will typically look best at lower Hz. Using 100Hz+large VT or 120Hz+large VT will look superior.

Alternatively, you could also potentially attempt overclocked vertical totals at a lower refresh rate (e.g. 220Hz dotclock in a 120Hz or 144Hz large VT, combined with the overclocking FAQ), but I don't think anyone here has tried overclocked vertical totals yet to see if strobe crosstalk can reduce even further than possible. 200Hz+ would actually make large vertical totals possible with 144Hz via overclocking, which would allow much better 144Hz motion blur reduction.
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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by Tyllo » 10 Sep 2019, 16:54

Chief Blur Buster wrote:
Tyllo wrote:Thanks for this! Was able to get my dated XL2430T up to 180Hz with hleV's tool. 190Hz also tests fine, but 200Hz won't pass. Looking at softMCCS it seems to do a full rescan whenever I set it to 200Hz and by the time its done the test run is already reverted. I have no idea where I've placed my S-Switch unfortunately as I haven't used it at all. Might try activating blur reduction and see where that gets me.

Do I need to pay any special attention to the Total pixels-values? It defaults to 2056/1098.
The smaller totals, the higher you can overclock.

The larger the totals, the better the blur reduction is.

Motion blur reduction will typically look best at lower Hz. Using 100Hz+large VT or 120Hz+large VT will look superior.

Alternatively, you could also potentially attempt overclocked vertical totals at a lower refresh rate (e.g. 220Hz dotclock in a 120Hz or 144Hz large VT, combined with the overclocking FAQ), but I don't think anyone here has tried overclocked vertical totals yet to see if strobe crosstalk can reduce even further than possible. 200Hz+ would actually make large vertical totals possible with 144Hz via overclocking, which would allow much better 144Hz motion blur reduction.
I see, thanks! I was able to get 220Hz running but with a lot of artifacting (scan lines and some displacement), to much for actual use. 200Hz seems stable and fine now though (couldn't get 215 running).

I had a go at tweaking VT but couldn't get anything above 1500 running at 100/120Hz, and 144Hz is more or less stuck at default values. Someone more knowledgeable might have more success than me.

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by hockey30 » 24 Sep 2019, 18:50

XL2536 successfully overclocked to 205 hz. Only needed to use the NVCP to do this, anything over was not working. Since I only needed to use NVCP to do this, did I do it properly? I mainly play fortnite and clocked it to 205 because I am assuming I would then lock in game fps to 200 rather than 240 or uncapped. Just a few things.

How do I know if it is actually working?
Under the panel menu current resolution it does say 1920x1080 205 hz
NVCP allows me to apply the custom 205 hz display
In game Nvidia FPS counter it saying 200 fps (locked at 200)

Are these indicators it is working?

1. To test Motion Blur and Frame Skip can I just take a picture with the camera on my phone?
2. After custom resolution is enabled, can I turn on the DyAc setting to Premium to help with motion blur? or do I need to take it off?
3. What should the settings be (blue light, brightness, contrast etc.) be set to in the monitor panel?
4. Since BenQ isn't Gsync/FreeSync, should I use any sort of Vsync setting under the NVCP?

My in game FPS (in creative) if set to uncapped goes into the 600's....

Lastly, Should I limit my in game fps to 200 if this now OCed to 205 hz? or should I set it to 240 or uncapped? I do not want much blur but I REALLY do not want any sort of input lag

My PC specs are:

i7 9700k
Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
16 GB Ram

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by hockey30 » 25 Sep 2019, 08:33

Never mind on my previous post. Frame skips are present at 205 hz and I can't figure out how to fix it, whether I would need to adjust the pixels but I do not know what the pixel presets should be.

I don't understand how the older BenQ models can be OCed to 200+ hz but my (relatively) newer model XL2536 won't pass the frame skip test

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Re: BenQ UNIVERSAL 144Hz->220Hz OVERCLOCK for 1080p 144 Hz

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 25 Sep 2019, 14:51

For successful overclocks, you need a realtime-scanning LCD -- one that syncs horizontal scan rate, the panel scanrate to signal scanrate. Not all panels refresh in perfect sync to signal scanrate.

These are often called "Lagless Mode" or "Instant Mode" (the setting in BenQ monitors) which does the nearly-bufferless subrefresh latency like a CRT, where the only meaningful monitor latency effectively is video cable micropacketization (e.g. DIsplayPort packets) and GtG pixel response. Only a tiny rolling line buffer window is used in these modes, mainly for the purpose of display cable micropacket dejittering and for extremely minor processing overheads (e.g. scaling, overdrive, etc) that only relies on lookbehind buffers, without the need for the monitor to fully framebuffer a refresh cycle before refreshing the LCD panel as seen in high speed videos at www.blurbusters.com/scanout ....

Frameskipping can occur if you are pushing the edge, try 200 Hz or 190 Hz, keep decreasing until it passes frameskipping tests at www.testufo.com/frameskipping .... Make sure you're doing that test correctly (test at non-overclocked Hz, and don't test multimonitor) before you test overclock. So make sure you have a successful frameskip-free 144Hz before you test frameskipping at overclocks.

There are many reasons why things don't overclock:
- More buffers add overclock bottlenecks (non-realtime scan)
- More electronics add overclock bottlenecks (bottleneck in additional chips)
- More menu UIs add overclock bottlenecks (bottleneck in OSD graphics overlaying chips)
- More processing/smart logic add overclock bottlenecks (bigger processors in monitors)
- Advanced processing (HDR / FALD / etc) add overclock bottlenecks (more chips that are weak links)
- Fixed Hz add overclock bottlenecks (monitors that can run at any Hz in 1Hz increments from 60Hz-144Hz are easier to overclock)
- Scan conversion add overclock bottlenecks (panels that convert signal scanrate to a fixed panel
- Arbitrary undefeatable range checks ("OUT OF RANGE' without a dismiss-hack like this thread) add overclock bottlenecks

TL;DR; Overclocks are only as strong as the weak link

Which means more advanced monitors are often less overclockable....ironically.

Which is why "dumber" panels are sometimes easier to overclock than newer/smarter/fully featured panels. Like that old 60Hz laptop display that overclocked to 180Hz. Or the very thin-electronics-layered Zisworks 4K120Hz chinese panel that successfully overclocks to 480Hz at http://www.blurbusters.com/480hz

The fewer weak links, the better. And you definitely need it to be in instant mode (whether by default, or as a menu setting), because that means the panel is synchronized to the signal, and you're overclocking at the signal level.

If you successfully overclocked to 205 Hz but there is frameskipping,
(1) Make sure you test 144 Hz and fix your frameskipping verification process (e.g. no multimonitor malfunction)
(2) Then try again. If fail, keep decreasing by 5Hz or 10Hz until frameskipping disappears.

Even on my XL2720Z, my 220Hz sometimes go into a frameskipping loop about 25% of the time. I just repeat (reset the S-Switch, or switch back-fourth 144Hz <-> 220Hz) and the frameskipping disappears. It's more reliable if I only overclock to 200Hz or 210Hz. The weak link could be the existing VBI processing loop that runs between refresh cycles, and you might be hitting the threshold limits, causing frameskipping when monitor-processing margins become too tight.

Each monitor is different due to different manufacturing tolerances, much like some CPUs can only overclock by 25% and other CPUs can overclock more to 50%. We get odd overclocking problems that are often unique, or model-dependant, or cable-dependant, or timings-formula dependant (CVT, CVT-Reduced, Manual, etc). Many monitors have overclock caps (e.g. 165 Hz overclock caps) but I love it when overclocking is uncapped -- like the discovery of the BenQ overclocks.

The fastest I've seen a 144Hz 1080p BenQ overclock to is approximately 240Hz-250Hz with an older BenQ XL2720Z with one of those lower version numbers (probably due to less intra-blanking processing overheads). Combined with custom hand-edited Manual Porches (if you 100% understand exactly what a Vertical Back Porch does, and what the purpose of a Horizontal Front Porch is, etc). Colors are rather severely degraded at that point though.

For better colors and for easier overclocking by monitor overclocking novices is, roughly 190-220Hz range. Keep backing down by 5Hz or 10Hz until colors starts to pop again & frameskipping properly settles Temper your expectations accordingly, you are going to have problems otherwise.
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