Asus XG279Q with ELMB-Sync

[Dmoney405]

I bought this monitor a few days ago. I was looking to upgrade my VG236he and basically decided on the gl850. Turns out the monitor actually went out of stock while thoroughly researching my options. So I hit the books again and found this one. The Asus XG279Q. It is supposed to be the all new asus 1ms IPS that rivals even the fastest screens out there. Not only is it marketed as lightning fast but also is going to combine black light strobing and freesync! The tough part is there are no reviews for it though since it's so new and groundbreaking. Well even though it was a cool $100 more, I decided to pull the trigger and unlock my true gaming potential!

Then it arrived. Within the next few hours my feelings went from Christmas morning excitement to Monday-morning drudgery. I spent hours trying to unlock the potential of this thing. I tried every trick in the book on this website. The ELMB-SYNC can not be adjusted and the factory settings are HORRIBLE. The top 3rd of the screen is basically the poster child for the "Bad" example with 3 over lapping images, the middle is somewhere between "Bad" and "Average" with about 2 overlapping images and the bottom third a bit closer to "Average" but still is worse than the "Average" example from this site. Then the very bottom row starts turning back into 3 images.

I will go over things I've tried to reduce it; (There are zero menu options for calibrating it other than OFF / ON)

1. I tested multiple max refresh rates while capping framerate much lower than those rates since the UFO test isn't good for VRR strobe testing. (144-170 max, 100-144 capped)

2. Tried increasing vertical size on nearly all common refresh rates at and above 100. (100, 120, 125, 144, 155(oc), 160(oc), 165(oc)) Could not change 170(oc). This was with trying to use nvidia's by only changing the vertical pixels and ALSO with CRU 1.4.1 by finding the max clock speed of the highest refresh rate(655.33Mhz @ 170hz) then locking the refresh rate of the lower settings and increasing vertical size of them until I got close to the 655.33 number. No change.

3. Tried swapping the vertical back porch and front porch numbers. The numbers were red when I tried to swap them. The utility refused to let me continue. So obviously no change.

4. Turned off VRR and tried to just use ELMB. You can only choose a few locked non VRR rates for this. I tried all of them. 120, 144, 155, 160, 165. (170 is not an option without VRR) While these DO have different appearances from each other, they are no different than their VRR enabled counterparts. So no change.

5. Tried changing to 1080p and messed around a bit. No change.

6. Tried all different color profiles from the factory (racing, fps, moba, srgb, user ......etc) No change.

7. Messing around with contrast and colors also had no discernible changes.

So if there is something else I can try please let me know, but if nothing changes my thoughts are below.

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Final thoughts;

Low IPS glow, great brightness, pre calibrated colors look great, seems as fast as my old 120hz TN with a tiny bit better motion clarity (without using ELMB), but I honestly feel ripped off. I could have just got any of the 10 different nano IPS LG gl850 clones (which seem to have a bit better response than this one) and saved some money. What is the point in paying 100$ extra for a feature we can't even use? There is no way in hell someone at ASUS thought this was an acceptable gaming experience. Some desk jockey wanted a bonus and shoved this tech out the door far before it was ready. I mean this is about $650 after tax. I could have bought a mediocre 6,000 contrast 4k 300 zone HDR TV for the same price that would blow this thing out of the water for movies and immersive gaming and then could happily just play FPS games on my 10 year old 120hz that only cost me $250 at the time. I'm sending this back and I recommend you stay far away from this monitor and just buy a nano IPS 1ms.

[Otzl]

The ELMB isn't really any better on the TUF VG279QM, either - and that's a 280Hz ELMB monitor. There should be plenty of headroom for good strobing, but the implementation is rubbish. I'm probably going to return it and just hope that a Viewsonic XG270 is in stock somewhere for a reasonable price.

[AddictFPS]

I tried every trick in the book on this website. The ELMB-SYNC can not be adjusted and the factory settings are HORRIBLE. The top 3rd of the screen is basically the poster child for the "Bad" example with 3 over lapping images, the middle is somewhere between "Bad" and "Average" with about 2 overlapping images and the bottom third a bit closer to "Average" but still is worse than the "Average" example from this site. Then the very bottom row starts turning back into 3 images.

I believe what you say, the same big issue and limitation that older Asus TUF 2019 monitors, with ELMB-Sync On they apply double-strobe all the time, no matter what frequency is active ! Rtings.com and TFTCentral both confirm this atrocious strobe algoritm behavior Obviously constant double-strobe destroy the motion blur reduction experience with overlapped images. Is very ridiculous see this in a modern gaming monitor, thats good for Aprils Fools Day.

They use this algoritm to compensate brighness with all frequencies They should have worked to compensate this brightness changes using automatic dinamic backlight brightness, in the same way dinamic Overdrive work in GSync module monitors, setting the correct voltaje value at each frequency. Is very fustrant... seeing the marketing all is perfect and all work fine

Turned off VRR and tried to just use ELMB. You can only choose a few locked non VRR rates for this. I tried all of them. 120, 144, 155, 160, 165. (170 is not an option without VRR)

Wow, they also delete 100Hz frequency, that is the best option for [ low crosstalk / flicker-free ], i can't understand... ASUS what the hell are doing ?

I honestly feel ripped off.

Yes, sound like there are very few neurons around the ELMB-Sync development, ASUS is self hurting his reputation, of course winning some bucks with this ELMB-Sync dishonest marketing but in future, of course people be aware of buy ASUS, without know first the quality, and never trust any ASUS marketing information.

What is the point in paying 100$ extra for a feature we can't even use? There is no way in hell someone at ASUS thought this was an acceptable gaming experience.

[Rhosta]

First of all thank you for detailed testing of ELMB-Sync on XG279Q, finaly useful info. It is a shame they wen’t for this sloppy implementation even for their top line product.

Regarding VG279QM, Tftcentral mentioned problems with overshoot below 200Hz for ELMB-Sync, but they didn’t mention any other problems with it (excessive strobe crosstalk in this case), so I am still hoping that VG259QM will have useble ELMB-Sync at least in some part of refresh rate range.

[AddictFPS]

Regarding VG279QM, Tftcentral mentioned problems with overshoot below 200Hz for ELMB-Sync, but they didn’t mention any other problems with it (excessive strobe crosstalk in this case)

Caution

Rtings and TFTCentral reviews of ASUS TUF 2019 series only show a screenshot of double strobe detected with tools, and is the reader that need to take conclusions, but novice readers that do not know these technical data can't understand exactly how is that going to affect image quality

These reviews do not say any word to alert novice readers about the constant double image caused by this double strobe, and none word also about the third overlapped image due to crosstalk, but here Dmoney405 say it without any filter, because is a 100% honest review.

TFTCentral about VG27AQ ELMB Adaptive-Sync Off/On comparasion: Visually there was little difference between the two modes

"Little difference" This is what they say about the double image atrocious issue that ruin image quality. Majority of buyers see this and if there are a minimal exigent with the monitor quality, inmediately return the monitor to the store. 500$ for constant fullscreen double image, what joke is this ? ...

so I am still hoping that VG279QM will have useble ELMB-Sync at least in some part of refresh rate range.

BlurBusters Approved Viewsonic XG270 is 240Hz and extremely well tunned, without doubt is the best monitor for play with MBR, and the recommended settings for PureXP+ (Motion Blur Reduction) is 100Hz for lowest crosstalk without flicker. Even with 100Hz with the best MBR tweaked monitor, there are crosstalk Up and Down, but center screen very clear, nearly crosstalk free.

Don't expect to get this XG270 amazing result with any ASUS ELMB-Sync if apply all the time double strobe.

TFTCentral VG279QM is locked for registered users, you can please say us if also they detected constant double strobe like in ASUS VG27AQ ?

https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/as ... #elmb-sync

See single strobe in Adaptive-Sync Off capture, and double strobe (double spikes) in Adaptive-Sync On captures. Is the same behavior in VG279QM ? Thanks !

[GammaLyrae]

In their review, they noted that the backlight stays in sync with the refresh rate and the brightness of the backlight is dynamically adjusted to maintain visually similar brightness in the vrr window. Their biggest elmb sync complaint is the overdrive is fixed at a value that looks great at 200hz+, but begins to introduce overshoot when it syncs to a lower refresh rate. You cannot adjust the overdrive when elmb sync is enabled. You can control it when it's elmb only, but the lowest refresh rate that strobes while it's fixed is 120hz

So it would appear that it's about two steps forward, one step back. I personally find the high end emphasis weird, I would much rather have a monitor with superb strobing quality at 60-120hz since that covers console games (or pc ports of console games that run better or only at 60fps) and a reasonable upper end to strive for if you can meet refresh:fps:strobe in more demanding titles.

[writer21]

Thanks so much for this review. Especially while using ELMB-SYNC. I myself was waiting for the vg259qm. I have the older VG27AQ model. While you do see double image the sharpness and ability to spot easier in FPS is better than no strobing. As long as frames stay over 100 fps. So my question is have you tried it at lower HZ like say 144 hz with 138 fps cap? I'm wondering if it would be better to run the VG259QM at 144 fps and 138 fps cap since frames would stay closer to the refresh rate.

Hitting 200+ fps is not possible with latest titles even at 1080p.

[writer21]

Nevermind I see

[Dmoney405]

Thanks so much for this review. Especially while using ELMB-SYNC. I myself was waiting for the vg259qm. I have the older VG27AQ model. While you do see double image the sharpness and ability to spot easier in FPS is better than no strobing. As long as frames stay over 100 fps. So my question is have you tried it at lower HZ like say 144 hz with 138 fps cap? I'm wondering if it would be better to run the VG259QM at 144 fps and 138 fps cap since frames would stay closer to the refresh rate.

Hitting 200+ fps is not possible with latest titles even at 1080p.

Sorry I work a lot and didn't have time to check this. Yes I have tried that, when trying all of the VRR independent static refresh rates (120, 144, 155, 165) I tried them normal and 3 fps below the framerate using RTSS (the new guide recommended 3 fps under instead of 2). No change.

As it stands the only range where ELMB-Sync is even close to being an acceptable gaming experience is 165-170. Even then, I do not consider it acceptable at all.

[writer21]

Guess I'll stick with the VG27AQ for the time being but I might still try the VG259QM. Hopefully they figure this out soon.