Post
by Markachy » 01 Mar 2021, 15:47
Hi all!
I have been reading many threads on here for the last few weeks, getting to know motion blur better, and solutions to it. I remember getting our first ever LCD monitor, that came with a new family PC back when I was around 15 years old, and wondering at the time why games just didn't look the same on the new system in some hard-to-describe way compared to our older PC with a CRT - this was despite the vastly improved graphics power. I now realise it was the LCD blur that came with the new monitor, but I guess time lulled me into acceptance of blur, and I forgot what I was missing. Up until now! The work done on this website/forum is absolutely amazing, and kudos for it. It is making a difference in terms of fighting all the smeary screens around nowadays!
This has all led to my purchase yesterday of the XG270. I hadn't quite appreciated how much of an impact that the strobing can have until I saw it in person - it is crazy how clear things can look compared to standard modes! I've had a few issues however getting things set up to optimise PureXP, and have a few other queries before I can commit to keeping it that I'd love some insight into.
Firstly, some context: I currently have an Acer XF270HUA, a 1440P Freesync 144Hz IPS monitor, and no slouch, but has always felt quite "blurry" to me, although the Freesync and colours are good. Before I settled on it a number of years ago, I've been able to try a Dell S2719DGF (felt less blurry than my Acer but I struggled with the TN panel colours and viewing angles), a Viewsonic XG2401 (I remember it felt the most smooth, but same TN panel issues), and a Samsung curved VA panel (C27FG73 I think), which I found hideous and borderline unusable in games in terms of blur (black smearing?). I use my monitor for games (mainly single player, story-driven, RPG and FPS) AND for work (lots of reading scientific papers and writing reports, light coding).
I have an AMD RX5700XT, paired with a Ryzen 3600, so a decent setup for achieving 120Hz in a lot of games at the 1920x1080 resolution of the XG270.
I've had issues with multiple games I've tried so far - Civ 6, Doom Eternal, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, none of which wanted to play ball with Vsync properly or consistently. Doom Eternal repeatedly reset my actual display settings within Windows from 119.88Hz to 60Hz, and then ran at 60Hz locked itself, Civ 6 wanted to run with Vsync on at 144Hz (ruining PureXP), and Deus Ex just didn't feel "right" either (hard to tell exactly what was going on as Rivatuner for some reason would not display FPS details on it). I got periods where it "clicked" and things looked great (especially Doom Eternal), but then issues cropped up and it lost that clarity. It has led to a lot of hassle, messing with settings, Radeon Chill, Enhanced Sync, Borderless Windowed modes, etc etc. However, for the periods of time where they were playing ball, it was glorious, and leaves me wanting to sort the issues and keep the PureXP goodness! So to my queries:
1. To avoid using any in-game vsync settings after multiple issues, I have now settled on using Rivatuner Statistics Server to lock framerate to 119.87Hz (0.01Hz less than monitor refresh, as recommended on here), and have disabled Freesync (on monitor and Radeon software), disabled Radeon Chill (which I tried for a while initially to lock frame rate when ingame Vsync failed), and enabled AMD Enhanced Sync in Radeon software. Given I am not a competitive, twitch-shooter online gamer but play mainly single-player, story driven FPSes and RPGs and so value blur reduction over input lag, are these the best settings and steps to use to achieve an easy-to-manage, good, consistent PureXP setup, that will work across games with minimal messing around?
2. I currently use an MX Master 1 mouse, which apparently has a 125Hz polling rate and up to 1600dpi sensor (things I'd never worried about until my reading here!). I have set the pointer sensitivity to max using the Logitech Options software - is this the correct way to do it? And also, will changing mouse to one with a 1000Hz polling rate really make that much difference to the blur/micro-stutter in, for example, Doom Eternal at 119.8Hz, from personal experience, and given that I am sensitive to blur?
2. I am struggling a bit with 1080P on a 27" monitor on my desk, and am eagerly awaiting the news on the 24" XG2431 on here as a result. It feels a lot of money to spend to step down from 1440P, especially for work. But in the same breath, being able to run games at 120Hz at 1440P is not realistic with my hardware, and I do value clarity and smoothness a lot. Do people get used to the 1080P at this size for work? And (I know you might not be able to say much yet Chief, but even a hint!) is there the prospect on the very near horizon of outstanding strobing at, for example, 75Hz? (I can't see how to set this monitor to 75Hz to test it and see how it performs, there is no option within the Windows display settings - how do I try this with the XG270? Is it much worse than the 120Hz "best" setting?)
3. Colours - what colour profile should I be using for this monitor? I think I have one saved from my XF270HUA - is there a way to "reset" the profile to default without losing that setting if I decide to go back to my old monitor? Any tips for colour tuning this one for PureXP use, either in Windows or in monitor menus?
4. An an outsider question - in the opinion of people who have seen these monitors (or similar), would a Nano IPS 27" 1440P monitor show significantly less blur than my XF270HUA, to the point where it would feel close to the 120Hz strobing clarity of this monitor? I have pondered one of the NanoIPS panels for a while due to their sweet spot of 1440P, low blur (apparently) and great IPS colours. Is the gap between them and PureXP still huge?
Thanks for all done here in the name of busting blur, and apologies for the essay! But you now have a convert!