Acer 390Hz monitor - XV252QF

[olofsson_tom]

Just going to throw some of my experiences with this monitor into this thread!

TLDR Lifechanging performance, big recommend.


Bought this monitor yesterday, and I had pretty low expectations in terms of "ingame performance", which were instantly shattered. For me, the step up from 240Hz to 390Hz felt larger than the step from 144Hz to 240Hz. The XV2 feels incredibly responsive, coming from the HP Omen X 25f, that i've used for a good few years. But I've only tested this in "Overwatch" which is an incredibly easy game to run at an average of 400 FPS. Can't say anything for games that run below that as I haven't played anything else on it yet.

However I had higher expectations about going from a TN to IPS panel, and I might just have gotten an exceedingly awful unit in my hands, but the viewing angles(I'm not even sure if this is the cause of what I'm seeing) are extremely poor? Possibly reflection handling also playing into this?

As an example, if i set my wallpaper to "Solid Color - White", when sitting an armslength away from my monitor, the middle of the screen is white, while the edges start shifting to blue after about 20cm off the center of the panel. It's worse in the lower left corner(backlight bleed?) than anywhere else, but overall the bottom of the monitor seems to be "cloudier" than the middle to top parts. I think I've heard claims that this can and will alleviate over time if I just keep the monitor running warm, so I'll give it some time before I decide to simply return it.

Another touted benefit of IPS over TN are "accurate colors" which, again, doesn't seem to be true for my particular panel. Atleast not in windows, in games it looks... fine? but in windows it's a complete mess for me.

Also the OSD seems pretty glitchy. A lot of settings seem to be tied to some brightness presets, so changing a setting can suddenly shift the brightness, this has happened in more than a couple combinations for me. And as much as I'd hate to be the one to start or spread some sort of "input lag hysteria", I am pretty sure I've experienced a quite noticeable shift in percieved responsiveness(NOT responsetimes) just from changing color and brightness settings...

Lastly my unit seemed to take an "overclock" to 398Hz using NVCP. However any changes to the EDID using ToastyX's "Custom Resolution Utility" seem to go completely ignored. And theres no mentions of 360Hz nor 390Hz i the EDID from what I can see? I can remove every single resolution and data block from the EDID with no changes to what windows seems to read.

Did you find it to be less responsive when changing some color/brightness settings or what did you mean? Please elaborate. And which settings did you find to be best? Just out of curiosity

[andrelip]

Just going to throw some of my experiences with this monitor into this thread!

TLDR Lifechanging performance, big recommend.


Bought this monitor yesterday, and I had pretty low expectations in terms of "ingame performance", which were instantly shattered. For me, the step up from 240Hz to 390Hz felt larger than the step from 144Hz to 240Hz. The XV2 feels incredibly responsive, coming from the HP Omen X 25f, that i've used for a good few years. But I've only tested this in "Overwatch" which is an incredibly easy game to run at an average of 400 FPS. Can't say anything for games that run below that as I haven't played anything else on it yet.

However I had higher expectations about going from a TN to IPS panel, and I might just have gotten an exceedingly awful unit in my hands, but the viewing angles(I'm not even sure if this is the cause of what I'm seeing) are extremely poor? Possibly reflection handling also playing into this?

As an example, if i set my wallpaper to "Solid Color - White", when sitting an armslength away from my monitor, the middle of the screen is white, while the edges start shifting to blue after about 20cm off the center of the panel. It's worse in the lower left corner(backlight bleed?) than anywhere else, but overall the bottom of the monitor seems to be "cloudier" than the middle to top parts. I think I've heard claims that this can and will alleviate over time if I just keep the monitor running warm, so I'll give it some time before I decide to simply return it.

Another touted benefit of IPS over TN are "accurate colors" which, again, doesn't seem to be true for my particular panel. Atleast not in windows, in games it looks... fine? but in windows it's a complete mess for me.

Also the OSD seems pretty glitchy. A lot of settings seem to be tied to some brightness presets, so changing a setting can suddenly shift the brightness, this has happened in more than a couple combinations for me. And as much as I'd hate to be the one to start or spread some sort of "input lag hysteria", I am pretty sure I've experienced a quite noticeable shift in percieved responsiveness(NOT responsetimes) just from changing color and brightness settings...

Lastly my unit seemed to take an "overclock" to 398Hz using NVCP. However any changes to the EDID using ToastyX's "Custom Resolution Utility" seem to go completely ignored. And theres no mentions of 360Hz nor 390Hz i the EDID from what I can see? I can remove every single resolution and data block from the EDID with no changes to what windows seems to read.

I had a PG259QN that had a calibration certificate, but the screen was yellowish and I've hated the image quality and returned it.
Then I bought VG279QM and the image was amazing with less DPI (it also uses FAST IPS technology).

I see many people complaining about VG279QM poor image quality too and others talking good things about PG259QNR quality, so for me, it's clear that we have some kind of lottery. Had similar experiences in the past with iPhones and Macbooks, where one unit has a way better screen than the other. In the case of Apple, it was LG vs Samsung display, but I think even for the same vendor you may have different revisions.

[Salemthecaz]

Holy!!! Any links to a tutorial showing how to disable all the unnecessary stuff to maximize latency? And that’s some crazy numbers youre putting up

I don't have any links to anything in specific at the moment. I might make a separate post of all of my tweaks if people are interested since it is kind of off topic for this post (even though this monitor is part of the puzzle). I will just list some of the main things. I cannot promise they will all make a difference. However, in combination I am absolutely sure that they lower overall system latency.

Hardware:
Get the fastest hardware you can. Overclock it well, but not to the point of instability. This is very important for VRAM speed, as clocking that too high can result in the ECC kicking in so that you lose performance and don't even know anything is wrong. We don't like that error correction. Make sure you have fast RAM with XMP set or do your own overclocking. Manage temperatures well so clock speeds or things like the GPU aren't bouncing all around. I use custom liquid cooling and keep my GPU under 40 C. Having a super fast monitor (this one), mouse, keyboard, etc. also helps. I use 1600 DPI and 8K Hz polling rate.

BIOS:
Disable every power saving feature. Lock CPU clock speed and voltage. Disable C-STATES! Maybe update your BIOS if it's old.

Windows:
I am using WIndows 10 Pro. I disable HPET in device manager and leave it enabled in the BIOS. Use BCDEdit to set disabledynamictick to true. Enable the hidden Ultimate Performance power plan. Use EVGA Precision X1 or MSIAfterburner to lock the GPU clock speed to its maximum at all times. I use Game Mode off. Disable all Xbox crap and Game Bar. Enable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling. Make sure enhance pointer precision is off and that Windows sensitivity is set to the middle one. Disable all background apps. Disable almost all startup programs. Disable fast boot. Go into the services and terminate any you don't need (Razer Synapse, for example) and set them to manual mode or disabled. Enable MSI mode for your GPU driver and possibly some other drivers. Change your network adapter settings (I can try to add what mine are later). Disable all devices/drivers you don't need (better yet, do it in the BIOS). If you are playing a game that is not DX12, disable full-screen optimizations. In NVIDIA Control Panel (change all of these settings globally) enable maximum performance mode, disable V-SYNC, disable all other SYNCS (G-SYNC, etc), and put low latency mode to on. Disable scaling and set it to the display. If the display is not an option or feels worse, use the GPU. I used it on GPU with my previous monitor. With this monitor, I use display. It shouldn't really matter unless you are running something at a non-native resolution. Use InSpectre to disable Spectre and Meltdown patches (if you're willing to) for a free 4-5% performance increase if you're on specific Intel CPUs.

I have some other things I will add to this when I edit it later (other BCDEdits, mouse buffer (not sure if this helps), and other things).

I appreciate it!!!! Will definitely try! Im running 5900x + 3080, other pc parts are pretty high end too! This would help a bunch in taking full advantage of the hardware!!

[Salemthecaz]

Just going to throw some of my experiences with this monitor into this thread!

TLDR Lifechanging performance, big recommend.


Bought this monitor yesterday, and I had pretty low expectations in terms of "ingame performance", which were instantly shattered. For me, the step up from 240Hz to 390Hz felt larger than the step from 144Hz to 240Hz. The XV2 feels incredibly responsive, coming from the HP Omen X 25f, that i've used for a good few years. But I've only tested this in "Overwatch" which is an incredibly easy game to run at an average of 400 FPS. Can't say anything for games that run below that as I haven't played anything else on it yet.

However I had higher expectations about going from a TN to IPS panel, and I might just have gotten an exceedingly awful unit in my hands, but the viewing angles(I'm not even sure if this is the cause of what I'm seeing) are extremely poor? Possibly reflection handling also playing into this?

As an example, if i set my wallpaper to "Solid Color - White", when sitting an armslength away from my monitor, the middle of the screen is white, while the edges start shifting to blue after about 20cm off the center of the panel. It's worse in the lower left corner(backlight bleed?) than anywhere else, but overall the bottom of the monitor seems to be "cloudier" than the middle to top parts. I think I've heard claims that this can and will alleviate over time if I just keep the monitor running warm, so I'll give it some time before I decide to simply return it.

Another touted benefit of IPS over TN are "accurate colors" which, again, doesn't seem to be true for my particular panel. Atleast not in windows, in games it looks... fine? but in windows it's a complete mess for me.

Also the OSD seems pretty glitchy. A lot of settings seem to be tied to some brightness presets, so changing a setting can suddenly shift the brightness, this has happened in more than a couple combinations for me. And as much as I'd hate to be the one to start or spread some sort of "input lag hysteria", I am pretty sure I've experienced a quite noticeable shift in percieved responsiveness(NOT responsetimes) just from changing color and brightness settings...

Lastly my unit seemed to take an "overclock" to 398Hz using NVCP. However any changes to the EDID using ToastyX's "Custom Resolution Utility" seem to go completely ignored. And theres no mentions of 360Hz nor 390Hz i the EDID from what I can see? I can remove every single resolution and data block from the EDID with no changes to what windows seems to read.

What’s your unit’s batch? A lot of people seems to have the March batch with very little complaints! I’m curious to see what batch I’ll get since mine’s still on the wAy

[tlp]

I decided to run "Display Driver Uninstaller" and quickly realized that the monitor refuses to negotiate a signal with my GPU unless I have the Nvidia driver installed? Also doesn't display the POST, BIOS or anything before the "Welcome" screen in Windows. I'm assuming this is due to the "Over Clock" being set to enabled in the OSD, but I can't change that unless the monitor has a signal? lol

Also the sRGB mode removes the ability to enable the blur reduction mode.

What’s your unit’s batch? A lot of people seems to have the March batch with very little complaints! I’m curious to see what batch I’ll get since mine’s still on the wAy

"MFG Date: March 2021"

[lyrill]

lol yeah, no I am not interested in doing all that power user stuff. I said this in the viper 8k thread long ago too, I feel like we are past a "guide" age as things have been universally dumbed down, in the past many things needed to be "tinkered" with. Also the quality of guides are off too, it's a mixture of things and reasons and changes.

Again I've also said this many time I don't like or appreciate that, but we are long past trying to change the inevitable. It was fun 12 years ago trying to jailbreak my itouch 2 (to get an early screening of ip4's multitask to be released later on). That was 12 years ago. And even then in a more geeky time, it already was ruining the battery. Meaning they don't want you to customize stuff.

[Salemthecaz]

lol yeah, no I am not interested in doing all that power user stuff. I said this in the viper 8k thread long ago too, I feel like we are past a "guide" age as things have been universally dumbed down, in the past many things needed to be "tinkered" with. Also the quality of guides are off too, it's a mixture of things and reasons and changes.

Again I've also said this many time I don't like or appreciate that, but we are long past trying to change the inevitable. It was fun 12 years ago trying to jailbreak my itouch 2 (to get an early screening of ip4's multitask to be released later on). That was 12 years ago. And even then in a more geeky time, it already was ruining the battery. Meaning they don't want you to customize stuff.

I’m sorry I don’t wanna be rude but what are you even talking about dude? I’ve seen your replies multiple times on this thread and none of them seems to be helpful but full of misinformation and negativity. I really hope you find your peace my dude

[lyrill]

above comment suspiciously alt account, even for a thread filled with newer accounts. I didn't quote for a reason. Please stop going out of thy way to derail the thread with *totally not also negativity* it certainly *helps* much less. For me everyone else who normally appreciate each other being here/simply go past what they don't find helpful as is common sense *online or in life*, peace is indeed found when such *weird reply* cease to disrupt it.

[Notty_PT]

Strange how conflicting the experiences are. I know many more CS players at my level (faceit 9-10) has changed to this and liked it very much. I like it too. Not revolutionary or anything but best I've tried. Some coming from 240Hz some from 144Hz. All think its an upgrade.

At the same time there still are ofcourse guys @ lvl 10 with 120Hz old panels, who arent tech savvy at all wiping floor with us. So. Yeah. There's always that.

Most of the time we deal with heavy placebo effects. I mean, on paper 390hz is suppose to be the best and only option to perform well on competitive games right? Your brain thinks so at least, wich doesn´t mean it is a fact.

I, myself, like to test it. I open Quake or Aim Lab (you can use any other game/app that shows you metrics about your accuracy) and try stuff. In my case the blur I had with 390hz was enough to make me track worse than with a good 240hz panel that has near instant pixel response time with no blur or overshoot. That was with Strobing disabled and enabled (doesn´t matter normal or extreme, same thing). These 360hz panels simply can´t keep up with the refresh rate.

Doesn´t mean that you won´t be getting input lag benefits and the monitor displaying every frame of your game, if you have good hardware.

As for "no one goes back", not right. A lot of players actually went back after trying 360hz/390hz, I could name a lot from Quake but it would be irrelevant for you, so all I can say is that this youtuber you guys seem to like a lot, moved back to 240hz (270hz more precisely) again. Why? Because he thinks the same as I do. Not worth it, doesn´t improve his game, good BOE/Innolux 240hz/270hz panel has better response time and input lag is nearly identical even with less 150hz (!) (wich again shows that these 360hz panels are not fully optimized, they should have way lower input lag than any 240hz because of the scanout speed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d-l9OyPmug

Plus, I don´t see this mentioned enough, worse PPI or Bigger screens with low resolutions, make response time worse. Why? Because there is a bigger distance between the pixels. So we must add that to the fact these 360hz panels can´t keep up with the refresh. It´s a total mess to me. I repeat, to me. I respect and accept any different opinion and someone that is actually doing better with this monitor. It´s very possible, since there were also a lot of awful 240hz models out there, and this Acer 390hz even with all its problems, is way better than A LOT of 240hz monitors I tested (I tested nearly all of them to be precise)

These are the best gaming monitors out there, in my opinion after testing (almost) everything:

AOC 24G2Z 240hz ips 0,5ms 23,8 1080p (24G2ZE without height adjustement, 24G2ZU with height adjustement)

Asus XG27AQM 270hz ips 0,5ms 27 1440p

Ozone DSP24 240hz tn 1ms 23,8 1080p (NOT the 25 inch version, using AUO panel)

Asus XG248Q 240hz tn 1ms 23,8 1080p (worse response time than the models above)

Auss VG279QM 280hz ips 0,5ms 27 1080p (AMAZING panel, but too big to me, makes me play worse with such a big size. Awful PPI too)

I suspect ViewSonic XG2431, using same panel as the AOC 24G2Z, would also make it to this list, but there is no way for me to get it on Europe.

Asus XG249CM 270hz ips 0,5ms 23,8 1080p is an upcoming monitor, that I think will also make it to this list, considering the panel used (BOE). Will try it when it launches (should have launched already)

[lizardpeter]

Plus, I don´t see this mentioned enough, worse PPI or Bigger screens with low resolutions, make response time worse. Why? Because there is a bigger distance between the pixels. So we must add that to the fact these 360hz panels can´t keep up with the refresh. It´s a total mess to me. I repeat, to me. I respect and accept any different opinion and someone that is actually doing better with this monitor. It´s very possible, since there were also a lot of awful 240hz models out there, and this Acer 390hz even with all its problems, is way better than A LOT of 240hz monitors I tested (I tested nearly all of them to be precise)

These are the best gaming monitors out there, in my opinion after testing (almost) everything:

AOC 24G2Z 240hz ips 0,5ms 23,8 1080p (24G2ZE without height adjustement, 24G2ZU with height adjustement)

Asus XG27AQM 270hz ips 0,5ms 27 1440p

Ozone DSP24 240hz tn 1ms 23,8 1080p (NOT the 25 inch version, using AUO panel)

Asus XG248Q 240hz tn 1ms 23,8 1080p (worse response time than the models above)

Auss VG279QM 280hz ips 0,5ms 27 1080p (AMAZING panel, but too big to me, makes me play worse with such a big size. Awful PPI too)

I suspect ViewSonic XG2431, using same panel as the AOC 24G2Z, would also make it to this list, but there is no way for me to get it on Europe.

Asus XG249CM 270hz ips 0,5ms 23,8 1080p is an upcoming monitor, that I think will also make it to this list, considering the panel used (BOE). Will try it when it launches (should have launched already)

Thanks for your opinion. It definitely helps to have the opinions of people who have tried many monitors. When you say that these have almost as good input lag as the 390 Hz monitor, are you doing that based on measurements or feeling? By both measurements and feeling, the 390 Hz feels like the fastest I have used by far. Also, do you have any response time comparisons for each of these monitors compared to the 390 Hz? I was trying to look for some reviews, but not a lot of the monitors you listed have been reviewed by the same reviewer (so the results could be directly compared). For example, the 360 and 390 Hz monitors actually have substantially faster response times than the Zowie TN monitors so many “pros” switched back to.