Re: Viewsonic XG270 with 'PureXP" MBR [pre-tuned by Blur Busters!]
Posted: 14 Jan 2020, 20:30
Hi, I'm looking to upgrade from a ViewSonic VX2739 which I've had for about 7 or so years. I'm currently eyeing the XG270 because the features sound nice and I'm not really interested in going higher than 1080p. In the past I believe I've only ever had TN panels so this is likely going to be my first IPS.
I'd been curious about high refresh rate and G-Sync for a while now so I impulse bought one of the featured monitors on Amazon, the ASUS VG278QR. I ended up not liking the monitor and I ultimately returned it for two reasons:
1. Viewing angles and color accuracy worse than my old monitor. Whites and grays discolored in ways I didn't even know were possible on a TN panel!
2. Dark room viewing experience was severely marred by a big cloud in the center of the display. I would later find out that the monitor came with a giant dent in the screen! Not good. Thankfully I got a full refund.
It's not all a loss though. I found that I quite like 120hz for desktop use - it's smoother and reduces jitter in 60hz content, and G-Sync works really well to smooth out framerate transitions. I also played around with BFI at 120hz and I really liked the blur reduction although it really ate away at the colors.
So now I'm trying again and hoping that I will have better luck with the XG270. It certainly looks good on paper! Ideally the IPS panel should have better colors and a non-smashed screen. I do have a few questions though:
1. I've read about IPS glow and I'm a bit concerned about how it might affect dark room viewing. I know I shouldn't be using over-exposed photos to judge how it will look in person but this still bites at me. I did see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlOliiiwi8 which has given me a few ideas on how to reduce the effect at least. I use my current monitor on the lowest backlight brightness setting (Eco Mode set to "Conserve"). My room isn't totally dark but still pretty dim. Now, the XG270 does come with RGB lighting. I thought this was silly at first but then I realized that it might actually help here. So for those who already own this monitor, does the back RGB lighting help mask the IPS glow at all?
2. Upgradeable firmware is very cool but only useful if I can upgrade it with my current setup. Is the USB firmware upgrade OS-independent? I run Linux on my main computer so I can't use Windows utilities for this purpose. However, I could boot my laptop to Windows to do this, so it's not a dealbreaker (I already do this to customize my mouse).
I can't really get this monitor yet as nVidia's G-Sync monitor database lists compatibility as needing driver "441.41 or newer" whereas the latest Linux driver is 440.44 (at this time of writing). I'm also waiting for the RTINGS review to come out as well. Hopefully we'll see in a month or so!
I'd been curious about high refresh rate and G-Sync for a while now so I impulse bought one of the featured monitors on Amazon, the ASUS VG278QR. I ended up not liking the monitor and I ultimately returned it for two reasons:
1. Viewing angles and color accuracy worse than my old monitor. Whites and grays discolored in ways I didn't even know were possible on a TN panel!
2. Dark room viewing experience was severely marred by a big cloud in the center of the display. I would later find out that the monitor came with a giant dent in the screen! Not good. Thankfully I got a full refund.
It's not all a loss though. I found that I quite like 120hz for desktop use - it's smoother and reduces jitter in 60hz content, and G-Sync works really well to smooth out framerate transitions. I also played around with BFI at 120hz and I really liked the blur reduction although it really ate away at the colors.
So now I'm trying again and hoping that I will have better luck with the XG270. It certainly looks good on paper! Ideally the IPS panel should have better colors and a non-smashed screen. I do have a few questions though:
1. I've read about IPS glow and I'm a bit concerned about how it might affect dark room viewing. I know I shouldn't be using over-exposed photos to judge how it will look in person but this still bites at me. I did see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlOliiiwi8 which has given me a few ideas on how to reduce the effect at least. I use my current monitor on the lowest backlight brightness setting (Eco Mode set to "Conserve"). My room isn't totally dark but still pretty dim. Now, the XG270 does come with RGB lighting. I thought this was silly at first but then I realized that it might actually help here. So for those who already own this monitor, does the back RGB lighting help mask the IPS glow at all?
2. Upgradeable firmware is very cool but only useful if I can upgrade it with my current setup. Is the USB firmware upgrade OS-independent? I run Linux on my main computer so I can't use Windows utilities for this purpose. However, I could boot my laptop to Windows to do this, so it's not a dealbreaker (I already do this to customize my mouse).
I can't really get this monitor yet as nVidia's G-Sync monitor database lists compatibility as needing driver "441.41 or newer" whereas the latest Linux driver is 440.44 (at this time of writing). I'm also waiting for the RTINGS review to come out as well. Hopefully we'll see in a month or so!
