Blur Busters Forums

I am not sure how to describe my problems with the display... I never had an issue until this week and I have had the monitor for 2 months. I feel muscle stress in between my eyes just above my nose, earlier this week I got a headache also in the forehead area. I have tried several settings including NCX's 60Hz profile, which I prefer as I felt it closely mimicked my G73JH display, that I had been using prior since 2010.

I any other suggestions to solve my problem are greatly appreciated, and welcomed, as I already have tried returning the product and ... yea thats a no-go.

Other displays that I have used with no issues include a 27" Samsung LED TV for gaming, Acer H236HL, G73JH laptop, and Samsung Galaxy S5. I always had an issue with CRT's back in the day, after long periods of usage, maybe this is also related?

you're not the first
its maybe pwm sensitivity or the display is just too bright for you.

for me, i also had some discomfort when i first used the vg248qe, but it was fine after i had i turned down the backlight all the way and the contrast down a bit.

I will try an even lower brightness setting, from 24 to 10, for a little bit to see how that turns out.

What other options do I really have? Lol

I have considered buying a BenQ as a replacement due to more features, is this a good option?

Vektyr wrote:I am not sure how to describe my problems with the display... I never had an issue until this week and I have had the monitor for 2 months. I feel muscle stress in between my eyes just above my nose, earlier this week I got a headache also in the forehead area. I have tried several settings including NCX's 60Hz profile, which I prefer as I felt it closely mimicked my G73JH display, that I had been using prior since 2010.

PWM is a good culprit to blame. However, unfortunately, PWM can be aed herring. I've found it DOES cause eyestrain but only for 50% of people -- eyestrain causes have often been traced to other aspects of the monitors.

Try these experiments:
1. If your monitor is very dim, brighen it. It will eliminate PWM flicker.
2. If your monitor is very bright, dim it. It will eliminate brightness eyestrain, but add PWM (bad)
3. If you are using LightBoost, disable it. See what happens to your eyestrain.
4. If you are not using LightBoost, enable it. If your eyestrain occurs only during games, the enabling of LightBoost may actually reduce eyetstrain because the motionblur eyestrain can outweigh PWM/flicker/strobe for many people. (motion blur = strains your focussing muscles and may cause more nausea than low framerates)

Eyestrain and related symptoms (headaches, etc) have often been traced to PWM, to low brightness, to extreme brightness, to flicker/strobing, to viewing distance, to ambient lighting, etc.

Older VG248QE's (pre-PWM-free) contain some compromises. I suggest upgrading to either a GSYNC monitor (always PWM-free and has ULMB), or to the BENQ Z-Series monitors. By being PWM-free, you can use any brightness without worrying about PWM. For better options than the older ASUS model, look up any PWM-free monitor in the Official List Of 120Hz+ Monitors. Also, if you are looking for GSYNC, all monitors in List of GSYNC monitors are all PWM-free.

Blur Busters is not an eye doctor, however, I can inform you there has been occasional reports of eyestrain with the older ASUS VG248QE model, that has been traced to its PWM nature. Newer ASUS 120Hz+ monitors including PG278Q has far less eyestrain.

It occurs more while reading, than looking at images, on say a website or something.

My display was manufactured in July 2014... so it is much newer.

Starting to think I may have to try and sell these and get a BenQ Z-series...

You could also do some lighting adjustments. If three months ago, the daytime was brighter, and you now have less ambient light, try adjusting lighting such as a lamp behind your monitor. That can allow you to brighten your monitor a little bit without increasing eye strain.

Newer VG248QE's use PWM frequencies of at least 864Hz during 144Hz, so PWM is less of an issue, although not completely gone. There is no guarantee that the Z-Series will solve your eye issues, though BENQ has lately made a big deal about being more eye-friendly.

I appreciate all the help from flood and Chief, I have tried all the above including room adjustments this week.

I am so frustrated right now... as I have two of these monitors, and I have not had an issue since I purchased them two months ago. I started making changes this week to see if I could resolve the issue, but everything I have tried has been a failure. I always give ~24 hours before trying it out and within 5mins or so I start to feel the stress in the middle of my forehead just above my eyes; kind of like you want to go cross-eyed but are not.

I've contacted ASUS, they obviously have nothing they can do, as well as the place I purchased them from...

I may just bite the bullet and try to purchase the BenQ XL2420Z or XL2430T, if its worth the additional money, or I have heard good things about the ASUS PB278Q... Any further suggestions? =P

Vektyr wrote:I will try an even lower brightness setting, from 24 to 10,

if you have another monitor with which you're comfortable, set them to roughly the same brightness. if the vg248qe is still uncomfortable, well you can probably blame pwm, especially since you mentioned that crt's also give you the problem

but i dont really understand how a frequency as high as 864hz could affect you

I Think you mean the PG278Q (Rog swift).

The PG is a panel lottery. Either you get a pristine panel which winds up the best TN you ever looked at, or you get oval shaped backlight bleed (look up VG27HE backlight bleed on google--its the EXACT same thing because asus didn't change the inside mounting of the electronics!), or inversion issues, or the gsync module/panel getting corrupted permanently after a game crash sometimes...green ghosting, etc , you name it.

If you want gsync I'd get the 2420G if you can find it. Otherwise the 2720Z or 2430T. The 2720Z has superior lightboost (the 27" screens have much better LB colors and contrast IF u want to use lightboost mode, which CAN be useful compared to benq blur reduction in some 2d games, etc.

Actually I was referencing the IPS (PLS) ASUS model PB278Q, I have just heard good things... that was all lol

I dunno... I just feel like I am doing something wrong as I have never had an issue before with monitors, except with a headaches on certain CRT's back in the 90's. It has to be a setting that I am missing or not doing properly...