Blur Busters Forums

Hello All,

I play competitive Natural Selection 2, which is a very fast paced FPS game where tracking very fast moving enemies is absolutely critical to being good at the game, and I was wondering what would be a good FPS focused monitor for it? I can hit upwards of 170 FPS in the game @ 1080P (and tearing is not a concern of mine). I plan to upgrade from my ancient Benq E2400HD LCD and items that are important to me are:

• -Very Low Lag
  -144hz or Higher
  -24" size preferably 27" is an option though
  -Some form of AMD compatible blur reduction

I was originally looking at the XL2720z, but there are literally no reviews currently out there that I can find (so no info on input lag, etc.), and as per Chief, there is a firmware issue with all monitors that are out in the wild. Also I sit around 18-24" or so from my monitor and I am worried that due to the low viewing angles of TN panels that the 27" size would make the edges of the screen noticeably discolored from the center. Any thoughts on gaming on a 27" TN? Anyone have issues with them?

Benq has also announced the XL2420z which would be ideal (assuming that it does not have the firmware issue....) however, they do not appear to be available and I am unsure when they will be out in the wild.

Other companies appear to be releasing GSync monitors which would have ULMB, but I am unsure if it will work with AMD cards. If it does work, is it limited to 120 Hz like lightboost? Or is it like the Benq setup that will work at almost any refresh rate?

Thanks for your help

i guess u already know that current aviable best monitors for competitve gaming are asus vg248qe or benq xl2411t.
i guess ulmb will not work with amd cards just like gsync.

I've also played Natural Selection 2 for a long time now. I have the ASUS VG248QE and I wholeheartedly recommend it for NS2. It meets all of your requirements. It's great since you can use LightBoost with a simple tweak and LightBoost will work with both Nvidia and AMD video cards.

As you know, frame rate drops occur in NS2 mostly during mid to late-game. LightBoost works great in NS2 by taking advantage of high (100+) frame rates in early to mid-game. I currently have LightBoost set to 100 Hz @ 10% strobe length instead of 120 Hz in order to minimize the impact of frame rate drops in mid to late-game. NS2 is not a perfect candidate for LightBoost due to frame rate drops below refresh rate, but it's perfect when frame rates match or (even better) exceed the refresh rate.

ULMB supports an 85 Hz refresh rate as well as the 100 to 120 Hz rates that are originally supported by LightBoost. At 85 Hz, it gives you more leeway toward holding the minimum FPS needed for ULMB in NS2. This would be a less smooth experience compared to 100 or 120 Hz refresh rates, however. ULMB also lacks a strobe length setting, but it's said to have better colors than LightBoost. I'm pretty sure that a GeForce graphics card is required for ULMB since G-Sync requires one as well.

I would also recommend the Asus VG248QE and using lightboost.

You probably could use a GSYNC modded monitor with ULMB with AMD cards since it is something built into the monitor and not controlled by the video card. Probably not worth the extra cost though.

Scout255 wrote:-Very Low Lag

I am pleased to confirm that all modern TN ASUS or BENQ 120Hz/144Hz monitors, are all capable of zero buffered realtime scanout (under high speed camera, scanout lags only 2ms behind a CRT sitting alongside, mostly due to pixel transition time). All of them are among the lowest-latency LCD computer monitors that money can buy today.

Scout255 wrote:-144hz or Higher

FPS gamer's first choice, for sure.

Scout255 wrote:-24" size preferably 27" is an option though

That's the only two sizes that the good strobe-capable/144Hz-capable monitors are currently available in (at least until the ASUS ROG 1440P strobe-capable GSYNC monitor comes out)

Scout255 wrote:-Some form of AMD compatible blur reduction

That will limit you to:
- EIZOs' Turbo240 which is higher quality, but has more input lag than TN panels (by a few milliseconds)
- BENQ Blur Reduction as mentioned.

ULMB (in GSYNC monitors) might work on AMD products but this is currently as of yet untested. There might be a driver unlock mechanism going on like there was with LightBoost, so some guinea pig will need to test a GSYNC monitor with an AMD product, and see if the ULMB button still works. If it does, then that expands your choices as ULMB does cleaner ghost-free blur reduction than BENQ Blur Reduction, although BENQ is more refresh-rate flexible.

Scout255 wrote:I was originally looking at the XL2720z, but there are literally no reviews currently out there that I can find (so no info on input lag, etc.), and as per Chief, there is a firmware issue with all monitors that are out in the wild.

I am going to keep everyone updated on how BENQ is handling this. It may take time though, as it takes weeks from beta firmware to filter into release monitors, that get shipped.

Scout255 wrote:Also I sit around 18-24" or so from my monitor and I am worried that due to the low viewing angles of TN panels that the 27" size would make the edges of the screen noticeably discolored from the center.

Switching form non-strobed to strobed will cause a bigger color degradation than the TN viewing angle issue, and if FPS is numero uno, then the viewing angle issue won't be a big problem. On the other hand, IPS certainly is nicer overall for reading text and web browsing (except motion blur during scrolling), etc.

Scout255 wrote:Other companies appear to be releasing GSync monitors which would have ULMB, but I am unsure if it will work with AMD cards. If it does work, is it limited to 120 Hz like lightboost?

ULMB works at 85Hz, 100Hz and 120Hz. I'd wait, however, for a confirmation that it works on AMD.
If so, then having GSYNC anyway may be a good thing if you stand a chance of "switching to green" eventually.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Chief, which do you believe is better at freezing the action? 144Hz Benq Montion Blur or 120 Hz Nvidia ULMB? If ULMB one has the advantage and someone proves it works on AMD maybe that is the direction I will go.

Are both of these steps up from the current hash of monitors with only lightboost (ala VG248QE / xl2411t )? Where are the biggest improvements?

Scout255 wrote:Thanks for the responses so far.

Chief, which do you believe is better at freezing the action? 144Hz Benq Montion Blur or 120 Hz Nvidia ULMB? If ULMB one has the advantage and someone proves it works on AMD maybe that is the direction I will go.

Are both of these steps up from the current hash of monitors with only lightboost (ala VG248QE / xl2411t )? Where are the biggest improvements?

Pros and cons exists on both.
I will at some point, have a grand strobe backlight comparision article sometime, which will compare all the several.

I can say, however ULMB has less ghosting (strobe crosstalk). On the other hand, BENQ did listen to a few suggestions (e.g. adjustable persistence). Also, remember, the more you get closer from 75Hz->144Hz, the more ghosting occurs, since strobing works better at lower refresh rates with larger blanking intervals. So 144Hz strobing is not necessarily a panacea.

Hi,

A first time poster here. I'm very interested in these new monitors as well.

Can you tell us something about the brightness comparison of Lightboost, BenQ Motion Blur Reduction, and ULMB? I'm not all that concerned about accurate color. I basically want the best visibility of moving objects and low input delay. I recently started using Lightboost with a BenQ XL2420T. I think the lack of brightness bothers me most.

Thanks.

cx-ray wrote:A first time poster here. I'm very interested in these new monitors as well.

Can you tell us something about the brightness comparison of Lightboost, BenQ Motion Blur Reduction, and ULMB? I'm not all that concerned about accurate color. I basically want the best visibility of moving objects and low input delay. I recently started using Lightboost with a BenQ XL2420T. I think the lack of brightness bothers me most.

FIrst of all, welcome to BlurBusters!

Extra light output in LEDs of strobe backlights is desirable to compensate for the dark periods between flashes of a motion blur eliminating backlight. I find the VG248QE and XL2411T to be the brightest two models but still dim for some. I think the XL2420TE is also similar.

It is possible to mod them for a brighter LightBoost:
http://www.blurbusters.com/faq/creating ... lightboost

If you do not mind a bit extra lag, the EIZO FG2421 is even brighter with its equivalent, Turbo 240, and has about ten times the contrast ratio.

Thanks for the modification link. It is certainly tempting. I would not mind performing the mod. However, without an expanded step by step tutorial it is a bit too risky for me.

I was considering the Eizo as well. Just by reading reviews it is really difficult to gauge how the input delay would affect me though. I am going to have to test the monitor for myself.