Blur Busters Forums

My PC currently is i7-8700K @ 5Ghz , GTX 1080 Ti @ 2050Mhz 1V (can push to 2177Mhz 1.162V if I need every last FPS) and Dell S2716DG A04 (got it 1.5 years ago for $500).

Color banding is quiet annoying so I look for new monitor. Here is what I want and what not.

I want IPS or AHVA panel. I know that I can't escape color banding from 1440p 144-165Hz TN. Every 1440p 144-165Hz TN seem to have this problem and the root cause is AUO + Nvidia shitty 8 bit internal LUT on Windows so I am extremely sensitive to color banding.

According to previous statement I think I need monitor that is close to 2.2 gamma out of box or can adjust gamma on OSD. I will try to avoid software calibration like ICC profile or adjust gamma in Nvidia Control Panel at all cost since I learn a huge lesson from my S2716DG. Some games will ignore ICC profile and software calibration with Nvidia on Windows will cause color banding due to shitty 8 bit LUT plus no dithering support on Windows from Nvidia.

I can't accept smearing / ghosting / black crush from VA as well.

I am OK with IPS glow. BLB is OK as well if not too much.

I am a bit positive to G-Sync. Actually I may live without it or I may miss it if new monitor don't have G-Sync. I still dunno and can't make up my mind. Might be safer to stay with G-Sync.

I am addict to ULMB. I know that for perfect ULMB I need triple lock (framerate = refresh rate = strobe rate). I think I will miss ULMB a lot if new monitor don't have some kind of blur reduction.

Ultrawide should be benefit to my mainly played strategy games like Totalwar / Civilization / Cities Skylines and indie games like The Sims and sometimes I play racing games (mostly arcade since I don't like simulation). Arcade racing is the cause why I still miss ULMB otherwise I will go ultrawide without hesitation.

I try playing racing games at 100Hz while I feel I got more motion blur than ULMB at 120Hz but it is not too bad. Try 60Hz and I got dizziness almost immediately. Strategy games at 100Hz should be OK as well.

But I still feel about superior of 144Hz over 100Hz sigh...

I am extremely sensitive to panel coating. I know that there is no glossy monitor for gaming so if possible please suggest monitor with least amount of anti-glare coating.

Should I concern about strobe crosstalk going from TN to AHVA ?

I will buy a used monitor so I can tell the previous owner to test whatever I want. RMA / return something in my country is shit.

Probably buy in the next 2-3 months as I still need to hear opinions / do more research. I quickly got S2716DG due to impatient.

Here is the list of G-Sync IPS / AHVA monitors that is available in my country.



1440p 144-165Hz (for ULMB).

ACER XB270HU. I know this is an old model but XB271HU is not available here. Can get it for probably close to $500 but extremely hard to find is the real concern. 2.2 gamma out of box with movie preset plus 4 gamma mode to choose and decent amount of BLB.

Viewsonic XG2703-GS. Extremely hard to find. Can get it for probably $550. Don't know much about gamma.

ASUS PG279Q. Extremely easy to find. Can get it for around $625. Another good candidate with 2.2 gamma out of box but no gamma adjustment for emergency case like if I got bad sample ?

I want to hear again am I safe from color banding if I buy one of the three monitors ? I fear because all of this is plain 8 bit without FRC. I have a good experience in the past with Korean IPS 8 bit + FRC monitor with Nvidia since I never notice banding at all.



3440x1440 100-120Hz (sacrifice ULMB for wider screen)

ACER X34. Again I know this is an old model but X34P is not available here. Can get it for $625. A bit hard to find. Seem like decent amount of BLB as well. 2.2 gamma out of box with eColor preset plus 4 gamma mode to choose. 8 bit + FRC.

ASUS PG348Q. Extremely easy to find. Can get it for around $815. Not sure about gamma. Seem various between reviewers. No gamma adjust on OSD. 8 bit + FRC. BLB is concern

Dell AW3418DW. Moderately hard to find. Can get it for $940+. But I don't like 2.4 gamma out of box and no gamma adjust on OSD plus it is plain 8 bit and most expensive. I think I can sacrifice 20Hz for 8 bit + FRC to better fight with color banding.


I will repeat again I want to avoid software calibration at all cost. Gamma / color / white point / brightness / contrast must be done on OSD alone. What should I buy ? Thanks for reading wall of text.

I am addict to ULMB. I know that for perfect ULMB I need triple lock (framerate = refresh rate = strobe rate). I think I will miss ULMB a lot if new monitor don't have some kind of blur reduction.

Well, TN is your only option then. Sorry, but that's how it is. IPS and VA in ULMB mode (or any other strobing method) will have more crosstalk than TN.

There is no "perfect" monitor as of 2018. If you are prepared to go IPS, you will need to accept a rather large amount of ULMB crosstalk. If you go VA, it will be even worse.

To give you an example, on my 165Hz IPS in ULMB mode (at 120Hz, which is the highest possible with ULMB), if I move my mouse cursor over a black background, I see three mouse cursors on the screen. The real one in the middle, and two copies next to it, one on the right and one on the left. They are not faint. They are very clearly visible. The intensity of each copy changes depending on the vertical position of the mouse cursor, but they are always there.

In games I can always see a double image of anything that moves. It's not subtle and easy to miss like on a TN panel. It's always clearly visible.

So, if you're prepared to accept that, or if you're prepared to give up on ULMB and just use G-Sync instead (this is what I chose,) then yeah, IPS is great. Otherwise, you would probably suffer from buyers remorse very quickly.

Viewsonic XG2703-GS. Extremely hard to find. Can get it for probably $550. Don't know much about gamma.

That's the display I have. Reviews show gamma is spot on 2.2 if you set the OSD to 2.4. Available settings are 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6. There is no ICC profile required.

With that being said, it looks like there's new 165Hz IPS G-Sync displays coming. I'm not aware of release dates yet, but it's an LG IPS panel. So maybe it might be worth sitting this one out and see if LG can do better in ULMB mode compared to AUO.

Thanks a lot for your detailed answers. Looks like I have to sacrifice ULMB if I want to go IPS.
Did you see color banding on your XG2703 ? What about this pic ?

http://img.techpowerup.org/171202/8d7dc ... -37-20.png

enterprise24 wrote:Did you see color banding on your XG2703 ? What about this pic ?

http://img.techpowerup.org/171202/8d7dc ... -37-20.png

Yes, I can clearly see circles of banding.

Note that in 99% of cases, banding is not due to the monitor. It's the source image itself that has banding. And the image you linked to simply has banding in it. It's not your monitor's fault.

Here's a video using a realtime color picker. Note how the color under the mouse cursor does sudden jumps instead of changing continuously. That's why the image has banding. A monitor that does not display banding in this image is not a very accurate monitor

https://youtu.be/_8nbLFhwpVk

This could be a software problem. If this is a screenshot from a video (I suspect this is from a Blizzard intro), it could be that the video player does not do accurate video color space conversion. Or it could be the GPU driver not doing it correctly. Or it could be that the video simply was produced that way with banding in it. Who knows. In any event, it's not the monitor's fault.

I understand that that pic have JPG compression. But even my $100 tablet or Samsung 768p TV from 2010 didn't see banding with that pic. I mean I didn't really look for it but on my S2716DG it is clearly visible.

For smooth gradient / grey scale in Lagom test I must leave gamma at dafault. Since this monitor don't have gamma adjust on OSD that is 1.9 but that actually cause more banding in real world like gaming / watching movies than applying ICC profile. I better get banding from gamma adjust with Nvidia 8 bit LUT rather than leave the monitor at stock configuration for extreme amount of banding...

On Linux Mint the situation is much better with Nvidia 11 bit LUT. Appying ICC profile here is extremely worth it. There is moderately less banding compared to Windows plus enabled dithering with whatever method (static 2x2 , dynamic 2x2 , temporal) seem to fix the issue completely.

If only Nvidia support 11 bit LUT on Geforce in Windows I will not have to look for new monitor. I will be more than happy with TN + no crosstalk ULMB. Nvidia could save tons of RMA from tons of 1440p 144-165Hz TN also. But with this reply I am afraid I must move to IPS.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... 0/#5932020

enterprise24 wrote:I understand that that pic have JPG compression. But even my $100 tablet or Samsung 768p TV from 2010 didn't see banding with that pic. I mean I didn't really look for it but on my S2716DG it is clearly visible.

That means your tablet is not very good. The image has banding built-in. If a monitor can't display it, that means the monitor if broken.

A monitor should display what the image contains. If you take a photo of banding, and the display you use to view the photo does not show the banding, the display is not a very good one.

On Linux Mint the situation is much better with Nvidia 11 bit LUT. Appying ICC profile here is extremely worth it. There is moderately less banding compared to Windows plus enabled dithering with whatever method (static 2x2 , dynamic 2x2 , temporal) seem to fix the issue completely.

I'm on Linux too. However, the image you posted has banding built-in. I just demonstrated that in the video! A good monitor MUST display the banding that is encoded in that image. If you don't see banding, that means your monitor's gamma is wrong, or the monitor is not good at distinguishing between the shades and they end up looking the same. Being able to display slightly different shades as still being distinct is a GOOD thing in a monitor, not a bad thing.

Getting an IPS display will give you better image quality overall though. But it won't do anything for removing banding from images, videos and games that have banding in them already.