Re: What monitor should i buy? [GSYNC/ULMB for under $500]

[Mafusail]

Hello, comrades!
First of all, I'm not a native English speaker so please don't be too harsh :3
Secondly, thanks for the enormous and very hard work that you did here. I've read most of the topics about ULMB and while everything is processing through my head, i wanted to ask - what monitor should i buy?
Specs mostly are like this:
For gaming
TN, don't like curved VA panels
24" or something like that
1440p
144Hz, not more. I'm playing on 1080ti and 7700k, but in graphics-heavy games and usually i get somewhat around 80-140 on mine 60Hz 1080p IPS panel right now with unlocked FPS. So just don't see a point of getting 240Hz and paying fee for that.
ULMB compatible. I absolutely hate ghosting and want to get 85 or 100 Hz ULMB if possible. I know about holy trinity of strobing=fps=refreshrate and that it also helps with stutters.
300-500$. Just dont have more.
Is there a monitor of my dreams that i can afford for my birthday?

[Chief Blur Buster]

Specs mostly are like this:
For gaming
TN, don't like curved VA panels
24" or something like that
1440p
144Hz, not more. I'm playing on 1080ti and 7700k, but in graphics-heavy games and usually i get somewhat around 80-140 on mine 60Hz 1080p IPS panel right now with unlocked FPS. So just don't see a point of getting 240Hz and paying fee for that.

On the other hand, having the 240Hz headroom can improve strobe quality at lower Hz.
120Hz ULMB @ 240Hz on average, has less strobe crosstalk than 120Hz ULMB @ 144Hz.
But it's actually quite a subtle difference (much less than lesser brands of motion blur reduction).

Also, 240Hz GSYNC monitors also has 144Hz ULMB if you're very flicker sensitive to 85Hz or 100Hz
(that said, you might already have tested flicker and realized that flicker is not a problem for you, then lower-Hz is easier)

ULMB compatible. I absolutely hate ghosting and want to get 85 or 100 Hz ULMB if possible. I know about holy trinity of strobing=fps=refreshrate and that it also helps with stutters.
300-500$. Just dont have more.
Is there a monitor of my dreams that i can afford for my birthday?

Most of the time $300-$500 means you have to either give up the size (27" down to 24") or give up the resolution (1440p down to 1080p).
However, there's a sale with the USA version of Amazon at the time of this post -- the Dell S2716DG $799 monitor is now marked at under $465 now!

SALE - 27" Size 144Hz 1440p with ULMB/GSYNC Under USD $500 (as of Feb 2019)
Dell S2716DG - 27" 2560x1440 TN 144Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz

24" Size 144Hz-165Hz 1440p with ULMB/GSYNC Under USD $500 (as of Feb 2019)
Acer Predator XB241YU - 24" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz
Dell S2417DG - 24" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz

24" Size 240Hz 1080p with ULMB/GSYNC Under USD $500 (as of Feb 2019)
Oculux NXG251R - 25" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 100,120,144 Hz
Viewsonic XG2560 - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 100,120,144 Hz
Dell Alienware AW2518H - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 100,120,144 Hz
Acer Predator XB252Q - 24.5" 1920x1080 TN 240Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 100,120,144 Hz

27" Size 165Hz 1440p TN Approx USD $550-$650 (as of Feb 2019)
ASUS ROG Swift PG27VQ - 27" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz
ASUS ROG PG278QR - 27" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz
Viewsonic XG2760 - 27" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz
Acer Predator XB271HUA - 27" 2560x1440 TN 165Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz

24" Size 144Hz-180Hz 1080p TN Under USD $500 (as of Feb 2019)
Acer Predator XB241H - 24" 1920x1080 TN 180Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz
ASUS ROG PG248Q - 24" 1920x1080 TN 180Hz G-SYNC with strobe range 85,100,120 Hz

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Reminder -- Links like these support the operation of Blur Busters. Thank you! Clicking the links directly will redirect to your nearest Amazon store in European Union or North America, but right-clicking and opening in a new tab/window will open the USA Amazon store where I quickly vetted the prices for you just now.

[Mafusail]

Whoa, thank you very much!
One question though - is 1440p is different on 27' and 24'? Will pixel density make some noticable difference?
Oh, and what about Freesync and Freesync 2 monitors? With latest news about Nvidia supporting them (at least first version) will it be cheaper to get Fsync monitor with its own motion blur reduction tech? Or ULMB is still the best of them, since it's an Nvidia technology?

[RealNC]

27" 1440p still has higher pixel density than 24" 1080p. 24" 1440p has pixel density that approaches "4K". In fact, it's identical to a 36" 4K display.

However, since you want a TN panel, 27" can mean that you will get image quality degradation at the edges of the monitor, depending how far away you're sitting from it.

Also keep in mind that 24" 1440p will require you to use DPI scaling in Windows to make the desktop UI bigger.

In general, if you don't mind the TN image quality issues, 27" is the sweet spot size for 1440p, unless you want 4K-like pixel density, in which case you can go for 24" 1440p.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Oh, and what about Freesync and Freesync 2 monitors? With latest news about Nvidia supporting them (at least first version) will it be cheaper to get Fsync monitor with its own motion blur reduction tech? Or ULMB is still the best of them, since it's an Nvidia technology?

Yes, a well-selected FreeSync monitor may help greatly. That said, NVIDIA cards appear to work much better with real GSYNC monitors than with FreeSync (at this time).

ULMB is well-above-average motion blur reduction technology.

There are many manufacturer-brands of blur reduction modes that does much worse than ULMB.
Some of them match ULMB but not all of them do.

The GSYNC cost premium (assuming you turn on GSYNC, or assuming you turn on ULMB) gives somewhat of a better guarantee of quality.

For example, overdrive is often much better when GSYNC is enabled, and blur reduction of ULMB is often superior to most of the competition (despite being annoyingly limited to certain refresh rates without hacks such as the ULMB 60Hz hack or ULMB 155Hz hack, etc).

For 24" vs 27", they're really the same if you adjust the distance. Sit 24" from a 24" monitor. Sit 27" from a 27" monitor. Then the pixels-per-degree-of-view is identical. Are you nearsighted or farsighted? Is your desk deep or shallow? Those can influence the size you choose. Many eSports player prefer smaller so they can keep staring at crosshairs and use peripheral vision for anything away from crosshairs. So there's a size sweet spot for them.

[Mafusail]

Thank you again. I've read some reviews of Dell S2716DG and most of them tell that it's TN panel is not quite good. In different ways, depending of the monitor's batch. On the other hand, it's smaller brother, 2417 has good panel. Strangely enough, but still. I've ordered this one.

[Mafusail]

Aaaand here comes the toubleshooting. I've turned framerate cap in game for 85hz, set stroberate for 85hz and monitor refreshrate for 85 hz. UFO test shows that everything works pretty well. But i still have image doubling ingame, even with low turning speed. Turning camera give pretty much the same visual quality that i had on my previous IPS60 panel. While scrolling while serfing though text looks awesome - but only if i scroll slowly and has some white trail after it. If i do it faster image doubling appears and i still cant read the text. My mouse is on 500hz refreshing rate. Using Vsync @85Hz. Connected by DisplayPort.

[RealNC]

Are you sure it's running at 85Hz in-game? Check the monitor's OSD while the game runs.

[Mafusail]

Are you sure it's running at 85Hz in-game? Check the monitor's OSD while the game runs.

Yeah, im sure, got stable 85. Maybe problem is in low fps and i need to bump it to 100, dont know.
And do all TN panels have this tremendous color banding? It's almost impossible to watch anything on it. Dark colors look like i'm using 16bit pallette or smth lol.
I'm thinking now of giving this panel back to the store (got a stuck pixel about half an hour ago, green one). Is there a TN panel monitor with low color banding?

[RealNC]

Yeah, im sure, got stable 85.

I wasn't referring to the frame rate. I'm referring to the refresh rate. It should say something like "1920x1080 85Hz" in the display's OSD, not in some frame counter overlay OSD.