Acer XB280HK 4K G-sync monitor - any owners here?

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therealnickdanger

Senior member
Oct 26, 2005
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IPS is overhyped to the point of lunacy. IPS was amazing in 2005, but modern, true 8-bit TN panels are great! I'd take a high speed, quality TN or VA panel over IPS any day.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
So far, we haven't found an affordable superior tech, though. OLED still has issues with blue fading that haven't been fully resolved, TMK, and it's the best hope, for the near future. After using LCDs, years ago, for any length of time, CRTs had to go. LCDs are all compromise, but the reduction in eye strain and desk space were worth it even 8-10 years ago, and before that for businesses.

TN varies a lot, just like IPS. In terms of gamut, 6-bit TNs can do a halfway decent for sRGB, and have been for years (not good, but good enough for us casual users, being able to follow the right curves, though not including all the right colors along them). The problem has been the colors in between, since nobody's been able to manage panels that 'naturally' do sRGB. So, you can get the range, and get the response curves right, but not get the precision. There are losses in calibration, be it by DSP, or physical modification of the panel at the factory. My old HP w2207, that I replaced with a Dell U2414H, recently, is really not too far off in hue, except for greens, to be quite honest, and it's now about 7 years old. What's really great is that the new one can do good near-whites, near-blacks, and peachy skin tones, without banding or stippling, while having low input lag and response time, and a better matte coating than existed on any display in 2007 (then, the best looking mattes were those with no AG, or that users took the AG off of) (no visible backlight certainly helps, but mild backlight bleed, like my w220 had, I can tune out, so not a deal-breaker). With no light on in the room, the fancy new IPS actually looks worse, due to the glow causing half of it to be washed out.

But, many here will compare dirt cheap TNs, or ultra fast gaming monitors than went very light on the color control of the panel, or input DSPs. For those, the differences will be considerably greater. It used to be you had to get a pro-focused monitor to get sRGB, and if you wanted a good looking TN, that was worth whatever you had to give up, if you wanted more than just the fastest response times, IMNSHO. Now, pretty much any monitor that isn't, "value," either is sRGB, or has an sRGB preset, with decent factory calibration. A TN is going to look like a TN, and an IPS like an IPS, but with 8-bit, very good colors should not be a problem at all, with only some minor gamma issues, for TN (and, the Swift even seems to be OK in that regard). I am bothered by excessive glow (causes discomfort not unlike seeing glare does, over time), and the viewing angle effects of VAs (no angle feels right--the new curved displays I will be following, for this very reason), other are bothered by the color shift of TN, others the low contrast of TN or IPS, and so on and so forth. There's no perfection to be had.
 
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Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
OLED has been getting the R&D, but has some major problems that haven't been worked around. Making single large panels affordably has been a problem, and then AFAIK, blue is still an issue, over time. Persistence is just an RC problem, surely not too hard to work around, but the others...

I've got HDDs, a dock, a KVM, another monitor, misc. dangling cables, screwdriver, screws, and misc. other junk all over my desk. It's a workbench as much as anything else, an LCD effectively takes up only several square inches of it, and allows the monitor to be pushed further away. It's not small, just full, but many people do have small desks, too.

By the time I got rid of my last CRT, I was using lower res so I could get close to 100Hz. What was usable got worse over time, from 60Hz early on, to 85Hz, then ~100Hz (it was 97Hz I used, IIRC). For the duration of CCFL's dominance, the persistent image and crisp pixels of LCDs alone made a world of difference (now that it's matured, WLED can do the same). For gaming, of course, that's been a whole other kettle of fish, due to ghosting and DSP.