[TFTCentral - Review] Acer XB270HU - 27" 144Hz IPS G-Sync

[GoodRevrnd]

Interesting. I'm pretty unimpressed with dark scenes on my U2410.

 

[Xed]

Amazon updated my ship date to 5/11, so I will post my thoughts given I have a swift to compare it to.

 

[Muadib]

B and H now has these in stock, and the price is nice!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132443-REG/acer_um_hb0aa_001_xb270hu_widescreen_lcd_monitor.html

 

[3DVagabond]

B and H now has these in stock, and the price is nice!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132443-REG/acer_um_hb0aa_001_xb270hu_widescreen_lcd_monitor.html

$780 is nice?

 

[Muadib]

$780 is nice?

Better than anywhere else I've seen in the USA

 

[3DVagabond]

Better than anywhere else I've seen in the USA

Fair enough. I took it in the wrong context. I was thinking in comparison to the overall monitor market.

 

[tg2708]

B and H now has these in stock, and the price is nice!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132443-REG/acer_um_hb0aa_001_xb270hu_widescreen_lcd_monitor.html

That price was $739 earlier in the day. The price and tax is too high considering that monitor can only be used with a PC. I really don't know if I should bite yet considering free sync monitors will be cheaper and either choice locks me into a specific card brand for some time.

 

[3DVagabond]

That price was $739 earlier in the day. The price and tax is too high considering that monitor can only be used with a PC. I really don't know if I should bite yet considering free sync monitors will be cheaper and either choice locks me into a specific card brand for some time.

Freesync monitors have a full range of inputs though and the monitors features aren't limited to the Gsync module capabilities.

 

[tg2708]

Freesync monitors have a full range of inputs though and the monitors features aren't limited to the Gsync module capabilities.

True which is a huge plus for me since I have my PS4 hooked up to my current monitor I'm reluctant to lose that ability right now. I was considering to go full nvidia but the limited connectivity of this monitor is killing it for me.

 

[3DVagabond]

True which is a huge plus for me since I have my PS4 hooked up to my current monitor I'm reluctant to lose that ability right now. I was considering to go full nvidia but the limited connectivity of this monitor is killing it for me.

The biggest consideration for me is going Gsync/ulmb means you'll never be able to use it with anything except nVidia. People will have to decide for themselves bit personally it seems a no brainer that nVidia and Intel will both eventually use adaptive sync. We're going to see a lot of monitors use it and they aren't going to ignore that market for very long. Just my thoughts.

 

[ocre]

That is ridiculous.

You will be able to use the monitor as long as you wish, even with AMD gpus.

That's like telling people who bought 120hz 3d TVs that they can't use their tv now that we dont see 3d BluRay movies anymore.

The monitor isn't useless, as a matter of fact, it is still a 1ms IPS 144hz panel. It isn't useless without gsync and if you find you buy an AMD card one day and just cant live without variable refresh, you can sell it down the road and pick up whatever you want.

Its not the end of the world. You are no more locked in than you tell yourself. I bought an nvidia card so I guess I am locked in too. Until I decide I want something else.
That's how it has always been. This fear of being locked in, its pretty funny. Its not handcuffs.

So if you move away from nvidia gpus some time down the road, your gsync monitor is not useless. Its still a great panel. If you want variable refresh on an AMD card, it is not hard to make that happen. You are only as stuck as you tell yourself you are.

If you want to try freesync or gsync, don't let the FUD of being locked in stop you.

 

[Igo69]

I am looking for a frameless all purpose monitor with 2560x1440 and pivot, swivel, guess I have to wait for it.

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[3DVagabond]

That is ridiculous.

You will be able to use the monitor as long as you wish, even with AMD gpus.

That's like telling people who bought 120hz 3d TVs that they can't use their tv now that we dont see 3d BluRay movies anymore.

The monitor isn't useless, as a matter of fact, it is still a 1ms IPS 144hz panel. It isn't useless without gsync and if you find you buy an AMD card one day and just cant live without variable refresh, you can sell it down the road and pick up whatever you want.

Its not the end of the world. You are no more locked in than you tell yourself. I bought an nvidia card so I guess I am locked in too. Until I decide I want something else.
That's how it has always been. This fear of being locked in, its pretty funny. Its not handcuffs.

So if you move away from nvidia gpus some time down the road, your gsync monitor is not useless. Its still a great panel. If you want variable refresh on an AMD card, it is not hard to make that happen. You are only as stuck as you tell yourself you are.

If you want to try freesync or gsync, don't let the FUD of being locked in stop you.

Purposely misinterpreting what I said? I said Gsync/ULMB, which is the reason you'd pay the extra premium for the monitor. You are the only one talking FUD. I was quite clear and you misrepresented it.

 

[stahlhart]

Freesync monitors have a full range of inputs though and the monitors features aren't limited to the Gsync module capabilities.

If you're not going to discuss the Acer monitor, then stop trolling and get out of this thread now.
-- stahlhart

 

[stahlhart]

If this gets thread gets derailed into another G-Sync versus Freesync argument, there are going to be vacations handed out. Discuss the Acer XB270HU Monitor, or leave.
--stahlhart

 

[moonbogg]

OK I got the monitor. Using it now. Its pixel perfect and legit as hell. Looks way better than my old monitor. I had to go from ultra to medium with no AA on BF4 though, lol. Funny thing is, the image looks crisp without AA. Crazy.
There is still some color shift in the vertical direction. Not as bad as a TN and colors looks way better and more uniform, but white turns to brown at the lower end of the screen. I need to calibrate it and do all that jazz. This is straight from box and this thing kicks ass.
All I gotta say now is bring on those damn 980ti's already. For God's sake release them.

 

[tg2708]

OK I got the monitor. Using it now. Its pixel perfect and legit as hell. Looks way better than my old monitor. I had to go from ultra to medium with no AA on BF4 though, lol. Funny thing is, the image looks crisp without AA. Crazy.
There is still some color shift in the vertical direction. Not as bad as a TN and colors looks way better and more uniform, but white turns to brown at the lower end of the screen. I need to calibrate it and do all that jazz. This is straight from box and this thing kicks ass.
All I gotta say now is bring on those damn 980ti's already. For God's sake release them.

I'm tempted to get this monitor but not sure how well my 770 will do. Im looking to get it locally because a B&H store is just a few train stops from where I work.

 

[Gryz]

not sure how well my 770 will do.

If you look at the homepage here on anandtech.com, you see that anandtech has a very nice benchmark tool.

I looked at the scores of several videocards, comparing the fps at 1080p and 1440p. In almost all games, the fps was 30%-40% lower in 1440p than it was in 1080p. On average, the difference was 36%.

So if you run your favorite games at 60 fps in 1080p, you can expect 38 fps in 1440p.

Anti-aliasing makes it a little more complex. With 1080p you will need more/stronger AA than you do in 1440p. So maybe you ran 4xMSAA in 1080p, and you can get away with only FXAA in 1440p. That would increase framerates at 1440p a little. However, if you are smart, you run SMAA (via an injector, or via SweetFX or ENB). In that case, SMAA takes so little compute power, that 1080p vs 1440p makes little difference in overall framerates.

I use a gtx680 now. It is fast enough for most/many games at 60 fps at 1080p. I had a 1440p monitor for a few days (in fact I had the XB270HU). And then it became obvious that my gtx680 wasn't really fast enough anymore. If you play at 40 fps with G-Sync, you get less stutter than you would get without G-Sync. True. But still, you only play at 40(ish) fps. That means the game will look less fluent than it would at 60 fps. (Compare stable 60 fps on a PC versus stable 30 fps on a console. The 60 fps does look better, even when both framerates are stable).

I hope to upgrade my monitor soon. (The XB270HU is awesome, except when you play dark games. So it wasn't for me). I hope the gtx980ti will be released soon, because I'm gonna need it. (Especially for GTAV and The Witcher 3).

 

[tg2708]

What are you talking about I only play at 40fps? First of all the current game's I play hits 60fps and above. My intentions are not to max graphics with all the bells and whistles but to achieve at least a minimum of 55fps. Purchasing a graphics card to run this monitor is not the problem it's the amount of vram currently in thses cards that is keeping me from upgrading.

On the other hand PC gaming is starting to become an expensive hobby.

 

[ocre]

The new consoles have raised the bar on game requirements. Also, moving up in resolution, its a double whammy

 

[tg2708]

The new consoles have raised the bar on game requirements. Also, moving up in resolution, its a double whammy

So are you against me getting the monitor now? My current monitor leaves a lot to be desired and I always wanted an ips monitor with a decent amount hertz. This seems like a full package monitor the benefits of an ips with a no compromise gaming performance
In terms of motion fluidity.

 

[Arachnotronic]

So are you against me getting the monitor now? My current monitor leaves a lot to be desired and I always wanted an ips monitor with a decent amount hertz. This seems like a full package monitor the benefits of an ips with a no compromise gaming performance
In terms of motion fluidity.

Even outside of games, this monitor should be pretty solid. And you can always turn down resolution/settings until you have faster gear.

Monitors should last several PC generations, IMO, so buying something good now and fully exploiting its capabilities down the line seems like a good plan.

 

[Gryz]

What are you talking about I only play at 40fps?

I'm not stating anything about you.
All I said was: when switching from 1080p to 1440p you should expect 36% lower fps with the same games and the same settings.

I then gave you an *example*.
Because some people (who are bad at math) might think: 36% is not that bad. But when they read: you'll go from a steady 60 to a steady 38 fps, that might make them think differently. (And no, I am not saying you are bad at math. I don't know).

Of course you can change the settings if you want to. I gave examples of that too (different anti-aliasing). It all depends on what you find important.

On the other hand PC gaming is starting to become an expensive hobby.

True. Maybe. On the other hand, if your hobby would be racing cars, or sailing, or collecting rare stamps, or go out drinking ($100 per weekend), or buying lots of cloth, then spending $2000 per year on PC stuff might not be so bad.

 

[xthetenth]

Monitors are definitely the sort of thing that you can plan to grow a build into without getting too mad because even a basic one is pretty expensive, so eating the price of an interim monitor would cover a lot of the price gap between a good monitor now and a similar monitor later.

 

[moonbogg]

I noticed during my use last night that 75fps looked really choppy and terrible. It felt sluggish and horrible. Maybe that's because I've been used to so much more FPS. Going to medium details fixed it right up, but more fun testing is in order tonight.