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

[Ichigo]

Admittedly the best gaming monitor on the market right now, I do have to ask what's the big deal that it's 144hz. It's irrelevant to G-Sync and ULMB only works up to 100hz, and I have imagine 99% of gaming scenarios using one of those modes or the other.

 

[DooKey]

They said it was corrected in the retail samples, and to be honest, I didn't pay much attention because of that. Even the AT article mentions it in passing. It's late enough now that it's obviously not corrected. What a bunch of BS! I guess nobody cares about flickering?

I don't care about it since it only appears in loading screens. It's not a big deal and if you experienced it you might feel the same way.

 

[OlyAR15]

I've never experienced any flickering with my Swift.

 

[kasakka]

Admittedly the best gaming monitor on the market right now, I do have to ask what's the big deal that it's 144hz. It's irrelevant to G-Sync and ULMB only works up to 100hz, and I have imagine 99% of gaming scenarios using one of those modes or the other.

ULMB on the ASUS works up to 120 Hz and of course refresh rate is also relevant to G-Sync. Higher refresh rate combined with 1ms response time means faster transition times and less motion blur. Even on the desktop you can see the higher refresh rate results in smoother movement.

 

[Black Octagon]

If using GS, enable 144hz
If ULMB, 100Hz.
Simple

 

[Ichigo]

ULMB on the ASUS works up to 120 Hz and of course refresh rate is also relevant to G-Sync. Higher refresh rate combined with 1ms response time means faster transition times and less motion blur. Even on the desktop you can see the higher refresh rate results in smoother movement.

Thanks for the explanation but I'm obviously not talking about the Swift nor was I asking how ULMB worked.

If using GS, enable 144hz
If ULMB, 100Hz.
Simple

Except G-Sync is barely noticeable >100hz in the first place. It's mostly useful for 45-60fps as mentioned in the review. So essentially this monitor could have been released as a 100hz monitor and it would make no difference to anyone interested in using either or both of those modes.

 

[Grooveriding]

Are these available yet ? I thought they also mentioned an adaptive sync display from Acer using the same panel.

 

[Black Octagon]

Are these available yet ? I thought they also mentioned an adaptive sync display from Acer using the same panel.

well there's this, from ASUS, but only 120Hz I believe: http://www.overclock.net/t/1534297/...279q-wqhd-gaming-monitor-with-120hz-ips-panel

 

[Aikouka]

The one thing that was a disappointment with the monitor, which I imagine is still because of the response time being too slow, is the lack of 3D Vision support. Otherwise, it looks pretty awesome.

According to the charts, the response times are better than the ASUS VG278HE, which supports 3D Vision.

If using GS, enable 144hz
If ULMB, 100Hz.
Simple

I just leave it at 120Hz. 144Hz has a nasty byproduct of causing the GPU to never enter a low sleep setting, so if you're like me and leave your PC on all the time, you're going to be burning a bit of extra power.

 

[bystander36]

According to the charts, the response times are better than the ASUS VG278HE, which supports 3D Vision.

Response times are extremely important for 3D Vision, and according to the review, it isn't as good. Not that the VG278HE is great at it, response times are crucial for 3D Vision to work. It does look like that in the worst cases, the VG278HE is going to have some crosstalk problems, but on average, it is better.

I'd be curious to know just how they compare if they attempted to bring 3D Vision to it.

 

[Gryz]

3D vision works like this:
- you get to see separate frames for the left eye and the right eye.
- you still want to see 60 Hz with each eye
- that means that the total sum of frames you see will be 120 Hz
- you don't want a frame to be disturbed by the previous frame that is still slightly visible
- therefor the backlight goes out in between frames. separate frames for each eye are separated by a period of blackness
- it seems 3D Vision shows the frame for 25% of the time, and for 75% of the time the backlight is off
- at 120 Hz, each frames has 8.333 milliseconds
- out of that 8.333 milliseconds, the frame is displayed (by turning the backlight on) for 2.0833 milliseconds.
- for 6.25 milliseconds, the backlight is off.

So at 120Hz, each pixel *must* transition within 6.25 milliseconds !

If you read tftcentral's review, you will see that under normal conditions, it can take a pixel up to a maximum of 7.1 milliseconds to change. That is over the limit of 6.25 milliseconds. So if you run 3D Vision at 120Hz on this screen, some parts of the frames will be blurry.

Now if you run the monitor at 100Hz, then each frame will get 10 milliseconds to run. Which means 2.5 ms with the backlight on. And 7.5 milliseconds with the backlight off. The 7.1 ms worst case time for a pixel to change fits into the 7.5 ms budget we have. So you can run this screen at 100 Hz, without problems.

I guess 100Hz is deemed good enough for ULMB. (Even 85Hz is deemed good enough to make it an official setting). But running 3D Vision at 50 Hz per eye is supposedly not good enough. Maybe because 50Hz doesn't work with the shutter-glasses that normally come with 3D Vision. Or another technical problem. Or a marketing issue. But the reason you can't do 3D Vision on this monitor is basically the fact that the pixels in this panel are just not fast enough.

 

[know of fence]

It's frustrating to see to see another 2K panel with the non standard 109 dpi density, just small enough to make native text a pain to read, basically it's shrunk to 88% of hight and 88% width to a total of 77.87% of the original "intended" letter size.
Never mind viewing angles, motion blur and color gamut, when reading black on white text becomes an irritation, somebody done f*cked up.

27" panels, another dead-end tech-trend we have apple to thank for.

 

[kasakka]

It's frustrating to see to see another 2K panel with the non standard 109 dpi density, just small enough to make native text a pain to read, basically it's shrunk to 88% of hight and 88% width to a total of 77.87% of the original "intended" letter size.
Never mind viewing angles, motion blur and color gamut, when reading black on white text becomes an irritation, somebody done f*cked up.

27" panels, another dead-end tech-trend we have apple to thank for.

On the contrary, I think 27" is the exact right size for 1440p. I used to have a 2560x1600 30" display (granted, it's even larger than a 16:9 at same size would be) and found that you could see a bit pixelation with it. Not so with 1440p at 27". Plus it's a pretty good size to fill your view without having to move your head.

I don't feel that text is hard to read at all.

 

[Lepton87]

So the panel is not IPS but some kind of xVA technology? As long as it's not TN it should be adequate. What I hate the most about TN panels is that subtle but very annoying color shifting and both IPS and xVA have much better viewing angles, at least good enough so that color shifting is not noticeable. I wish they would offer a 30' 16:10 2560x1600 version but that's not going to happen. It's either 27' QHD or some 30"+ 21:9.
ps. What is that ULMB mode? I'm quite behind with monitor technology, I haven't really been following the market since I bought mine.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

They call it AHVA, but according to tftcentral its identical to ips in every way, just a different name.

 

[Lepton87]

They call it AHVA, but according to tftcentral its identical to ips in every way, just a different name.

It can't be identical. AHVA must be a variant of xVA (vertical alignment) which is different than in plane switching. In general xVA panels will have the best black levels while IPS panels will have better viewing angles and color reproduction.

 

[Gryz]

AHVA must be a variant of xVA (vertical alignment)

Why ?
Because it's using the same 2 letters in its abbreviation ?

AHVA stands for Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle. Not Vertical Alignment. AHVA is not a variant of VA.

IPS is a term that is owned by LG/Philips. They make IPS panels. Other panel manufacturers can make panels with similar technology. But they are not allowed to call their products IPS. So Samsung makes panels that are very similar to IPS, but they call them PLS. And AU Electronics make panels that are very similar to IPS, but they call them AHVA.

The weird thing is that monitor-manufacturers do not seem to be bound by this rule. They just put the stamp "IPS" on their monitors. Regardless whether the panel inside is IPS, PLS or AHVA.

 

[Excessi0n]

AHVA stands for Advanced Hyper Viewing Angle. It's an IPS clone and monitor makers advertise it as IPS.

 

[Lepton87]

Why ?
Because it's using the same 2 letters in its abbreviation ?

AHVA stands for Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle. Not Vertical Alignment. AHVA is not a variant of VA.

IPS is a term that is owned by LG/Philips. They make IPS panels. Other panel manufacturers can make panels with similar technology. But they are not allowed to call their products IPS. So Samsung makes panels that are very similar to IPS, but they call them PLS. And AU Electronics make panels that are very similar to IPS, but they call them AHVA.

The weird thing is that monitor-manufacturers do not seem to be bound by this rule. They just put the stamp "IPS" on their monitors. Regardless whether the panel inside is IPS, PLS or AHVA.

Hyper-Viewing Angle? They couldn't have made that name any more confusing with existing variants of xVA (Vertical alignment). It makes sense, in-plane-switching panels are faster than xVA panels.

 

[Black Octagon]

Hyper-Viewing Angle? They couldn't have made that name any more confusing with existing variants of xVA (Vertical alignment).

Indeed. You were still wrong though

 

[know of fence]

On the contrary, I think 27" is the exact right size for 1440p. I used to have a 2560x1600 30" display (granted, it's even larger than a 16:9 at same size would be) and found that you could see a bit pixelation with it. Not so with 1440p at 27". Plus it's a pretty good size to fill your view without having to move your head.

I don't feel that text is hard to read at all.

Knowing that objects get smaller in the distance, we all kind of heard at one point or another that the rate at which these objects get smaller is desribed by the inverse-square root law. Object size is simply dpi squared.

Moving from your 30" 101.63 dpi screen to a 27" 108.79 dpi monitor means that, assuming you sat 2 feet away, you can now sit 1.58 inches closer to your monitor to get the same impression of picture quality... (I used this link to determine dpi and punched the numbers into a spread sheet)

Above picture illustrates the inverse-square law, imagine those three slightly curved planes as a red phone, a yellow tablet and a green monitor all showing the same full screen picture at a distance at which the eye perceives the screens to be of equal size.

I recon, the original monitor standard assumed a resolution of something like 96 dpi for screens at 2 feet distance, what kind of density would a tablet screen require at just 1 foot or a phone at half a foot away? Accodring to the inverse square law it would be 192 dpi and 384 dpi respectively, which is roughly what we see on so called "retina" phone displays.

Nvidia is trying to sell us a miniscule pixel density bump and a bunch of GTX 980 cards to go along to help render those invisible pixels, but improving image quality by improving pixel density is a game of RAPIDLY diminishing returns. With distance those dpi numbers ramp quickly, and the only sensible way is to double and quadruple the standard, if we really want desktop monitors to become "retina" quality at some point. Gradually moving pixels closer, will inadvertently force people to sit closer to the screen, or force them to zoom or to use the windows scaler.

 

[kasakka]

ps. What is that ULMB mode? I'm quite behind with monitor technology, I haven't really been following the market since I bought mine.

It's Ultra Low Motion Blur. Essentially strobe backlight that breaks the sample and hold functionality of LCDs so our eyes can focus on the image better in motion, making the image clearer. It's great for fast paced games that run at high fps.

 

[imaheadcase]

Are these available yet ? I thought they also mentioned an adaptive sync display from Acer using the same panel.

End of march is release date. Some UK shops showing 20th so not sure US.

 

[QuantumPion]

Hopefully they aren't plagued by the same QC problems the Swift had.

 

[Subyman]

Hopefully they aren't plagued by the same QC problems the Swift had.

From what I saw, the Swift had a rough launch. Poor availability and then bad QC. I found it hard to believe people would get 4+ units all with dead pixels, but enough stories surfaced that it seems to have been true. I got lucky and picked up an open box Swift from new egg and it was in perfect shape. I'm guessing it was simply refused at delivery or something.