BenQ XL2730Z 27-inch FreeSync Monitor Review

[Ninjawithagun]

So, not only was this review completely fraudulent (hiding FreeSync performance issues as well as other shortfalls), but even more disturbing is that the price gouging going on is ludicrous! This monitor was originally listed with an MSRP of $599 a couple months ago, but is now listed for $749. Wow. So I guess FreeSync isn't so free as people thought it would be...

 

[skit75]

Agreed that this is barely a review. Any product claiming any new technology should be tested for its performance. The technology is too young to provide any warm and fuzzys by name alone. The only thing I saw in the review that would set this display apart from its competition was the motion blur reduction numbers. Impressive as they were, it wasn't enough to justify the current asking price.

 

[BulkZerker]

$700+ for a TN panel? I'll pass.

 

[ubercake]

I don't agree with you, ubercake.

This monitor is $600 dollars and it's a 1440p UHD panel. 2560x1440. (and may be an 8 bit TN but this is still unconfirmed; it's fully confirmed that the Rog Swift is 8 bit, but the panel model number is different on the ROG).

The XL2720Z is 27", 1080p and STILL $500 dollars. This 2730Z is 1440p and ONLY $100 more.

You aren't paying a premium for anything, Mate.

You ARE paying a premium for the XB270HU and the ROG Swift, at $700-800 dollars.

No premium for free sync??? Check out this high refresh 2560x1440 IPS monitor without free sync at $450:
http://overlordcomputer.com/collections/27-monitors/products/tempest-x270oc-glossy

Whether the premium you pay is $50 or $150, it's a premium and you're paying for the free sync implementation because manufacturers are obviously not adopting this DP "standard" into their everyday production process. If it were a standard and manufacturers were changing over to it as a standard, you'd be able to pick up any monitor at any price and enjoy the benefits of adaptive sync technology. This is what AMD was selling and was their lip service prior to the emergence of any free sync monitor. It's just not happening. If it does... great. As of now, that's not the case and you pay an additional cost (i.e. "premium") for this tech.

 

[Astrix_au]

I don't understand why the price is so high. The only things I see that are different (in any meaningful way) from the Acer XG270HU (which I have, and am a fan of) is hight adjustment and an external puck to load configurable screen settings. (that is pretty cool though)

The Acer also doesn't have the raised bezel that is actually about 8mm (Top, Left and Right)

The Benq looks like a good monitor, I just don't see what justifies the premium price.

It's 2560x1440p 144hz and not 1080p, so it has higher resolution and pixel density.

 

[norseman4]

It's 2560x1440p 144hz and not 1080p, so it has higher resolution and pixel density.

Nope, the Acer XG270HU is 1440p @ 144Hz and 1ms, same as the Benq. (The U indicates 1440p)

The only thing I can see is the Benq has the preset puck and ULMB

 

[Simon Flynn]

I own this monitor and it is not failing at all.

It's awesome.

 

[Transsive]

As an ancient lightboost user this review got me pretty excited as the display sounded perfect minus the TN screen. Until I read the comments that is.

It's worth noting that ULMB (lightboost) and Gsync don't work together, which is also true for Motion Blur Reduction and Freesync. I don't know if they ever will, since strobbing + adaptive sync might either be difficult to pull off or look really weird.
In the end, Blur Reduction is amazing if you can maintain a fixed maximum framerate (like 85, 100, 120, 144) while gsync and freesync are great if the framerate is not stable.
Blur reduction + high/max fps = blur free (sample and hold) CRT like experience
Blur reduction + random/low fps = terible stutter (CRT like experience)
Adaptive sync + high/max fps = does nothing
Adaptive sync + random/low fps = no stutter or tearing

Blur reduction is great for powerful PCs and non demanding games. It's amazing to see all the detail in the picture while stuff is happening at high speed on the screen.
Adaptive sync is great for weak PCs, poorly optimized games or high resolutions. You'll be stutter free, but sadly not blur free.

So the current issues of this monitor are that:
- freesync disables AMA (which is an overdrive feature to improve pixel response time at the cost of overshot artefacts) which means that in freesync mode the monitor will have more pixel transition blur (from 1ms to 8.5ms gtg, don't quote me on this). I don't know how much full black to white pixel transition changes from the stated 7ms (at 1ms gtg).
- Motion Blur Reduction only works properly at 120 and 144hz, with lower refresh rates being either desynced (causing stutter) or double strobbed (causing a double image in moving objects)

What does work:
- freesync without AMA
- Motion Blur Reduction at 120 and 144hz

Is it worth buying before the issues get fixed? Probably not.

I would more likely get an Acer Predator XB270HU, which is ISP, has Gsync and ULMB up to 100hz.

Tech like AMA will probably dissappear once we move on to OLED (which is free of pixel transition blur at 0ms, but not sample and hold blur for which we'll still need Motion Blur Reduction).

 

[photonboy]

Problems, problems...

From what I've read, combined with my computer experience there are MAJOR PROBLEMS with every G-Sync and FreeSync monitor.

Most of which are unlikely to be fixed in current monitors.

G-Sync was the right approach but has some growing pains. I'm a little confused on this, but it appears that they ripped out the guts of the monitors including some VIDEO PROCESSING for the monitor which means some image quality issues?

FreeSync on the other hand changes very little in terms of video quality but they're also more limited in how far they can take the technology.

Even if I could sacrifice IPS for the sake of TN G-Sync smoothness I don't think we're quite ready yet.

*Far too many people misreporting facts about these monitors. At least PCPER got it fairly correct.

(Also if 40Hz is the minimum for this FreeSync monitor that is still significant. It's jarring to drop out of the smooth asynchronous mode just because your PC suddenly output 39FPS instead of 40FPS... let's not overlook this. G-Sync can support 30Hz/30FPS though panel technology for both can improve in the future to where it's below 20Hz)

 

[somebodyspecial]

somebodyspecial:
You do realize I am not the monitor reviewer? Any reason you're raging at me?

My mistake, it's hard to tell who's who in here without them putting markers on themselves (look at the pic for the original poster about this article)...Message the same for tomshardware then Rage-redirected

 

[somebodyspecial]

I don't understand why the price is so high. ...

IMO, they know the market for this product is small enough to ignore competition...
They tried to make more money from their brand loyalist..
at least their monitor/product.. "good enough" to not leave "major" bad experience to the one that buys it..
(In their mind)

...Any reason you're raging at me?

Errr.. don't feed the troll..
after long enough at here u will learn to ignore those brand fanatic...

Did you read the post? I have a radeon 5850 as noted. I can point you to the complaints I made on amazon because they made 400+ of us wait for MONTHS on end to get it due to them setting the price too low. So as an AMD fanboy (owner of AMD cpus for a decade before forced to 4790 this time), I'm confused...LOL. I used to push AMD as a reseller too. You can find many of my posts on here, seekingalpha, anandtech etc saying management sucks, not the people making the products. IT's comic anyone pointing out the flaws of AMD draws out the real fanboys such as yourself with "troll" comments. You should be bothered by the crappy review, and even more that AMD put out something that you really shouldn't buy yet. If they can't fix things soon, I'll be forced to buy NV/Gsync like it or not. I was able to avoid it last time, but they're making that impossible this time. I waited 7yrs to go Intel on the cpu, so I tried, just no way I could stomach what they're putting out. I still have to rebuild my dad's at some point, so if ZEN benchmarks are out before xmas maybe I'll wait.

I have no trouble with AMD employees or their products (in most cases), but management has been destroying them for a decade and should be tossed. Especially the people who said console or mantle were good ideas as all of this money should have went to PURE CPU, GPU and most importantly it seems, DRIVERS for DX11. Now it looks like they're screwing themselves more here by working on win10 drivers (see project cars running ~2x faster on win10 than win7/8) The people who really buried them were the ones that OK'd the price of ATI. Management made the decision to dedicate everything to win10 dev (it is coming in the next Q) and dropped the ball on win7/8.1. Heck they've been dropping the ball on DX11 drivers for a while (again due to management taking all resources for other crap like mantle/console).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8962/the-directx-12-performance-preview-amd-nvidia-star-swarm/3
As an example look at how AMD's cards did in DX11 in star swarm vs. NV. The 980 is 3x faster in DX11 than AMD 290. Even the 750TI NEARLY triples 290 (8.3fps) with a score of 21fps. That shows how weak AMD's driver is in multithreaded games (like project cars). This benchmark demonstrated the weakness of DX11 for sure, but it also shows how much effort NV put into catching mantle with merely working hard on DX11 (that affects far more games than just mantle). It's a pity AMD didn't put that much work into DX11 too right? IF they had would the scores be so bad for AMD in their own benchmark? Star Swarm was made for mantle but funny how it highlights their DX11 driver weakness too. AMD's drivers are ~1/4 for dx11 vs. their dx12 scores, while NV cards are just under 1/2 vs. their dx12 drivers. That clearly shows their dx11 stuff (and even dx12 stuff judging the benchmarks above) isn't up to snuff correct?

The point? It's not hating to merely be pointing out the facts. Get over the fact that your favorite company is currently getting their clock cleaned. I'm still trying to buy AMD, but I'll get over that in a hurry if they don't put out something I want to buy before I need purchase. At the end of the day my wallet votes the SMART way, no matter what my heart wants. It's hard not to bash AMD if you're not IGNORANT of the facts. With ZEN it looks like they are FINALLY going to concentrate on something that can make them money again - CORE CPU (while putting off the next APU, YIPPEE - these have ZERO pricing power & getting squeezed by ARM racing up and Intel racing down).

 

[rdc85]

^ err.. why are u mad? (even writing such a long post)

are u one of those brand fanatic I mentioned... ?

I'm confuse, because i never mention someone nick specifically only troll generally..

haha, chill out... I'm trolling..

 

[somebodyspecial]

^ err.. why are u mad? (even writing such a long post)

are u one of those brand fanatic I mentioned... ?

I'm confuse, because i never mention someone nick specifically only troll generally..

haha, chill out... I'm trolling..

Why do you assume I'm mad? Because I actually know what is going on and tell you? It's just data. You responded to a post about me, insinuating I was trolling. Trolling is a waste of everybody's time.

You're free to ignore the "length" and content of my posts. Some topics warrant a LONG post in order to make one's point. Which I did