Big problems with laggy 1440p monitor.

[EricJohn2004]

I just replaced my BenQ 120Hz 1080p gaming monitor with an Asus PB278Q PLS 1440p 60Hz monitor.

Something just terrible happens when I game on this monitor. It's not necessarily lag. It's like a weird tearing affect. When I move my mouse really fast I don't see Ghosting. It almost looks like I have my graphics set too high and it's lagging and tearing. I get it in all my games even though I'm getting greater than 60FPS. I tried to lower the settings to low and it's still like this. I even tried putting the monitor at 1080p. That didn't work. So I overclocked the monitor to 85Hz, not a thing changed. At 85Hz at 1080p this shouldn't happen should it?

I'm using a DVI Dual link cable running from my GTX780. I also have a 3570k CPU clocked at 4.7Ghz. So I have plenty power and FPS isn't a problem.

It's just like a terrible laggish tearing. Even with V-Sync on. I've tried adaptive V-Sync. I feel like I've tried everything but changing that DVI cable and trying a cable that can do a higher resolution.

I know a lot of you are going to say, "well that's the difference between a 1080p 120Hz TN panel and a 1440p 60Hz PLS panel". But there is NO FREAKING WAY it could be this bad. Unless I'm just VERY good at seeing the difference.

I've read reviews that said this monitor was great for gaming. I read a review where they overclocked this monitor to 85Hz using the same method I did and they said it was "Buttery Smooth". Even Linus on "Linus Tech Tips" recommended this monitor for gaming. WTF!

What the hell is going on? I want to try to figure this out. If not I'll just return it and wait for those new G-Sync monitors. I'm frustrated cause the monitor looks so damn good, but it plays games like CRAP.

Help me.

 

[Brantyn Gerik]

gotta put a video up for us to be able to tell (record it with your phone if you have to). sounds like you just got a defective panel

 

[baazing]

I'm running a similar setup to you but with a displayport cable. Did you see the tearing before you overclocked your monitor? I haven't tried anything like that myself. I did experience a lot of tearing in assassin's creed 4 at max settings with vsync off but with it on it went away for me. Have you overclocked your graphics card at all? Other than those things the only thing I could say to do is rma your monitor =/

 

[mhb112]

I recently purchased that exact same monitor. I'm running a 3770k with dual evga 680 gtx sc video cards. I played a few hours of crysis 3 on that monitor (connected via DP) and the choppiness/tearing was horrendous. With vsync on I stayed locked at 60 fps but the game was incredibly choppy. It felt like i was playing at 15 fps at times. The screen tearing happened randomly, and there was also a "jittery" feel to it. Like the monitor was skipping frames itself (that's the only way I can explain it). I tried using DVI instead of DP, had the same effect. I tried overclocking the monitor, at first to 65, then 70, then 75hz. Just at 65hz I noticed a huge "jitter" to how things moved across the screen. It litterally looked like the monitor was skipping frames.

I took the monitor back and bought a benq xl2420z (before the asus 278q I was also playing on 120hz monitor). I finished playing through crysis 3 on the benq 144hz monitor, buttery smooth always over 80fps maxed out.

While I have no test data to prove it, my theory is that this monitor can't handle 1440p at 60hz (it can display it, but its skipping frames). I should also note that while playing crysis 3 on this monitor, I changed the resolution to 1080p to see if that helped, and the game ran smooth. The entire time I played at both 1080p and 1440p I was running fraps, both resolutions I was locked at 60fps (with vsync on), even when the "jittery" feeling was going on.

Also, the input lag at 1440p was horrible. Changing the resolution to 1080p was noticeably better. Even with nothing running and just moving the mouse around on the desktop.

 

[EricJohn2004]

mhb112, that's the EXACT same thing I'm having problems with. It looks like the monitor is "skipping" frames. It's jittery like hell in all my games.

But the difference between me and you is that when I switch to 1080p, it doesn't go away. It's still just as noticeable.

Regardless, I'm going back to my 1080p BenQ XL2420TX. I'm just HOPING that this is all the monitors fault and not my GPU or anything.

Since it's doing the same thing at 1080p I feel like it may be something else going on. And it's worse in certain games than it is in others. But it's still noticeable in every single game I have.

 

[EricJohn2004]

It's just that I loved the picture of this monitor SO much. It looks so good, I wish it worked. And I've noticed that many reviewers recommend this monitor for gaming. And they say it's really smooth. So I don't get it. Many it is just a defective panel. Which I hope it is.

I guess I'll just have to wait for the new G-Sync monitors before I can get 1440p. And if the same thing happens then I guess it's on my end.

 

[EricJohn2004]

Also I should mention, I haven't downloaded the driver for this monitor yet either. It didn't come with a CD I don't think. And I can't find a legit one online. Maybe this is it, IDK.

 

[EricJohn2004]

Any other thoughts anyone? I really need some help with this.

 

[mhb112]

I also thought the picture was very nice, but there was without a doubt a huge input lag problem, even just on the desktop. And I tried using display port and dvi connection. It probably doesn't help that I came from a 1ms 144hz monitor, but the difference was too much for me. I am going to wait until the asus 1440p 120hz monitor is released in the next few months and try that.

 

[AnUnusedUsername]

Input lag on that (or any) 1440p monitor should not be noticeable compared to pretty much any other modern monitor. There are a few exceptions, but the vast majority of modern monitors have roughly equivalent input lag (within 10-15ms of each other). Only very few monitors (and lots of TVs) have unusually high or low input lag (and the BenQ isn't one of them, in fact reviews put it's input lag nearly equivalent to that of the ASUS).

Tearing and "lagging" are two completely different things. "Lagging" is usually the result of a bad internet connection. Tearing is when your GPU pushes more FPS than your monitor can display. Turning on vsync should nearly always fix tearing issues.

There is a big difference between 60Hz and 120Hz (obviously, since it's double the refresh rate). But most people can stand to play some games at 30FPS, so 60 shouldn't even approach unplayable.

Are you positive you're using a dual-link DVI cable? If you're using single-link, there's not enough bandwitdth for 2560x1440@60Hz, and that could explain your problem. You could also try display port.

 

[Brantyn Gerik]

well considering you went from a benq to a 1440p monitor, it is very understandable why would be experiencing input lag when doing a comparison between the two.

 

[AnUnusedUsername]

You'd be seeing tearing and lower framerate, sure. But not input lag. Input lag and refresh rate/response time are separate things.

Input lag is how long it takes for a frame to get through the image processing of your monitor, before it starts drawing it. Response time is related to how long it takes that image to draw once the monitor starts drawing it, and refresh rate is how many frames the monitor will attempt to draw in a given time. Obviously they all affect the outgoing image, but in different ways. These are the two extremes:

High input lag, low response time, and high refresh rate: This would mean your picture is smooth, but it's showing you what happened X ms ago, not what's happenning now.

Low input lag, high response time, and low refresh rate: Here you see what's happening right now, but the picture is blurry and choppy.

Obviously, different applications have different needs, and most monitors generally fall in the middle somewhere.