I am in the market for a new monitor after ~8 years using a Planar PX2320MW, which still works well. I am seeking something a bit bigger and higher resolution because I recently upgraded my video cards to 2 x GTX 780 in SLI. My Planar is 1920 x 1200, and I almost feel like dual 780s are "insulted" by the relatively light workload that puts on them. I have worked with dual and triple monitor setups a little, but I think I really just prefer to go with one larger, higher resolution monitor.
I am of course a gamer to a significant degree, and I like FPS genre of games. So good response time and low input lag are important to me. That said, the Planar was not really a gaming monitor; it was released before the newer 120+ Hz LCD technology was available. And it has mostly been fine for my purposes. Beyond that I am not solely a gamer. I do use my machine for productivity work mostly in Excel and Mathematica. I also like to watch some videos and movies on my computer. I don't do photo or video editing, but I do value reasonably true color reproduction. So I guess I am generally looking for a very good "general use" monitor that also games well.
I decided to eliminate 4K resolution because I don't think it is still somewhat of a bleeding edge technology, and as such relatively expensive, generally entails some compromises, and would require some seriously powerful and expensive video cards to drive for gaming purposes [more than the 2 x 780 in SLI that I have].
So, that said, I decided to step down to something between 4K and 1920 x 1200. Because I do like the 16:10 aspect ratio of my Planar, I initially decided to look at 2560 x 1600 panels. But what I found was that the selection is relatively limited and the prices relatively high. So I decided to focus on the 2560 x 1400 sector.
There I discovered a couple of interesting contenders that I'm now trying to decide between: ASUS PG278Q and BenQ BL3200PT. I know that I am somewhat comparing apples and oranges here because the ASUS is a pure gaming monitor with TN panel and the BenQ is a creativity monitor with a VA panel. But that reflects the fact that I'm not a pure gamer nor a pure productivity user. I kind of split the two 50/50, so I'd really like a monitor that excels at both, or at least excels at one while minimizing the compromises on the other.
I am sure that the ASUS does it excel at gaming. And I'm confident the BenQ excels in legibility and general use. The real question is: which one will be less of a compromise on the tasks at which it does not excel?
I really like the over-sized panel on the BenQ, which apparently makes it very legible without any font scaling. And I really like the reported smoothness of game play on the ASUS with its 144 Hz and G-Sync technology.
Gamers generally report minimal lag and ghosting on the BenQ, but I'm sure the ASUS is amazing in that regard. While users report that the colors and overall picture quality on this ASUS are among the best they've seen on a TN panel, but I'm sure the BenQ's VA panel does better.
Reports I've read online seem to indicate that the initial quality control on the ASUS is more of a problem than on the BenQ, but I don't want to give that much if any weight in my decision. Because, even if that is true, I am assuming that I would be able to RMA / exchange the ASUS until I got a good one. That would certainly be annoying, but worthwhile if it ultimately results in the more satisfying purchase.
Price wise, they are certainly in the same league. The street price of the ASUS is running a bit higher, but definitely within 20% of the BenQ. So I don't want make that much of a factor in my decision making process either.
And while I'd like to buy both of them so that I could use the ASUS for gaming and the BenQ for everything else, that's not in the cards. I don't really have the space or budget for 2 of these monitors right now.
I could probably reach a decision on my own pretty quickly if I could just compare the two side-by-side in a store. But I haven't found any place around me that seems to carry both. So I can't do that.
So which would you recommend and why?
Thanks for any feedback!
I am of course a gamer to a significant degree, and I like FPS genre of games. So good response time and low input lag are important to me. That said, the Planar was not really a gaming monitor; it was released before the newer 120+ Hz LCD technology was available. And it has mostly been fine for my purposes. Beyond that I am not solely a gamer. I do use my machine for productivity work mostly in Excel and Mathematica. I also like to watch some videos and movies on my computer. I don't do photo or video editing, but I do value reasonably true color reproduction. So I guess I am generally looking for a very good "general use" monitor that also games well.
I decided to eliminate 4K resolution because I don't think it is still somewhat of a bleeding edge technology, and as such relatively expensive, generally entails some compromises, and would require some seriously powerful and expensive video cards to drive for gaming purposes [more than the 2 x 780 in SLI that I have].
So, that said, I decided to step down to something between 4K and 1920 x 1200. Because I do like the 16:10 aspect ratio of my Planar, I initially decided to look at 2560 x 1600 panels. But what I found was that the selection is relatively limited and the prices relatively high. So I decided to focus on the 2560 x 1400 sector.
There I discovered a couple of interesting contenders that I'm now trying to decide between: ASUS PG278Q and BenQ BL3200PT. I know that I am somewhat comparing apples and oranges here because the ASUS is a pure gaming monitor with TN panel and the BenQ is a creativity monitor with a VA panel. But that reflects the fact that I'm not a pure gamer nor a pure productivity user. I kind of split the two 50/50, so I'd really like a monitor that excels at both, or at least excels at one while minimizing the compromises on the other.
I am sure that the ASUS does it excel at gaming. And I'm confident the BenQ excels in legibility and general use. The real question is: which one will be less of a compromise on the tasks at which it does not excel?
I really like the over-sized panel on the BenQ, which apparently makes it very legible without any font scaling. And I really like the reported smoothness of game play on the ASUS with its 144 Hz and G-Sync technology.
Gamers generally report minimal lag and ghosting on the BenQ, but I'm sure the ASUS is amazing in that regard. While users report that the colors and overall picture quality on this ASUS are among the best they've seen on a TN panel, but I'm sure the BenQ's VA panel does better.
Reports I've read online seem to indicate that the initial quality control on the ASUS is more of a problem than on the BenQ, but I don't want to give that much if any weight in my decision. Because, even if that is true, I am assuming that I would be able to RMA / exchange the ASUS until I got a good one. That would certainly be annoying, but worthwhile if it ultimately results in the more satisfying purchase.
Price wise, they are certainly in the same league. The street price of the ASUS is running a bit higher, but definitely within 20% of the BenQ. So I don't want make that much of a factor in my decision making process either.
And while I'd like to buy both of them so that I could use the ASUS for gaming and the BenQ for everything else, that's not in the cards. I don't really have the space or budget for 2 of these monitors right now.
I could probably reach a decision on my own pretty quickly if I could just compare the two side-by-side in a store. But I haven't found any place around me that seems to carry both. So I can't do that.
So which would you recommend and why?
Thanks for any feedback!
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