1080P 144Hz to 1440P 60Hz: From Smooth to High Res.

[TheNinjaNextDor]

I am delivering on my promise that I would post a review/transitional post/rant about the jump from 1080P Asus that ran at 120Hz with a lightboost hack enabled for basically the smoothest experience a monitor can deliver, to a 1440P Asus PB278Q which has a 60Hz refresh rate. I want to note that I am coming from two EXTREMES in monitors. I will not include price in this because it really isn't about even the monitors, just the experience. The only reason they are there is because they are a good reference. This is purely opinion based!

The Asus VG248QE: The Bad: This monitor had a TN panel, and a really REALLY ugly one at that. The colors are terrible and everything just looks bright and not natural. Anything but games looked terrible, and the shiny bezels reflected light when the sun was out. I know that you may think that TN being bad is just a thing that people way, it's not. It really is bad.

The Good: While delivering absolutely horrendous color, this panel was BUTTERY smooth. You felt like you were ahead of everyone else in games like BF4 and CS:GO. Motion blur and tearing were non existent. With the lightboost hack the colors were slightly better (depending on your eyes of course) and the motion blur and tearing were even less bad, if there at all. I would give this experience a 7/10.

The Asus PB278Q: The Bad: Although I have not had this monitor for very long, I can point out some bad things. There are some drawbacks with 60Hz (I know you can OC) and that includes the usual less smooth movement and the branding of this panel not being specifically gaming oriented, but more for professionals who game on the side sort of deal. The good outways the bad in so many ways I can't even tell you. Another bad thing (for some) is that the monitor takes a lot more horsepower to drive in games. I get about 60FPS in BF4 with slightly lower settings than at 1080P.

The Good: This monitor uses a PLS 1440P display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The monitor is completely matte all the way around. The COLORS are AMAZING. In comparison this monitor is just beautiful. The 1440P display is just so nice being PLS is just added amazing. The dreaded 16ms response time and 60Hz refresh rate is just not even noticeable. You have to remember just how short a millisecond is. The most I notice in terms of tearing is that the mouse on the desktop has some blur and I get that in games (OMG) but it's really not at all noticeable. The added pixels and 3" increases the space you have to work with and is a lot better than 1080P but not quite as good as two 1080P monitors for productivity. I would give this experience a 9/10.

 

Who the smooth 1080P experience is for: This is for the pure gamer, who doesn't care about color accuracy or screen space. This person needs their games on medium settings to get 300FPS and not miss a frame in the game. You want the smoothest experience possible.

 

Who the 1440P experience is for: This is for anyone who wants to have great colors, making for a better all around experience. You want your games to look good while keeping the competitive edge high. This is also for people who do detailed photoshop work or video editing (though you may want a PAXXXX monitor) and want to get things right.

 

Conclusion: The 1440P experience wins hands down the all around great award. I have played hours of CG:GO on this monitor and the experience is better than before. I do not notice the 60Hz and 16ms response time making my experience any worse than the 1080P 120Hz. Better even. If you are debating about making the jump from whatever you have but don't know if 1440P is right for you, it likely is. Obviously the new Asus G-Sync 120Hz 1440P (TN) panels will be smoother, i don't care, the experience in gaming, web browsing, and everything in between is better. I hope this helped someone, please share your thoughts on the topic.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dizmo]

Great review!

[Imabigmac]

Very nice, and I  agree with your thoughts on 1440p.

[SirRoderick]

I like that you went out of your way to say both are a valid option, it's mostly about your preferences. Hell I would even like a different monitor for different games! CS:GO on a 144Hz BenQ is a far better experience, but I'd love the better colours and resolution to work with Starcraft II.

[Osmium]

I think this is a good summary. I am not a fan of the IPS or 144hz Master Race sort of speak.

[ManOfDisguise]

I got a BenQ XL2411T for christmas which has the same panel as the 248QE. And I can say going from my ANCIENT OLD Dell 17" monitor which was I think VA, not sure though, TN just looks baaad. 144Hz is a noticeable difference and my experience is pretty much the same as OP's is. One thing that annoys me about this monitor is the damn brightness. Right now I have it at 65, but it still feels like someone is pointing a f*cking flashlight straight at your eyes! So damn bright. 

 

If I could get a new monitor I would go for IPS without a single hesitation. Damn why didnt I get that Acer H236HL monitor! It looked so beautiful in the store, but too bad my BenQ was already ordered.

 

 

TL:DR - I'm a fool for going TN, IPS is an all around better experience

[Alex(PlayMedium)]

I agree with you, but I'll stick with my TN panel, because gaming at 60hz gives me headaches after a few hours and man, the smoothness when switching back to a game that runs vsync@144fps properly from a game that tears its guts out at 60fps is almost an orgasmic feeling... I hope OLED displays in the 27" range will be availble soon with hgh res AND high refresh rate.

[TheNinjaNextDor]

I agree with you, but I'll stick with my TN panel, because gaming at 60hz gives me headaches after a few hours and man, the smoothness when switching back to a game that runs vsync@144fps properly from a game that tears its guts out at 60fps is almost an orgasmic feeling... I hope OLED displays in the 27" range will be availble soon with hgh res AND high refresh rate.

I do have to agree with that. Its the whole reason I got a 144Hz monitor in the first place. Hopefully 1440P 144Hz PLS monitors come sometime soon.

[Zeruel]

I do have to agree with that. Its the whole reason I got a 144Hz monitor in the first place. Hopefully 1440P 144Hz PLS monitors come sometime soon.

I have a BENQ XL2420T. I think benq is ahead of ASUS in the "gaming" monitor range. Even Linus noticed the color difference in the new "TE" gaming monitors from benq. I do notice the colors are the best but I still think things look great.

[Satlen]

I would just use both, and whenever playing a story game, use the PLS panel and whenever playing a game of CS, use the TN. Great post though, cleared up some questions I was having

[BlackMirror]

Great Review ,but i wouldnt really understand why you tested it on CS:GO.In CS:GO (especially 5v5) the 60hz and 16ms are probably the biggest disadvantage than in any other game out there.I can totally understand it though if you just play for fun or just public matches and dont really want an ''advantage'' and just want the game to look good.

 

Again:Really nice Review

[Grave]

Thanks for the info and review. Is the reason behind the 1440p monitor requiring more horsepower to run the fact that it's PLS? I'm new to monitors, and know absolutely nothing about PLS. Barely know anything about IPS..

[TheNinjaNextDor]

Great Review ,but i wouldnt really understand why you tested it on CS:GO.In CS:GO (especially 5v5) the 60hz and 16ms are probably the biggest disadvantage than in any other game out there.I can totally understand it though if you just play for fun or just public matches and dont really want an ''advantage'' and just want the game to look good.

 

Again:Really nice Review

Thanks! I said CS GO because its a fast paced game. I dont find that im at any disadvantage in the game. 16ms is so quick that i dont think that anyone could notice that. Plus everyone else probably has 60Hz monitors as well

[Flipside]

The choice between 1440p 60hz and 1080p 144hz has been a real conundrum in my head lately. I like to play my games as competitively as possible so I think I might end up going for the 1080p 144hz. To bad you can't get 1440p@144hz, that would be glorious for CS:GO.