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Bydobob · Feb 12, 2017

1440p
IPS
Gsync/Freesync
144/165Hz
27 inch

These are the specs parroted out continually whenever it comes to gaming monitor recommendations. I started to believe it myself, so when it came to choosing a monitor recently I was sure that anything different to the above would be a compromise.

So it was that I bought this Agon AG271QG. Including a work discount that came to just over £500. Bargain.

Or so I thought. These panels, made by AU Optronics and shared across a multitude of manufacturers including Asus and Acer, are seriously compromised if you value black levels. I've owned and used a lot of monitors and TVs over the years and I have never seen such severe backlight bleed. Here's mine (over-exposure exaggerates the effect):

Playing the likes of Inside, Resident Evil 7 and Dying Light was horrific in all the wrong senses. Those huge bright patches in the corners when from yellowy-white to a horrible shit-stained brown whenever a dark colour was introduced. I wondered if I had a particularly poor panel but it seems mine was nothing out of the ordinary:

Rog swift forum:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?81679-PG279Q-Backlight-bleed
In action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2BsJQ8y_IA
Acer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV3a6jAV4ZQ&feature=youtu.be

The guy in the last vid is clearly able to overlook this flaw, so I guess if you're in that category you can ignore this thread as the ramblings of a fool. For anyone else, do your research!

As for me, I ended up swapping for the Acer Z271

This monitor has a glaring compromise in the form of a 1920x1080 resolution but you know what? The blacks and contrast afforded by its VA panel more than make up for it.

And it was £100 cheaper

. Food for thought for some of you.

Edit: Updates page 3. Second AG271QG:

masterkajo · Feb 12, 2017

Interesting... I myself am looking for a new monitor and cant believe the quality control issues I am seeing. I am still waiting for a monitor that does this right.

Sould I rather go Tn over ips? Or wait for new versions? Also, g-sync or freesync? which one is more future proof?

RoboPlato · Feb 12, 2017

Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

I Eat Thumbtacks · Feb 12, 2017

I prefer VA panels for superior contrast ratio and black levels. Too bad there isn't many VA monitors.

Deleted member 59090 · Feb 12, 2017

RoboPlato said:
Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

If you get a good one it's fine but this particular panel is notoriously bad with backlight bleed. People return them multiple times until they get one they can live with.

Pooya · Feb 12, 2017

IPS screens are not the one to get if you want good black levels. Even the best ones can't show convincing blacks.

VA panel has another big issue. Viewing Angles are horrific so PC usage is kinda iffy in another way. Nothing is perfect, if your use case is sitting in a dark room and play games right in front of it VA panel is obviously better. IPS is better for general purpose and working with computers overall.

It's better to just get a TV with VA panel and use it as a monitor though, they have much higher quality panels. I don't think there is any model that accepts 120Hz input unfortunately, so yeah... I'm using my BenQ TN monitor for online games still, rip...

Kyoufu · Feb 12, 2017

VA is the way to go until OLED becomes a thing at a consumer level.

Joqu · Feb 12, 2017

Yeah, I was looking into a monitor within that spec range last year, and they basically all had that issue and I honestly couldn't believe they were being sold at quite the premium back then, no matter how impressive it sounded on paper. That bleeding looks awful.

Went with something cheap instead, as a stopgap of sorts. Way less impressive, heck, it's a 1080p panel. But it doesn't do anything wonky which is what I expect from a monitor? I'm okay with it for now, because whatever is out there for now sure as hell doesn't sound like anything I want to deal with for that kind of money.

(and yeah, I went with a VA myself. Not perfect but the blacks made up for it)

Ryde3 · Feb 12, 2017

coming from a plasma TV, I bought the Sony x800D 4k TV and returned it because it had similar problems. I now have the LG OLED and it's worth every penny more.

Marmelade · Feb 12, 2017

Kyoufu said:
VA is the way to go until OLED becomes a thing at a consumer level.

Yeah, VA have problems of their own but I'll take those over weak contrast, IPS glow etc anytime

FoxSpirit · Feb 12, 2017

RoboPlato said:
Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

But what else? TN has terrible angles and poor colours, VA is traditionally a bit slow and mine also has poor colour gamut and accuracy but good contrast and angles (Eizo FG 2421).

But yeah, IPS backlight bleed is an issue. Was on my precalibrated LG too, though colours were awesome.

edit: since VA was already mentioned, I am not aware of another 120Hz VA panel besides mine. Plus 10-bit colour control so gradients are smoooooth.

Gareth Bale · Feb 12, 2017

Kyoufu said:
VA is the way to go until OLED becomes a thing at a consumer level.

How many VA G-Sync monitors are there with a decent resolution

are there even any?

I also don't understand why people care so much about the viewing angles of a monitor, especially when it comes to gaming. Practically it makes no sense.

QuantumSquid · Feb 12, 2017

if you can get a good IPS panel, it's way better than TN. the flawless viewing angles and vibrant colors are too good to pass up if you have the money and the time to invest in finding a good IPS display.

I Eat Thumbtacks · Feb 12, 2017

Gareth Bale said:
How many VA G-Sync monitors are there with a decent resolution

are there even any?

I don't think so, although the last time I was in the market for a monitor was over a year ago; so things could have changed since then. That's what I meant by there isn't enough VA monitors. All the higher res ones with extra features are IPS or TN.

pretty done · Feb 12, 2017

Yea this is why I went with a 27' 144hz 1ms TN panel. It was like half the price and looks amazing with no backlight bleed.

BenQ ftw

Sword Of Doom · Feb 12, 2017

RoboPlato said:
Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

I'd prefer LCD panel technology to die already and be replaced by something better.

pretty done said:
Yea this is why I went with a 27' 144hz 1ms TN panel. It was like half the price and looks amazing with no backlight bleed.

BenQ ftw

Depends what you use it for. If it's only for gaming l, then maybe it's a better choice.

For the record I recently bought an acer ips gsync monitor that's 27" and backlight bleed isn't really an issue. I was surprised at how blur free the panel is on the normal pixel refresh rate. My TV is a plasma so I'm very sensitive to slow LCD panels.

I have to say though for the price they're charging the monitor's design and build quality is pretty poor. I miss the relatively minimal and sleek design of my dell.

TSM · Feb 12, 2017

Gareth Bale said:
How many VA G-Sync monitors are there with a decent resolution

are there even any?

I also don't understand why people care so much about the viewing angles of a monitor, especially when it comes to gaming. Practically it makes no sense.

Viewing angles isn't just off to the sides. With larger panels, while sitting a reasonable distance from your monitor, often the top of the screen is a different color from the bottom of your screen when using a TN monitor. Just moving your head up or down a few inches causes a shift in color.

Pooya · Feb 12, 2017

Gareth Bale said:
I also don't understand why people care so much about the viewing angles of a monitor, especially when it comes to gaming. Practically it makes no sense.

When you sit very close to the screen viewing angles matter. If it's poor, you would see color shifting along the edges of the screen, notably if it's a large screen. For sub 30", VA should be fine but yeah I don't believe they make many of those. VA panels has something like sub 45 degrees viewing angles, it's really really bad. It doesn't matter much for a home theater system but PC usage is quite different.

Wallach · Feb 12, 2017

It's called the panel lottery for a reason.

Unfortunately, a good IPS that has minimal backlight bleed is still the best we have for gaming. I looked at one of the latest VA panels in Samsung's new curved UW and the response time is still just not acceptable.

ZeroMaverick · Feb 12, 2017

Yep. My 3ds has dual IPS screens, and this is exactly what happened to them after, like, a week of use. It's fucking lame.

sleepnaught · Feb 12, 2017

Gareth Bale said:
How many VA G-Sync monitors are there with a decent resolution

are there even any?

I also don't understand why people care so much about the viewing angles of a monitor, especially when it comes to gaming. Practically it makes no sense.

Really? I guess it depends on what and how you're playing. Ive been on a CRPG binge lately . After long sessions I don't like to hunch over, but prefer to kick my feet up on the desk or sink back a bit in my chair for comfort. On my Ben Q 144hz display, the top third of the screen begins to wash out the moment I'm not sitting with perfect posture. In dark areas of the game it's impossible to see anything on that top third of the screen, making me either re-adjust the monitors angle or change my seating position. Maybe not a big deal for some, but it sure gets annoying when you just wanna be lazy

pretty done · Feb 12, 2017

Sword Of Doom said:
I'd prefer LCD panel technology to die already and be replaced by something better.

Depends what you use it for. If it's only for gaming l, then maybe it's a better choice.

Yea it's only for gaming, I've got a 27' IPS as a second monitor that I watch stuff on, but to be honest I don't think the colors on it are that much better than my BenQ.

RazorbackDB · Feb 12, 2017

I mean my isn't perfect either but that screenshot looks really bad, the lower left corner is the worse for me but unless I'm right in front of the screen it's barely noticeable even in dark games.

CrazyHorse · Feb 12, 2017

I bought some high grade IPS monitors and hated them. I couldn't believe that they were marketed as the best monitors.

I got a Benq VZ2470H and it was much much better. The newest VA monitors trounce the IPS ones.

Pingoreous · Feb 12, 2017

Black light bleed is more visible for a camera when you take a picture. Your eyes will not see it as much. One big problem i had with the TN panels i tried was i couldn't get a good colorful picture i was happy with. I was constantly calibrating the screen. Its was either be unhappy with the picture all the time or the rare occasion if i was to notice black light bleed. I found a good ACER Predator 1440p Gsync monitor with little light bleed.

Sword Of Doom · Feb 12, 2017

pretty done said:
Yea it's only for gaming, I've got a 27' IPS as a second monitor that I watch stuff on, but to be honest I don't think the colors on it are that much better than my BenQ.

I had a cheap $200 Asus 24" 1ms TN for a while and it was really struggling with colors. Yellows looked like mustard color and it just looked wrong. Just turned me off on TN panels altogether. Depends on the quality I guess

TSM · Feb 12, 2017

Sword Of Doom said:
I had a cheap $200 Asus 24" 1ms TN for a while and it was really struggling with colors. Yellows looked like mustard color and it just looked wrong. Just turned me off on TN panels altogether. Depends on the quality I guess

One of the biggest problems with TN monitors was that most of them were 6 bit displays. I'm not sure if there's been much improvement on that front. I know that some higher end TN monitors started using 8 bit displays around the time gsync was launched.

Coma Ecliptic · Feb 12, 2017

Here's the thing with IPS, most run the brightness way too high. This is always going to influence more backlight bleed regardless of what panel you have. For example, I have two GSync monitors, Asus PG348Q and the Asus PG278Q. Out of the box the brightness settings where insane, pushing nearly 200 nits brightness. I calibrated it with my i1 Display Pro to 120 Luminance (brightness setting), gamma of 2.2 and white point at 6500K (D65). Once I calibrated it really killed the bleed. Calibrated my brightness is now set at 29 with a contrast of 50.

I suggest watching this video . It's a easy to understand 19 minutes and you spent $600+, why not set it up properly.

WARNING: When you set up your monitor correctly, i.e. not in 'EYE SCORCH BRIGHTNESS MODE', it's going to look a little dim at first. Once your eyes adjust it'll look light years better (Pun intended).

Eirulan · Feb 12, 2017

I'm posting this from a (IPS) Benq GW2765HT WQHD monitor.
I never experienced this - if I had, I'd returned the monitor instantly.
Black is black, white is white, everything is as expected and this for a very good price.

Guess I got lucky or are Benq monitors know to be without those issues..?

Mawile · Feb 12, 2017

You know how flux is suppose to help with blue light filtering? Well, this an IPS monitor with the strongest setting of flux, Dark Room Mode.

Just flux

External blue light filter on top with flux

A lot of blue light is seeping through the monitor. The camera may not show it too well, but it's actually a lot more significant in person.

Woffls · Feb 12, 2017

Is now just a bad time to buy a gaming monitor? I've been struggling to decide what to get, and that's around like £500 where I'd expect more choice.

Am looking for 1440p, 1ms, GSync at 24" or 27"

Keihart · Feb 12, 2017

But there are IPS monitors with over 99% RGB accurancy, those should have good color accurancy , don't they?

I would still prefer having an OLED screen because those are some real blacks but until then my ASUS MX279H look better than my tv in contrast and color department.

I hate bad angles and weak blacks, i don't care much about latency, never owned a laggy enough monitor to make a difference.

OCD Guy · Feb 12, 2017

Unfortunately when it comes to panel uniformity all lcd and even oled panels suffer issues.

Every lcd panel can suffer from backlight bleed, VA panels are generally less prone to it than an IPS panel but VA panels suffer from gamma shift, and often smearing on dark colours, and TN panels have horrific viewing angles.

You're then left with oled which aside from mobile devices and the odd overpriced laptop aren't really common in pc monitors, but they suffer from uniformity issues on the lower end of the greyscale.

It's a complete lottery unfortunately, and the only way around it is buying from a retailer with a great return policy so you can keep exchanging until you get a good one.

chrizzz09 · Feb 12, 2017

QuantumSquid said:
if you can get a good IPS panel, it's way better than TN. the flawless viewing angles and vibrant colors are too good to pass up if you have the money and the time to invest in finding a good IPS display.

I agree, after first having my Macbook Pro display as a reference of how good IPS displays can be, I bought two years ago the Dell U2515H and it is god-like.

25"
IPS
1440p
100% sRGB
Factory calibrated with a signed calibration result sheet in your box.

It's amazing.

Keihart · Feb 12, 2017

CynicalBastard said:
Here's the thing with IPS, most run the brightness way too high. This is always going to influence more backlight bleed regardless of what panel you have. For example, I have two GSync monitors, Asus PG348Q and the Asus PG278Q. Out of the box the brightness settings where insane, pushing nearly 200 nits brightness. I calibrated it with my i1 Display Pro to 120 Luminance (brightness setting), gamma of 2.2 and white point at 6500K (D65). Once I calibrated it really killed the bleed. Calibrated my brightness is now set at 29 with a contrast of 50.

I suggest watching this video . It's a easy to understand 19 minutes and you spent $600+, why not set it up properly.

WARNING: When you set up your monitor correctly, i.e. not in 'EYE SCORCH BRIGHTNESS MODE', it's going to look a little dim at first. Once your eyes adjust it'll look light years better (Pun intended).

This so much, i hate displays with the back-light set to almost max, calibrating or at least trying to can make such a difference.

This is one of the reasons i find hard to shop for tvs on a store, they are always set to "dynamic" mode and almost never calibrated in normally lit a space.

Pingoreous · Feb 12, 2017

Mawile said:
You know how flux is suppose to help with blue light filtering? Well, this an IPS monitor with the strongest setting of flux, Dark Room Mode.

Just flux

External blue light filter on top with flux

A lot of blue light is seeping through the monitor. The camera may not show it too well, but it's actually a lot more significant in person.

that's really bad, i would return that. QC did a bad job with that monitor.

samn · Feb 12, 2017

I was really excited for my 40" 2014 Samsung TV, but it gets the 'dirty screen effect' with white/blue colours. It's really awful for games with a blue sky at the top of the screen. My cheap BenQ £100 24" monitor is perfectly uniform in comparison. Apparently this is a common thing with large LED TVs.

OCD Guy · Feb 12, 2017

CynicalBastard said:
Here's the thing with IPS, most run the brightness way too high. This is always going to influence more backlight bleed regardless of what panel you have. For example, I have two GSync monitors, Asus PG348Q and the Asus PG278Q. Out of the box the brightness settings where insane, pushing nearly 200 nits brightness. I calibrated it with my i1 Display Pro to 120 Luminance (brightness setting), gamma of 2.2 and white point at 6500K (D65). Once I calibrated it really killed the bleed. Calibrated my brightness is now set at 29 with a contrast of 50.

Absolutely.

As well as the brightness control on a monitor I find what works as band aid is room lighting.

In a bright room backlight bleed is harder to notice, and for those that prefer viewing in darker environments then I find a bias light placed behind the monitor can work wonders too.

samn said:
I was really excited for my 40" 2014 Samsung TV, but it gets the 'dirty screen effect' with white/blue colours. It's really awful for games with a blue sky at the top of the screen. My cheap BenQ £100 24" monitor is perfectly uniform in comparison. Apparently this is a common thing with large LED TVs.

Do you mean on panning shots? If so then yeah on larger panels they're more susceptible to it, although again it's a complete lottery. That's another thing that bugs me, especially on games where the camera pans from left to right across large blocks of uniform colour, whether it be a 2d platformer, or Fifa etc

The first thing I do when I get a new display is test for backlight bleed (in a pitch black room) and then use dse/vertical banding tests etc. If it's not good enough then I send it back lol.

inner-G · Feb 12, 2017

I had a 27" 1440p 60hz IPS (ASUS PB278Q)

The glow around bright colors and on dark screens bothered me in games, especially in dark scenes, even though I'm used to working on an IPS (iMac).

I got a Dell S2716DG which is still 27" 1440p, but is 144hz/TN and I think I like it better for gaming. The pixel response is noticeably faster, the colors dont 'glow', and there's not glowing in dark scenes.

I think that overall, g-sync made a much bigger difference than IPS/TN or even the faster refresh rate.

pretty done · Feb 12, 2017

Sword Of Doom said:
I had a cheap $200 Asus 24" 1ms TN for a while and it was really struggling with colors. Yellows looked like mustard color and it just looked wrong. Just turned me off on TN panels altogether. Depends on the quality I guess

Haha was it the VG248QE? I just upgraded from that one to the BenQ XL2730Z. The ASUS is a great price for a 1ms 144hz monitor but the colors are so damn bad that I just couldn't take it anymore. Even calibrated the ASUS had such bad colors that I had to put on digital vibrance.

clarknova156 · Feb 12, 2017

The quality control on these higher end IPS gaming monitors is hot garbage. It's so bad I gave up and just went for refresh rate and input latency. If I wanna play it on something with good PQ I use my 55 inch OLED.

Seriously the fact that no one the PC Gaming editorial industry hasn't constantly talked about this very large problem is kind of astounding. The panel lottery for PC monitors is getting worse each year.

Lister · Feb 12, 2017

I've been lucky with my IPS panels and hae never had more than one or two corners with slight bleed. nothing like the examples above, thankfully.

IMHO TN panel is not an option. The viewing angles are so bad on most of them that even small movements of my head are enough to create color shift that is noticeable. It drives me bonkers!

When there are affordable OLED's with high refrehs rates and HDr support, I'm in.

sirap · Feb 12, 2017

"Gamer" monitors are overpriced when it comes to actual panel quality.

Dezzy · Feb 12, 2017

I like my VA panel TV, but I'd only want IPS for monitors. Sitting as close as I do to a monitor, I keep the brightness down at 30-40% anyway, and the blacks are decent at that point. VA gamma shift is much more obvious than the limited blacks a monitor to me.

The gamma and color uniformity on IPS is more important to me than amazing contrast. As for IPS glow, it's just barely noticeable to me, and only in VERY dark scenes.

Lister · Feb 12, 2017

sirap said:
"Gamer" monitors are overpriced when it comes to actual panel quality.

Not sure what you mean wiht this. the only "gamer" thing that usually increases prices to a level I don't think is reasonable are Gsync modules.

Firebrand · Feb 12, 2017

RoboPlato said:
Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

I find the IPS glow is still preferrable to how dark images look on TN. The glow on my Samsung PLS is blue though and fairly uniform at corners only.

Gareth Bale said:
I also don't understand why people care so much about the viewing angles of a monitor, especially when it comes to gaming. Practically it makes no sense.

The shifting across the display in brightness and color is noticeable when just looking at it head-on, unless it's a really tiny screen.

Zafir · Feb 12, 2017

RoboPlato said:
Yeah, I'm always surprised when the PC crowd totes IPS as tbe superior display technology. You'd think a community known for valuing high fidelity would have a difference preference.

IPS is great if you get a good panel. It's just sometimes you can get back-light bleed, and it can be a bit annoying. I've never seen it as bad as in the OP though, that's quite unfortunate.

sirap · Feb 12, 2017

Lister said:
Not sure what you mean wiht this. the only "gamer" thing that usually increases prices to a level I don't think is reasonable are Gsync modules.

Quality control. In my experience professional-grade monitors or even televisions that belong in the same price bracket as Gsync/Freesync IPS gaming panels are far superior in that regard.

YMMV though, but I have gone through a shit-ton of monitors (I had my own animation/vfx studio and we ordered a lot of Eizo's and Ultrasharps)

Micerider · Feb 12, 2017

Got the same screen as OP and I concur...darker games are a pain. For all other games : still way better than TN (which are not great with darker games either anyway).

VA is great to overcome this. But all VA screens I could test had a tendency to show a bit of ghosting...especially from a close distance (I don't mind it on my TV). And 27" 1440p Gsync screens in VA are...well...just not there (and I don't feel going ultrawide 32" at that resolution)

Still, the Agon is a great screen, much better than any TNs I had before.

Note : even without BLB, you can't escape IPS glow, which is as much as an offender for poor dark games experiences IMHO

Spukc · Feb 12, 2017

sirap said:
Quality control. In my experience professional-grade monitors or even televisions that belong in the same price bracket as Gsync/Freesync IPS gaming panels are far superior in that regard.

Yup dell ultrasharp 1440p screen still holds up 700 bucks. Ips display no ips glow AT ALL

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