Monitor upgrade

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Having been monumentally disappointed with the RTX series and Radeon VII, and Navi likely just being 'mid' range i.e. not as powerful as RTX 2080 or Radeon VII I decided to move to 1440p rather than my dream of 4k, and possibly an RTX 2060.

I got an Iiyama XUB2792QSU-B1 for £285, which is more than I really wanted to spend on a 1440p 60hz monitor as an interim upgrade, but fine. Blown away by the image quality and resolution upgrade. It's a gorgeous IPS panel. ... until I saw that in darker scenes in games it had edge bleed so bad that in one corner the screen was just orange (about 3x3" pure Tango with lighter shades for another few inches). To the point of NPCs walking into me and me still not being able to see them. It had a little edge bleed around the rest but nothing intrusive except for the bottom right corner. And as a bonus it had a pixel stuck on green.

So I decided to take a punt on the AOC AGON AG271QG.

Image quality good, IPS glow present but not really an issue even in dark scenes (maybe coming from a budget IPS monitor inured me to that). Gsync very nice. Unfortunately the speakers crackle very loudly at certain points (other monitors' don't, even with the same cable and drivers, so it's an issue with the monitor) and it too had intrusive edge bleed in the bottom right corner (edge bleed elsewhere but not problematic). And as a bonus a dead pixel, which is unnoticeable during gaming but is quite intrusive during work on any white background. So that's a £550 refund request there. And as a further bonus, the item was sold as new but the UK plug and power adapter were not in their plastic bags inside the box unlike all other accessories and on closer inspection the tape sealing the box had 2 layers...

I'd optimistically ordered a 2060 AMP! when I ordered the Iiyama monitor but cancelled that order when it became clear the monitor was no good.

Though I have been surprised by how well my 970 holds up at 1440p in many titles actually. Especially with gsync.

I'm pretty desperate for an upgrade. Anything 1440p, 27", IPS (maybe VA), with freesync or gsync. Preferably something that gives me the best odds possible of getting a monitor with acceptable BLB (i.e. a monitor that hasn't been tangoed) and no dead pixels.

There's a raft of 1440p 75 / 144hz IPS stuff by Acer but the QC looks terrible going by user reviews. The new Gigabyte one looks interesting but for £540+ I'd probably just buy a gsync screen... if there were one without shockingly bad QC anyway...

The Iiyama monitor has generally good customer reviews, so it could have been bad luck. I was tempted to order a new one when it's back in stock. Although I note that the monitor I received had exactly the same symptoms as one in the only negative customer review...

I'm considering getting the Asus PG279Q from the 1 store that does do dead pixel guarantees (though not BLB...). But that's £700 total and I might as well just go straight for 4k with that kind of spend.

Any suggestions? Either for specific monitors or ways to mitigate getting screwed by the panel lottery.
 
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SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Where did you source the Iiyama?

I've heard very good things about it on various sites. I would have thought the issue you faced was due to the outfit it's being sold from rather than Iiyama's QC themselves.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Yeah, direct, I'd never buy hardware other than small accessories (budget headphones etc) off a marketplace seller.

Scan concern me, with the wording of their returns policy and the frankly terrible attitude of their reps on the Hexus forums. Some of it's pretty bad, blaming the customer even when they're bang to rights and already agreed a refund etc. I might buy storage and GPUs there, but not something like a monitor where it's defectiveness is more subjective.

Amazon might have sent me 'used' goods as new, but at least they've not quibbled on returns and are covering postage. Though it hardly inspires confidence for future purchases...

I'd consider OCUK. OCUK used to have an 'exclusive' dead pixel guarantee they offered on the top ROG monitors like the PG279Q.. but I notice the text has vanished from the product listing. They also had that on sale for £600 briefly, and though I saw it I neglected to pounce.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Yeah, direct, I'd never buy hardware other than small accessories (budget headphones etc) off a marketplace seller.

Scan concern me, with the wording of their returns policy and the frankly terrible attitude of their reps on the Hexus forums.

Amazon might have sent me 'used' goods as new, but at least they've not quibbled on returns and are covering postage. Though it hardly inspires confidence for future purchases...

I'd consider OCUK. OCUK used to have an 'exclusive' dead pixel guarantee they offered on the top ROG monitors like the PG279Q.. but I notice the text has vanished from the product listing. They also had that on sale for £600 briefly, and though I saw it I neglected to pounce.

I meant the AOC, not the Iiyama, sorry, brain not functioning.

I agree, Amazon's return policy is generally one of the best.

My recent experience with Scan with a monitor, one of it's "features" on my Acer is that it has a green sort of power management, but whenever that was selected, the monitor wouldn't wake from sleep. I returned it but Scan said they couldn't reproduce the issue. In the end I just disabled the setting, but despite if they could reproduce the issue, most places would have replaced it based on the buyers feedback. This did put me off them a bit actually.

OCUK are always very good, and at least on this monitor their prices seem competitive. It's also interesting to read their reviews particulary about how little backlight bleed they've both experienced. It's just a shame there are only 2 reviews.

I'm sure it's my own conspiracy theory, but I do wonder if manufacturers have a grading system on stock and retailers can pay a higher price for higher grade stock.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I was about to get another AOC off OCUK, partly based on the user reviews indicating people had more luck with them. But the forums tell a different story and people have been just as likely to get egregious bleed on that model as anywhere else.

The Acer VG270Ubmiipx is £190 on Amazon atm (1440p, IPS, 75hz freesync) but the reviews are so bad I won't even try it, sucker though I am for a good 'bargain'.

Acer are having a sale on their store right now and their 144hz 1440p IPS freesync VG270UPbmiipx is on sale for ~£315. Or at least that's the price they list, it's not in stock :/ Why one would take the time to discount something not on sale is kind of beyond me (it's not been in stock any time in the last few weeks I've been checking).

Hmm.. may just need to wait for Amazon to get the Iiyama in stock again and roll the dice. Although I shall wait for them to have more than 1 unit back in stock as otherwise I'll probably end up being sold the monitor I'm returning again as 'new', lawl.

There really is no good answer to trying to buy a monitor, especially an IPS one...
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Took a punt on the Acer XB271HU. 3 stuck pixels and I think (not checked properly yet) very bad bleed in 2 of the corners........
 

stegor

Bright Spark
Took a punt on the Acer XB271HU. 3 stuck pixels and I think (not checked properly yet) very bad bleed in 2 of the corners........
I had one of these for a pretty good price of £450. No dead pixels and light bleed was less than average once I researched it (after buying it I might add!). Sold it for about the same as I preferred my 1080p monitor, an 8 year old Samsung. Everything looked artificial and the icons were too small on my desktop lol.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Took a punt on another XB271HU . Stopped counting at 21 stuck pixels. And yes, they were definitely stuck pixels, not bits of lint on the screen.

Twenty-one. Possibly more.

I'm gonna give up for a while now. It's a freaking joke.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Might seem strange but have you tried Curry's? Always good to have a place you can physically go to when dealing with this sort of thing IME.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
No. I did go down to the local one to see what monitors they had on display - their selection was never much good but they had a few gaming ones last time I went. Only to find that they now have pretty much 0 monitors on display. I suppose everyone buying gaming systems just buys a cheapo 1080p monitor and thinks that's the point of the operation.

As for the returns process, the returns are free with Amazon where products are defective - and even with the utterly ludicrous allowances manufacturers give themselves for defective pixels, 21 is classed as faulty.

I did order a Q3279VWFD8 (1440p, 75hz, IPS, freesync, normally ~£200 but on sale for £163). Had it a week or so. Bleed is okay. No defective pixels that I can see so far (touch wood!). Got an RTX 2060 and after fiddling with CRU, gsync compatible works including LFC. (which is not bad considering the range is meant to be 48-75hz) It's not a very responsive panel, I thought there was tearing at one point but it was actually just the slowness of the response time making the image a bit ghosty(!).

However, I can live with that, and it's an upgrade in colours and spec over my 23" budget IPS AOC monitor from 2012. I'll stick with this for now and review options down the line when 4k becomes more viable.

I just can't believe what a comprehensive stitch-up the higher end market is! Outrageous!
 
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