1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:06,160 This isn't the first time that I've checked out a monitor with AMD Freync, 2 00:00:04,319 --> 00:00:11,040 and you can watch my video about the LG 34UM67 3 00:00:07,839 --> 00:00:13,840 up in the little eye thing, but it might 4 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:18,720 be the first Freync monitor to impress me with its variable refresh rate 5 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:25,199 technology since it mostly avoids a significant pitfall that the other one 6 00:00:21,039 --> 00:00:27,680 didn't. This is the BenQ XL 2730Z, 7 00:00:25,199 --> 00:00:33,840 the AMD gamer's answer to the critically acclaimed ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q that I 8 00:00:31,279 --> 00:00:45,600 declared to be the best gaming monitor yet in August of last year. 9 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:52,079 FreshBooks is the online accounting tool for small businesses whose flexibility 10 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:58,399 and ease of use makes you feel like a boss. Click my face to learn more. 11 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:06,320 Let's start the video with something Ben Q hasn't done as well as ASUS. The ID or 12 00:01:02,879 --> 00:01:08,640 industrial design of the XL2730Z. 13 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:14,080 Instead of glowing red rings on the base and a stunningly slim bezel, BenQ has 14 00:01:11,439 --> 00:01:19,119 taken the yo, my eyes are up here approach with a plain, completely 15 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,720 uninteresting look. But hey, maybe that 16 00:01:19,119 --> 00:01:26,240 works for them since you won't be giving up anything as far as actual features 17 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:28,960 are concerned. Front and center is the 18 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:34,479 144 hertz 2560x440 16x9 8bit TN panel boasting 1 19 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:41,439 millisecond gray to gray response times basically no input lag and what's this 20 00:01:37,759 --> 00:01:45,360 72% NTSC color gamut support so about 21 00:01:41,439 --> 00:01:48,000 equal to sRGB not too shabby yes it 22 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:52,960 turns out that much like the ROG Swift which likely uses the same or a very 23 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:55,119 similar panel this is not your 24 00:01:52,960 --> 00:02:00,320 granddaddy's TN with rubbish color accuracy, nauseainducing color and 25 00:01:57,759 --> 00:02:04,399 contrast shift, and a washed out low contrast overall appearance. And while I 26 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:09,440 wouldn't recommend it for any professional photo editing, anyone 27 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:14,720 coming from an older or less expensive commodity grade monitor is going to be 28 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:18,319 plenty impressed. More impressive stuff. Even though you don't have to use it 29 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:23,520 thanks to the Vasa compliant holes at the back, the stand features all the 30 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:28,560 usual adjustments, tilt, swivel, height, and even pivot, and has some unusual 31 00:02:26,239 --> 00:02:33,200 stuff like a spot to put the puck controller that you can use to navigate 32 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:38,400 the onscreen menu, a handle for carrying it to and from LAN events, both 33 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:42,800 headphone and microphone audio jacks, and even look at that, a little 34 00:02:40,319 --> 00:02:47,200 headphone holder. Right under that bad boy are two of the USB 3.0 ports that 35 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:51,920 run off the built-in powered hub. Then around the bottom, we find the other two 36 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:58,080 of those along with a metric whack ton of other I/O. We've got the uplink for 37 00:02:54,640 --> 00:03:01,360 the USB hub, VGA, I seriously VGA. 38 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:04,560 Anyway, DisplayPort, dual HDMI inputs, 39 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:06,159 one of which is HDMI 2.0, dual link DVI, 40 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:10,560 the connector for the little controller puck, and the microphone pass through. 41 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:16,640 You won't actually need a pass through for your headphones since your audio will actually come over HDMI or display 42 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:20,239 port from your video card. And that DisplayPort port, that's the one you're 43 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:25,360 going to want to use primarily if you're a PC gamer because if you want to take 44 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:32,239 advantage of the big feature of the XL 2730Z, AMD's Freync variable refresh 45 00:03:28,959 --> 00:03:34,560 rate technology, that is the input that 46 00:03:32,239 --> 00:03:40,159 supports it for now. So, let's talk about Freync. Just like NVIDIA's G-Sync, 47 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:45,200 it allows the graphics card to work in tandem with the monitor to only update 48 00:03:42,959 --> 00:03:50,799 the image on the display once a new frame has been rendered by the GPU. This 49 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:55,280 is to eliminate stuttering and tearing in the onscreen animations as frame 50 00:03:53,040 --> 00:04:01,439 rates swing all over the place during a typical gaming session. But, and this 51 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:07,840 was the issue I had with the 34UM67, while AMD in theory supports anywhere 52 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:09,200 from 9 to 240 Hz refresh rates to match 53 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:15,280 the frames that the video card is outputting per second, modern LCD panels 54 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:20,560 need to be refreshed more often than nine times per second or the image will 55 00:04:17,759 --> 00:04:25,120 actually start to fade in between frames being drawn, causing an unpleasant 56 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:28,560 flickering. NVIDIA handles this with a strategic frame doubling or even 57 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:32,479 tripling strategy that they've implemented consistently on their 58 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:37,759 certified displays. But on the Freync side, it's been left up to monitor 59 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:39,840 makers to determine how low they can go. 60 00:04:37,759 --> 00:04:44,000 So with my last monitor, it actually had an effective variable refresh rate 61 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:51,520 window with butter smooth animations of only 48 to 75 hertz. A window that one 62 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,440 could easily exceed on both sides in a 63 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:57,919 single gaming session. But what about exceeding the range of 64 00:04:55,199 --> 00:05:02,320 the window then? Well, AMD handles this by allowing you to either enable 65 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:06,800 traditional VSSync and choose to deal with some lag when frame rates are high, 66 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:11,440 although it's fairly minor on a high refresh rate display like this one 67 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:17,120 outside of the window or deal with some tearing by disabling VSYNC altogether. 68 00:05:15,039 --> 00:05:21,440 Something NVIDIA does not give their users the option to choose. But enough 69 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:25,759 of this theory stuff. What's it like to game on the thing? Well, I started by 70 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:30,639 fine-tuning the image quality settings cuz as much as BenQ's black equalizer 71 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:34,479 feature allows you to see bad guys hidden in shadows, it really does look 72 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:38,960 like butt. And I wish they wouldn't enable it by default since it's only 73 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:42,960 really relevant for competitive play and not the kind of sightseeing gaming that 74 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:47,360 I typically do. And then when I was done with that, I fired up some games. 75 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:52,240 Overall impressions, not too shabby. Freync works as expected. noticeably 76 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:58,160 smoothing animations regardless of frame rate. So, check out the ugly mini tears 77 00:05:55,280 --> 00:06:03,600 in this uh street lamp post in Grand Theft Auto 5 without Freync. And then 78 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:08,479 check it out again with Freeync. And the best thing about it is that it doesn't 79 00:06:05,759 --> 00:06:14,880 disappoint the way that it did with the LG ultra wide thanks to the much wider 80 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:22,560 variable refresh rate window. So, the 2730Z actually handles everything from 81 00:06:17,919 --> 00:06:24,800 40 to 144 hertz, which if you tweak your 82 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:32,160 graphical settings correctly, should be plenty of room to stay inside. But what 83 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:33,919 if you do dip below that 40fps? What I 84 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:39,520 tried to do was create a scenario with the R9290X 85 00:06:35,919 --> 00:06:43,919 as well as the GeForce GTX 970 where I'd 86 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:46,479 be floating in that 30ish FPS range just 87 00:06:43,919 --> 00:06:50,960 to see how they both felt in Grand Theft Auto 5. And while I don't necessarily 88 00:06:49,039 --> 00:06:54,880 agree with Scott at Tech Report's assessment that the shift isn't that 89 00:06:53,120 --> 00:07:01,520 noticeable or that there isn't much of a difference, what I do think is that any 90 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:04,720 PC gamer who is gaming on a 144 hertz 91 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:07,039 display at that kind of a frame rate 92 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:11,840 should be changing the settings in the game in order to get the best out of 93 00:07:09,199 --> 00:07:18,160 their equipment anyway because neither G-Sync nor Freync are able to maintain 94 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:21,520 their wow the animation is still smooth 95 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:26,639 even though I dipped below 60 FPS effect 96 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:28,880 below around 45 FPS anyway. So, it's 97 00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:33,919 basically a moot point, but NVIDIA does seem to handle it a little bit better. 98 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:38,639 So, with that said, even though I could create situations where the gaming 99 00:07:35,759 --> 00:07:42,800 experience wasn't as ideal or quite as good as G-Sync, thanks to the large 100 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:49,840 window and the configurability of PC games, the XL 2730Z looked great to me 101 00:07:47,039 --> 00:07:54,560 as a PC gamer using variable refresh on an AMD graphics card. But there are some 102 00:07:52,319 --> 00:07:58,960 users who might not be as thrilled with the monitor. It does have a touch more 103 00:07:57,039 --> 00:08:03,199 motion blur compared to the RG Swift. Again, not a closed ecosystem, therefore 104 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:08,000 harder to control, things like pixel timing, blippity bloop. And user 105 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:11,520 Falconine from overclock.net points out that because BenQ didn't correctly 106 00:08:09,919 --> 00:08:16,400 implement single strobe backlight modulation at some refresh rates, very 107 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:20,080 notably 60 Hz, motion blur reduction, which is the strobing backlight, which 108 00:08:18,479 --> 00:08:26,960 doesn't work alongside Freync and therefore I would typically leave off on a PC anyway, won't work correctly on a 109 00:08:24,879 --> 00:08:32,080 game console. a bit of a bummer if you wanted this as a multi-purpose display 110 00:08:28,639 --> 00:08:33,760 thanks to its plethora of inputs. Which 111 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:38,640 leaves just the bottom line. Is it worth it? Wow. If it was the same price as my 112 00:08:37,279 --> 00:08:43,919 new favorite gaming monitor, the XB270HU, 113 00:08:40,479 --> 00:08:48,160 an IPS 144Hz G-Sync monitor, I would say 114 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:51,040 no. But at $200 cheaper, 115 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:54,399 it's really darn competitive. So, that's pretty much it. Thanks for watching, 116 00:08:52,399 --> 00:08:59,040 guys. If this video sucked, I think you know what to do. But if it was awesome, 117 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:02,560 get subscribed, hit that like button, or even consider supporting us directly by 118 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:06,560 using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, buying a cool t-shirt like the 119 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:10,160 one I'm wearing, or with even a direct monthly contribution. Now that you're 120 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:13,600 done doing all of that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. 121 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:18,480 So, click that little button in the top right corner to check out this sweet 122 00:09:15,839 --> 00:09:22,160 video we uploaded recently where I, without giving too many spoilers, 123 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:37,250 significantly improved the performance of a MacBook by dipping it in water.