WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:06.160 This isn't the first time that I've checked out a monitor with AMD Freync, 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:11.040 and you can watch my video about the LG 34UM67 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:13.840 up in the little eye thing, but it might 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:18.720 be the first Freync monitor to impress me with its variable refresh rate 00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:25.199 technology since it mostly avoids a significant pitfall that the other one 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:27.680 didn't. This is the BenQ XL 2730Z, 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:33.840 the AMD gamer's answer to the critically acclaimed ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q that I 00:00:31.279 --> 00:00:45.600 declared to be the best gaming monitor yet in August of last year. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:52.079 FreshBooks is the online accounting tool for small businesses whose flexibility 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:58.399 and ease of use makes you feel like a boss. Click my face to learn more. 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 00:01:02.879 --> 00:01:08.640 industrial design of the XL2730Z. 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:14.080 Instead of glowing red rings on the base and a stunningly slim bezel, BenQ has 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:19.119 taken the yo, my eyes are up here approach with a plain, completely 00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:20.720 uninteresting look. But hey, maybe that 00:01:19.119 --> 00:01:26.240 works for them since you won't be giving up anything as far as actual features 00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:28.960 are concerned. Front and center is the 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:34.479 144 hertz 2560x440 16x9 8bit TN panel boasting 1 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:41.439 millisecond gray to gray response times basically no input lag and what's this 00:01:37.759 --> 00:01:45.360 72% NTSC color gamut support so about 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:48.000 equal to sRGB not too shabby yes it 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:52.960 turns out that much like the ROG Swift which likely uses the same or a very 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:55.119 similar panel this is not your 00:01:52.960 --> 00:02:00.320 granddaddy's TN with rubbish color accuracy, nauseainducing color and 00:01:57.759 --> 00:02:04.399 contrast shift, and a washed out low contrast overall appearance. And while I 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:09.440 wouldn't recommend it for any professional photo editing, anyone 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:14.720 coming from an older or less expensive commodity grade monitor is going to be 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:18.319 plenty impressed. More impressive stuff. Even though you don't have to use it 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:23.520 thanks to the Vasa compliant holes at the back, the stand features all the 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:28.560 usual adjustments, tilt, swivel, height, and even pivot, and has some unusual 00:02:26.239 --> 00:02:33.200 stuff like a spot to put the puck controller that you can use to navigate 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:38.400 the onscreen menu, a handle for carrying it to and from LAN events, both 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:42.800 headphone and microphone audio jacks, and even look at that, a little 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:47.200 headphone holder. Right under that bad boy are two of the USB 3.0 ports that 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:51.920 run off the built-in powered hub. Then around the bottom, we find the other two 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 00:02:54.640 --> 00:03:01.360 the USB hub, VGA, I seriously VGA. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:04.560 Anyway, DisplayPort, dual HDMI inputs, 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:06.159 one of which is HDMI 2.0, dual link DVI, 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:10.560 the connector for the little controller puck, and the microphone pass through. 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 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:20.239 port from your video card. And that DisplayPort port, that's the one you're 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 00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:32.239 advantage of the big feature of the XL 2730Z, AMD's Freync variable refresh 00:03:28.959 --> 00:03:34.560 rate technology, that is the input that 00:03:32.239 --> 00:03:40.159 supports it for now. So, let's talk about Freync. Just like NVIDIA's G-Sync, 00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:45.200 it allows the graphics card to work in tandem with the monitor to only update 00:03:42.959 --> 00:03:50.799 the image on the display once a new frame has been rendered by the GPU. This 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:55.280 is to eliminate stuttering and tearing in the onscreen animations as frame 00:03:53.040 --> 00:04:01.439 rates swing all over the place during a typical gaming session. But, and this 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:07.840 was the issue I had with the 34UM67, while AMD in theory supports anywhere 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:09.200 from 9 to 240 Hz refresh rates to match 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:15.280 the frames that the video card is outputting per second, modern LCD panels 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:20.560 need to be refreshed more often than nine times per second or the image will 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:25.120 actually start to fade in between frames being drawn, causing an unpleasant 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:28.560 flickering. NVIDIA handles this with a strategic frame doubling or even 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:32.479 tripling strategy that they've implemented consistently on their 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:37.759 certified displays. But on the Freync side, it's been left up to monitor 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:39.840 makers to determine how low they can go. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:44.000 So with my last monitor, it actually had an effective variable refresh rate 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:51.520 window with butter smooth animations of only 48 to 75 hertz. A window that one 00:04:48.400 --> 00:04:53.440 could easily exceed on both sides in a 00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:57.919 single gaming session. But what about exceeding the range of 00:04:55.199 --> 00:05:02.320 the window then? Well, AMD handles this by allowing you to either enable 00:05:00.080 --> 00:05:06.800 traditional VSSync and choose to deal with some lag when frame rates are high, 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:11.440 although it's fairly minor on a high refresh rate display like this one 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:17.120 outside of the window or deal with some tearing by disabling VSYNC altogether. 00:05:15.039 --> 00:05:21.440 Something NVIDIA does not give their users the option to choose. But enough 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 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:30.639 fine-tuning the image quality settings cuz as much as BenQ's black equalizer 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:34.479 feature allows you to see bad guys hidden in shadows, it really does look 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:38.960 like butt. And I wish they wouldn't enable it by default since it's only 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:42.960 really relevant for competitive play and not the kind of sightseeing gaming that 00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:47.360 I typically do. And then when I was done with that, I fired up some games. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:52.240 Overall impressions, not too shabby. Freync works as expected. noticeably 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:58.160 smoothing animations regardless of frame rate. So, check out the ugly mini tears 00:05:55.280 --> 00:06:03.600 in this uh street lamp post in Grand Theft Auto 5 without Freync. And then 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 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:14.880 disappoint the way that it did with the LG ultra wide thanks to the much wider 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:22.560 variable refresh rate window. So, the 2730Z actually handles everything from 00:06:17.919 --> 00:06:24.800 40 to 144 hertz, which if you tweak your 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:32.160 graphical settings correctly, should be plenty of room to stay inside. But what 00:06:27.840 --> 00:06:33.919 if you do dip below that 40fps? What I 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:39.520 tried to do was create a scenario with the R9290X 00:06:35.919 --> 00:06:43.919 as well as the GeForce GTX 970 where I'd 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:46.479 be floating in that 30ish FPS range just 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 00:06:49.039 --> 00:06:54.880 agree with Scott at Tech Report's assessment that the shift isn't that 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 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:04.720 PC gamer who is gaming on a 144 hertz 00:07:01.520 --> 00:07:07.039 display at that kind of a frame rate 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:11.840 should be changing the settings in the game in order to get the best out of 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:18.160 their equipment anyway because neither G-Sync nor Freync are able to maintain 00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:21.520 their wow the animation is still smooth 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:26.639 even though I dipped below 60 FPS effect 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:28.880 below around 45 FPS anyway. So, it's 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:33.919 basically a moot point, but NVIDIA does seem to handle it a little bit better. 00:07:31.840 --> 00:07:38.639 So, with that said, even though I could create situations where the gaming 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:42.800 experience wasn't as ideal or quite as good as G-Sync, thanks to the large 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:49.840 window and the configurability of PC games, the XL 2730Z looked great to me 00:07:47.039 --> 00:07:54.560 as a PC gamer using variable refresh on an AMD graphics card. But there are some 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:58.960 users who might not be as thrilled with the monitor. It does have a touch more 00:07:57.039 --> 00:08:03.199 motion blur compared to the RG Swift. Again, not a closed ecosystem, therefore 00:08:01.440 --> 00:08:08.000 harder to control, things like pixel timing, blippity bloop. And user 00:08:05.440 --> 00:08:11.520 Falconine from overclock.net points out that because BenQ didn't correctly 00:08:09.919 --> 00:08:16.400 implement single strobe backlight modulation at some refresh rates, very 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:20.080 notably 60 Hz, motion blur reduction, which is the strobing backlight, which 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 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:32.080 game console. a bit of a bummer if you wanted this as a multi-purpose display 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:33.760 thanks to its plethora of inputs. Which 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 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:43.919 new favorite gaming monitor, the XB270HU, 00:08:40.479 --> 00:08:48.160 an IPS 144Hz G-Sync monitor, I would say 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:51.040 no. But at $200 cheaper, 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:54.399 it's really darn competitive. So, that's pretty much it. Thanks for watching, 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, 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:02.560 get subscribed, hit that like button, or even consider supporting us directly by 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:06.560 using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, buying a cool t-shirt like the 00:09:04.640 --> 00:09:10.160 one I'm wearing, or with even a direct monthly contribution. Now that you're 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:13.600 done doing all of that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:18.480 So, click that little button in the top right corner to check out this sweet 00:09:15.839 --> 00:09:22.160 video we uploaded recently where I, without giving too many spoilers, 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:37.250 significantly improved the performance of a MacBook by dipping it in water.