AOC Q3279VWF 2560x1440 VA 75Hz FreeSync monitor. Got mine, anyone else? :)

Finally setup my new monitor yesterday. Bit of a saga since I posted the deal last month. Availability problem, delivery problem, then first monitor had a blue line down the screen, fortunately Amazon were swift with getting a replacement delivered and I could get setup yesterday!

Worth the wait? Absolutely, total bargain for £199. Out of the box its very impressive. Still tweaking settings but all I've done so far;

• Lower the Brightness from 90 to 30
• Set Overdrive from Off to Weak
• Set Gamma from Gamma1 to Gamma3
• Change Color temp from Warm to User and drop Blue down to 49 to take away the slight blue tint
• Installed the monitor driver from the CD
• Clean installed the Radeon Software 17.7.2 driver

Spent several hours playing Planetside 2 and Rocket League and beyond trying to adapt Field of View settings coming from a 21.5'' 108p monitor, the experience was brilliant. FreeSync works well with my R9 380 4GB. A lot easier to see details in textures now. Night time in Planetside 2 is now shades of darkness compared to most things just appearing black. Vivid colours really pop out the screen at higher brightness. Found I needed to lower brightness down a fair amount to make looking at webpages with white background more comfortable to read. Screen got quite hot at 90+ brightness.

The bundled software; e-Saver, i-Menu, Screen+ were all a bit rubbish. The OSD is easy enough to work and there seemed to be all the options you'd want. Got a Power, HDMI and Display Port Cable in the box. Went with Display Port.

There is a bit of wobble with the stand. Not as bad as some user reviews I've seen. Guess they maybe aren't placing the monitor on a level surface? Or maybe they didn't push the stand into the base correctly? Once the 2 circular guide points are lined up through their respective holes so they are flush with the understand of the stand base. I was able to get a solid connection once I'd tightened the screw.

Ghosting was a big talking point in some of the reviews. I don't find it distracting in gaming or general use once settings the Windows refresh rate to 75Hz and setting the OSD Overdrive setting to Weak. There is still occasionally some slight smearing, for example in a pdf I had open on chapter headings as I scrolled.
Using https://www.testufo.com/ghosting to do a side-by-side with my old Dell monitor and Samsung 4k TV out of interest. Minor Ghosting was present on all screens and I'd never noticed it before on the Samsung 4K TV or Dell monitor. Certainly can't see it being an issue for the majority of users.

Seems strange AOC went with a glossy finish to the screen. Does reflect a lot of light. I wouldn't position the monitor if you had a large window immediately behind your computer. On the flip side the glossy finish once again really brings out the black. Didn't think this would be something that would impress me as much as it does. I've just been missing some much detail in dark images that are now clear. Can see a lot more rocks on the default Windows 10 login screen with the cave background. Something you'll be equally thrilled by :mrgreen:

Interesting that you post this. I wish you best of luck with your new monitor :)

I currently have a Viewsonic TN 144hz 1080p 24" and it's really great but I was thinking it's slightly below the par for an enthusiast monitor, and I haven't really got myself a Christmas present yet (at least not one I'm likely to use a lot) and so I was strongly considering a Korean monitor again.

I had a classic Crossover (?) and while mine was too late to overclock the refresh it was high quality and I sold it on for not a lot of loss considering the use I got from it. So I downgraded size and res. That's fine but I don't really game so this monitor seems unsuitable. At the same time, I don't want to *downgrade*. Though I have Vega and a nonn freesync 'mon' and it seems if I ever game again I'd be missing out ! lols

Had a quick hunt on google > reddit > google > reddit > ocuk etc etc and found out that while there are good branded 1440p IPS 27" Freesync high refresh monitors, you're really talking £500 or so. The best seems to be (while the ASUS MG279Q is very strong it's also expensive...) the newly released Nixeus EDG 27-Inch IPS 2560 x 1440 FreeSync 144Hz which is certainly cheaper and well featured. It has a nice wide freesync range. It's not here priced as well and as 'good' (no HDR!) as the $400 US price though, it's way over. And it's very new in market, like 1-2 months. Still, if you want the best, check that one out.

As for me, I can get that one sure, but I have a soft spot for the Korean ones now. I have messaged an ebay seller who is doing a Christmas discount on one recently. If he gets back to me with a half decent reply I will probably buy it. It's called the Crossover 27 Fast 144hz (1440p again) (lame link, there's much more out there on this).

Now the caveats:

1) Import duty is a thing.
2) It's likely an A- Panel so may be rejected from other manufacturer.
3) It's not like you can complain if there are some dead pixels, you have to pay MUCH more for one that's tested first, even that same models. Cash cow for the sellers.
4) The freesync range is low, like up to 100hz, but that's fine (ish) for me I hardly game now and I am happy with 144Hz 2D Desktop (as I have now... I think I'm trying to talk myself out of this lol).
5) Basically no warranty. I personally wouldn't be messing with shipping it back across most of the globe unless I was really needing to. If it works after you get it? Maybe there's no warranty I have no idea.
6) On black Friday apparently it was $50 cheaper. Don't know if that included the current free shipping but assume so.,


Given all those downsides you would think that it's a bad choice. Well look at it this way - you're paying £262 ish (chrimbo offer - ebay) for a monitor that's really very comparible with other 450+ monitor. And it's a good res and size.

I am not convinced yet but I thought you would be interested in my thoughts. The best thing I could do would be to stick to my current Viewsonic until HDR and close to 4k CONTENT become standard but I'm not sure that's coming in the next 3-5 years. I am a little bored, no idea why. Maybe Crossover can Rescue Me?

Sounds like you are on a similar journey to me. I started looking at new monitors 9 months ago! The reason it takes so long is there is no perfect monitor. Even if you pay £450+ as you say on something like the ASUS MG279Q, you still get a monitor that has annoying issues like Back Light Bleed (something I don't have thank goodness) and huge variation in panel quality. Seen many user reviews of the Asus monitor of people having exchanged for a 2nd or 3rd monitor before they got one they were happy with.

For me I pretty much ruled out all monitors £400+. (At the time the Nixeus NX-EDG27S wasn't available in Europe which probably would of been the exception.) The reason being I'd looked at many monitors in shops and the one thought I kept having was; how the Samsung 40'' 4K HDR TV sat next to them looked 99% as good as a Desktop display. Yet only cost £400 compared to £450+ for the monitor. The more expensive monitors just didn't seem to offer decent value.



Had a go in Destiny 2 with my new AOC Q3279VWF yesterday. Could just keep in the FreeSync range (dropped to 49FPS at one point!) on my R9 380 4GB. Will have to look into extending the FreeSync range sometime. Was an incredible experience on a bigger screen. Really is a great looking game. Found myself in one of those Lost Sectors that was very dark and I did find some noticeable Ghosting in a game for the first time. Playing with the OSD: Gaming Settings >> Shadow Control, and changing that from 50 to 60 cleared up the Ghosting (still using the same settings as my original post above).

Had my first 1440p-is-awesome moment yesterday. Just sorting some holiday photos while on Skype. Used Windows 10 snap assist to drag the 4 windows into each corner of the screen. Instant thumbs up from me as the extra work space on the Desktop is a huge productivity boost :)

After my 5th attempt at tweaking I believe I've almost found the perfect settings for my screen, at least to my untrained-eye.

The ordering of which you enter the settings into the OSD is important. I found an annoying issue were if you changed some settings, other settings in different sub menu's were also changed without notifying you.

Anyhow I changed the following in this order;

1. Color Setup >>
   
   • Colour Temp = User
   • Red = 42
   • Green = 42
   • Blue = 50
2. Luminance >>
   
   • Brightness = 40
   • Gamma = Gamma3
3. Game Settings >>
   
   • GameColor = 12
   • Overdrive = Weak

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Millennium

I am not convinced yet but I thought you would be interested in my thoughts. The best thing I could do would be to stick to my current Viewsonic until HDR and close to 4k CONTENT become standard but I'm not sure that's coming in the next 3-5 years. I am a little bored, no idea why. Maybe Crossover can Rescue Me?

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HiDPI (which would be 3840x2160 for a circa 24" screen) is definitely here now. Not all programs take advantage of it yet, but most of them have now sorted out their issues.

I was very excited when LG announced the first HiDPI ultrawide a few days ago, the 34WK95U is a 5120x2160 screen. That'll definitely be the size and resolution of my next screen, but I'm hoping it'll either be a VA panel or IPS with decent local dimming system so it has more contrast than my current monitor.


I wouldn't expect HDR any time soon, Windows doesn't even support HLG yet and I can't see PQ-based HDR like HDR10 or Dolby Vision becoming standard for anything outside of the film industry. Absolute brightness values just won't work on web pages that are viewed under a huge range of conditions.

Another positive review: https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/...onitor-review/

Sometime ago I ordered an AOC VA panel, I loved the deep blacks, but I had to return it because of the ghosting. If I activated overdrive there was hideous overshoot in fast paced movies and games, if I deactivated it, black trails made everything look bad. It was one of the cheapest VA monitors from AOC, so, probably that was the problem.
Now I bought of two months a Dell SE2717H, IPS panel, and I am happy with it, but I kinda miss the deep blacks of the VA panel.