Gaming Monitors People Actually Want! AOC 24G4ZR & 27G4ZR — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Ultra-affordable high-refresh rate
2. 0:01gaming monitors, that's what people are
3. 0:03actually looking for and AOC have
4. 0:06delivered. Today we're looking at the
5. 0:07AOC gaming 24G4ZR
6. 0:10and its sibling the 27G4ZR.
7. 0:14Here they've got a 23.8 or 27-in form
8. 0:17factor, full HD resolution and a refresh
9. 0:20rate that goes up to 260 Hz. You've got
10. 0:22support for adaptive sync technologies
11. 0:24and also HDR. But get this, they can be
12. 0:27found for roughly 110 to 150 pounds
13. 0:30giving you excellent value for money.
14. 0:32Now in this video, which has been
15. 0:34sponsored by the manufacturer, I'll be
16. 0:35covering everything you need to know
17. 0:36about them so you can make your own
18. 0:38informed purchasing decision. Now before
19. 0:40we jump into the gaming section, if you
20. 0:41do enjoy this video, make sure you drop
21. 0:43a like, subscribe and hit that bell
22. 0:45notification, all of which would be
23. 0:46greatly appreciated. Now to kick things
24. 0:48off, I would like to talk about its
25. 0:50input lag and subjectively I had no
26. 0:51issues whatsoever when it came to
27. 0:53registering my mouse input in a game
28. 0:55like Counter-Strike 2. Indeed, it will
29. 0:57be very much suitable for hardcore
30. 0:59gamers alike. Now the equally important
31. 1:02element of this is the response time and
32. 1:05this is very much dialed in with the
33. 1:07response time settings that you select
34. 1:09via the monitor's OSD. The overdrive
35. 1:11modes to select are normal, fast, faster
36. 1:14and fastest. You've also got extreme,
37. 1:16which I'll be touching upon further down
38. 1:17in this video. We're going to be
39. 1:19concentrating on the latter two, minus
40. 1:21of course the extreme mode, because here
41. 1:23in the faster mode preset at 260 Hz,
42. 1:26which is its overclocked refresh rate,
43. 1:29you can see that the average initial
44. 1:30time, which translates to the average
45. 1:31G-to-G, sits at 4.96 milliseconds. Over
46. 1:35the percent window, it's just 43%.
47. 1:37Therefore, if you do want to improve the
48. 1:39monitor's performance, you might want to
49. 1:41go on the fastest mode preset. Indeed,
50. 1:43this is exactly what I would suggest.
51. 1:45The average initial time sits at 4.13
52. 1:47milliseconds, which is actually pretty
53. 1:49impressive for an LCD panel and the
54. 1:51percent in window is at a respectful
55. 1:5370%. Now you can further improve this if
56. 1:56you were to downclock the monitor and
57. 1:58run it at its native refresh rate of 240
58. 2:00Hz. On the fastest mode preset, the
59. 2:03average initial time sits at 4.28 ms and
60. 2:05the percent in window sits at 63% while
61. 2:08at its fastest mode, the average initial
62. 2:09time goes down to 3.74 ms and the
63. 2:12percent in window sits at 80%.
64. 2:15Effectively, the percent in window means
65. 2:17that how good the monitor can actually
66. 2:19respond to the set refresh rate that it
67. 2:22should be hitting and therefore closer
68. 2:24to 100 is better. And for a lot of LCD
69. 2:26panels, over 70% is certainly
70. 2:29acceptable. Effectively, what I'm trying
71. 2:31to highlight over here is that you might
72. 2:32want to run it at the 240 or 260 Hz
73. 2:36refresh rate, but definitely dial it
74. 2:38into the its highest mode overdrive or
75. 2:40fastest. And the reason behind this is
76. 2:42because there's absolutely no RGB
77. 2:44overshoot, which is actually really
78. 2:46impressive, especially again for an LCD
79. 2:48monitor. Here you'll be able to see the
80. 2:50UFO ghosting test and indeed over here
81. 2:52in terms of the fastest mode preset,
82. 2:54there's no sort of inverse ghosting or
83. 2:56purple trailing yacht you'd find on some
84. 2:57rival alternatives including IPS
85. 3:00monitors that have been made in the past
86. 3:01by AOC. So yes, it's really nice to see
87. 3:04that this monitor is really well tuned.
88. 3:06Now, you've also got the extreme mode
89. 3:08preset, which I did say that I'll touch
90. 3:10upon later. And this is effectively the
91. 3:12same of dialing the fastest mode
92. 3:14overdrive while enabling MBR in terms of
93. 3:17its maximum level. This will effectively
94. 3:19reduce the overall brightness level of
95. 3:21the monitor and make it actually pretty
96. 3:23dim all while giving you much better
97. 3:25motion clarity. My honest suggestion
98. 3:27would be to run MBR independently with
99. 3:30the MBR level increments that you've got
100. 3:32that go up to level 20. This gives you
101. 3:34more brightness controls and effectively
102. 3:37allows you to still play around with the
103. 3:39overdrive mode. Again, run it in terms
104. 3:41of its fastest mode preset and play
105. 3:43around with the MBR levels to the
106. 3:45overall brightness level that works best
107. 3:47for your room and your setup.
108. 3:50Now, with all that in mind in terms of
109. 3:51actually using this monitor for hardcore
110. 3:53gaming, well, indeed, it's very much
111. 3:55tuned for that purpose. At full HD at
112. 3:58over 260 hertz, you're going to get a
113. 4:00nice fluid motion. Something that's
114. 4:02going to be good for a bit of an upgrade
115. 4:04over 144 hertz, for example. So,
116. 4:06definitely, if you're looking to upgrade
117. 4:08your setup, then this is a good starting
118. 4:11point. Furthermore, over here, when it
119. 4:13came to actually playing a game like
120. 4:15Counter-Strike 2, I felt really well in
121. 4:17tune, especially with the 23.8-in form
122. 4:19factor at 1080p. I think it's the sweet
123. 4:22spot. But, of course, if you want some
124. 4:24extra real estate, then you might want
125. 4:25to go to the 27-in form factor instead.
126. 4:28And in case you're wondering, yes, the
127. 4:29panel should perform near on identical
128. 4:32to the monitor that is on test, which is
129. 4:34the 23.8-in model.
130. 4:36Now, before we move on from MBR, motion
131. 4:39blur reduction, I would like to point
132. 4:40out that you can run this simultaneously
133. 4:42with adaptive sync technologies thanks
134. 4:44to something called MBR sync. However, I
135. 4:47did notice with MBR sync enabled, there
136. 4:50was quite a bit of flickering that was
137. 4:51occurring. This was when I was using my
138. 4:53RTX 3080 and connected over DisplayPort
139. 4:56to the monitor. Of course, your mileage
140. 4:58may vary. But, if I were to disable MBR
141. 5:01sync, I had no issues whatsoever when it
142. 5:03came to running Nvidia G-Sync. Indeed, I
143. 5:05was able to run the monitor at full HD
144. 5:07at 260 hertz with Nvidia G-Sync enabled.
145. 5:11And this gave me a tear-free gaming
146. 5:12experience, handy, for example, if I'm
147. 5:14playing more casual games where I just
148. 5:16want to have a little bit of better
149. 5:17visual experience. Furthermore, I could
150. 5:20also simultaneously run this with HDR.
151. 5:23So, yes, the monitors do support HDR and
152. 5:25the HDR 10 compliant. This will suffice,
153. 5:28although it is worth mentioning that HDR
154. 5:30will lock a lot of other settings within
155. 5:31the OSD. And given the overall
156. 5:33brightness levels of this monitor don't
157. 5:35exactly go higher in HDR, then I would
158. 5:38actually argue to say potentially run it
159. 5:40in SDR instead, so you have more
160. 5:42controls. But, of course, that is
161. 5:44subjective, so feel free to play around
162. 5:46with what you actually prefer.
163. 5:48So the gaming section out of the way,
164. 5:50let's get on to image quality. And as a
165. 5:51reminder, you have got a flat matte
166. 5:53coated 23.8 or 27-in form factor
167. 5:57monitor. It runs at full HD and you've
168. 6:00got decent pixel density, at least if
169. 6:02you're going for the smaller model. Now
170. 6:04it's good to see that you have got an
171. 6:05sRGB mode that you can select via the
172. 6:07monitor's OSD. And you've also got full
173. 6:09brightness controls. In said mode and
174. 6:12using my calibrator, I noticed a gamut
175. 6:14coverage of 97.5%
176. 6:16and a gamma volume of 98.7%.
177. 6:19Below you can see how it compares to the
178. 6:20standards. The average Delta E sits at a
179. 6:23something low 1.06 and a maximum of
180. 6:262.35. So yes, this can be used for
181. 6:28serious image editing work or video
182. 6:30grading, at least in the sRGB color
183. 6:32gamut. The tested contrast ratio sits at
184. 6:35a respectable 1,051 to 1, while the
185. 6:38measured white point sits at 6,529
186. 6:41Kelvin at 100%, which is very close to
187. 6:43the target.
188. 6:45As for what you'll be able to see below,
189. 6:47it's the gamma curve. And yes, it's
190. 6:48extremely close to the 2.2 standards.
191. 6:51Now if you're just going to be using
192. 6:52this monitor for gaming or watching
193. 6:54movies or for example browsing the web,
194. 6:56then you might want to unlock the wider
195. 6:57color gamut of this monitor. And
196. 6:59therefore, I would suggest going on the
197. 7:01panel native mode and then playing
198. 7:03around to your heart's content with the
199. 7:05values that are available in the OSD. Of
200. 7:08course, if you're editing in the sRGB
201. 7:09color space, then go on ahead and lock
202. 7:11on that sRGB mode to give you the utmost
203. 7:14color accuracy. Now aside from color
204. 7:16performance, I should talk about
205. 7:17brightness. And here in HDR, I
206. 7:19surprisingly clocked in a lower
207. 7:21brightness of 372 nits in comparison to
208. 7:24SDR at 392 nits. Suffice to say, be it
209. 7:27in HDR or SDR, the monitor is plenty
210. 7:30bright and should suffice even in a very
211. 7:32bright sunlit room. It's also good to
212. 7:34see that you have got a good degree of
213. 7:36range with a minimum brightness going
214. 7:37all the way down to 46 nits. As for the
215. 7:40MBR 20 mode or the extreme overdrive, it
216. 7:43will lock the brightness at 77 nits. So,
217. 7:46yes, it can get pretty dim. Handy, for
218. 7:48example, if you're using it in a
219. 7:50completely pitch black environment,
220. 7:52although in lighter rooms, you might
221. 7:54actually find this a bit too dim.
222. 7:56Speaking of that peak luminance, it
223. 7:57brings me on to brightness uniformity.
224. 7:59And here you'll be able to see how this
225. 8:00panel performed across the boards.
226. 8:02Indeed, it is somewhat panel lottery. As
227. 8:05for overall backlight bleed, of course,
228. 8:07every IPS panel does suffer from it. And
229. 8:10here you'll be able to see how my
230. 8:11particular monitor performed. This is,
231. 8:13of course, very much perfectly fine,
232. 8:16especially given the fact it is using an
233. 8:17IPS panel technology. But, of course, if
234. 8:20you're very sensitive to backlight
235. 8:21bleed, or you're playing darker based
236. 8:23games, then potentially an IPS monitor
237. 8:25might not be for you. So, next up we get
238. 8:27on to build quality, and here you've got
239. 8:29a three-sided borderless design with a
240. 8:31relatively thin bottom bezel. I like the
241. 8:33overall design that the manufacturer has
242. 8:34gone for, especially given its stand is
243. 8:36not oversized. Here you have got full
244. 8:38ergonomic controls in the normal models.
245. 8:41I say that because in the RE models, you
246. 8:44have got a fixed stand instead, and
247. 8:46that's why they're a little bit cheaper.
248. 8:48Suffice to say over here, the extra bit
249. 8:50of premium for the extra degree of
250. 8:52ergonomics is certainly something that I
251. 8:54would recommend to a lot of individuals.
252. 8:57Here you have got height, tilt, pivot,
253. 8:59and swivel adjustments. And in fact, the
254. 9:01monitor can be rotated both ways,
255. 9:03showing good sorts of versatility. Of
256. 9:05course, if you do not want to use the
257. 9:06built-in stand, you can replace it with
258. 9:08a VESA compatible stand, allowing you to
259. 9:09place it on a monitor arm, or a
260. 9:11multi-monitor setup.
261. 9:13Now, at the back of the monitor, you
262. 9:14might have noticed that there are no
263. 9:15nonsensical RGB lights, and I'm all for
264. 9:18that. Now, in terms of the overall
265. 9:20design aesthetics, I have got no
266. 9:21problems whatsoever. Although, there's a
267. 9:23little black and red finish that can be
268. 9:25noted in certain areas of the monitor.
269. 9:27Now, for you to interact with it, there
270. 9:29are some physical buttons at the bottom
271. 9:31right-hand side, and these allow you to
272. 9:33access the monitor's OSD. The OSD itself
273. 9:35is very comprehensively laid out, and
274. 9:37very intuitive to use. It's also very
275. 9:39responsive. I had no issues whatsoever.
276. 9:42There's also an extension to this by the
277. 9:44AOC G-menu software, and that's
278. 9:45something that you might want to utilize
279. 9:47in case you want the extra bit of
280. 9:49convenience.
281. 9:51Now, through the monitor's OSD, you
282. 9:52might have noticed that there is an
283. 9:54audio setting, although here the monitor
284. 9:56has not got any built-in speakers, but
285. 9:58rather audio is routed via the 3.5 mm
286. 10:01jack, making it handy, for example, if
287. 10:02you want to plug in your headphones
288. 10:04directly into the monitor. This does
289. 10:06bring me on to connectivity, and here
290. 10:08the monitor has got DisplayPort 1.4
291. 10:11input and HDMI 2.0 ports. These
292. 10:14effectively give you the ability to
293. 10:16output 1080p at up to 260 Hz. I had no
294. 10:21problems whatsoever. Of course, bearing
295. 10:23in mind over here, you've got the
296. 10:24overclock mode, which can be enabled or
297. 10:26disabled via the monitor's OSD, and this
298. 10:28might differ in terms of the amount of
299. 10:31refresh rate options that you have got
300. 10:32via your GPU settings.
301. 10:35So, there we have it. Hopefully, you've
302. 10:36enjoyed my detailed video of this
303. 10:38monitor. I'll be curious to know what
304. 10:39you make of it down the comment section
305. 10:41below, and if it's something that you
306. 10:42would pick. If you've enjoyed this
307. 10:44detailed video, definitely do consider
308. 10:45dropping a like, subscribing, and
309. 10:46hitting that bell notification. All of
310. 10:48which would be greatly appreciated. As
311. 10:50such, I've been totally dubbed, and I'll
312. 10:51hopefully see you in the next one. Take
313. 10:53care of yourselves, and goodbye.