Acer Predator XB270HU

runswithascript

Firstly, if there are better 24" and 27" monitors, mainly for gaming, please advise.

My single graphics card is a MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr HDMI DVI-I DP Graphics Card (4GB, PCI Express, DDR5, 256 Bit) and the CPU is an i5-4690K. Desk can be placed anywhere so I can sit as far back from a 27" as necessary, I am not sure what the ideal distances for each size are.

Both seem to have great reviews. I like the idea of a large monitor as when my PC was briefly hooked up to a 32" Samsung HDTV I did enjoy it. That said, if 24" is really the ideal size for gaming I would go with it. The 27" is also twice the price! I am prepared to add a second GTX 970 at some point in the next few months, would that be enough to get the most from the 27"?

Luck100

The 27" Asus ROG Swift is WQHD resolution (2560 x 1440). The AOC is only Full HD (1920 x 1080). There's also the Acer Predator XB270HU which is IPS, G-sync, and WQHD resolution. Personally I'm leaning toward the Acer as it has better colors and response angles than the others.

A single 970 will run any of those nicely. SLI 970's is even better if you want to push very high frame rates at max settings on new AAA games.

Somecrimesitry

I'd be wary of some of those displays, the Asus and Acer in particular. Ignore the industry reviews for a start because it's now pretty clear both companies picked good units to send out for review. Punters like us buying on the strength of those reviews have not had the same hand picked luxury and have received a lot of garbage instead.

Checkout the display specific threads over on OCUK's forum for a taste of people's troubles. Ignore the store reviews cause OCUK keep deleting most of the negative ones. Also make sure you checkout a few pages of user reviews on Newegg, who thankfully don't seem to delete user reviews. Maybe the very latest batches of these displays have eased the unacceptably high percentage of quality control issues but I wouldn't fancy getting caught in RMA hell. These displays appear to have premium tech at a premium price but with pound shop quality control.

runswithascript

Luck100 wrote: »

The 27" Asus ROG Swift is WQHD resolution (2560 x 1440). The AOC is only Full HD (1920 x 1080). There's also the Acer Predator XB270HU which is IPS, G-sync, and WQHD resolution. Personally I'm leaning toward the Acer as it has better colors and response angles than the others.

A single 970 will run any of those nicely. SLI 970's is even better if you want to push very high frame rates at max settings on new AAA games.

After your review, and several others elsewhere I have been leaning towards the Acer Predator XB270HU myself. When you say SLI would 2 GTX 970s in SLI be enough to run everything at the moment in ultra high or would I need 3? Considering the increase in price I was going to order it at the end of the month and a second GTX 970 at the end of next month.

Though I am now weary of this...

Somecrimesitry wrote: »

I'd be wary of some of those displays, the Asus and Acer in particular. Ignore the industry reviews for a start because it's now pretty clear both companies picked good units to send out for review. Punters like us buying on the strength of those reviews have not had the same hand picked luxury and have received a lot of garbage instead.

Checkout the display specific threads over on OCUK's forum for a taste of people's troubles. Ignore the store reviews cause OCUK keep deleting most of the negative ones. Also make sure you checkout a few pages of user reviews on Newegg, who thankfully don't seem to delete user reviews. Maybe the very latest batches of these displays have eased the unacceptably high percentage of quality control issues but I wouldn't fancy getting caught in RMA hell. These displays appear to have premium tech at a premium price but with pound shop quality control.

Ah balls. I had started reading an overclock.net thread on it but I have a lot more of it to get through. I will check out OCUK's forum and Newegg, hopefully the issues are resolved.

Which monitor would you recommend instead?

I have heard it mentioned several new monitors that will rival the Predator are on the way 'soon'. Anyone know if there is much chance of these being released before the end of the month? I am we without a monitor for my desktop at the moment so I do not want to wait much longer than that.

Luck100

Yeah, I'm tired of waiting myself so I ordered the Acer Predator last night. If it's defective it can be returned. Hopefully I get one that's reasonably good. I already have an IPS so a bit of IPS glow isn't anything new for me.

I run 2-way SLI 970's myself. It's definitely a big boost over a single 970 for most games. It will run most games at max settings with 60+ FPS, but getting to 144 FPS is harder. It really depends on the game. But to do any better you will have to spend way more money (SLI 980's is only maybe 15% faster, and SLI 980ti is double the price).

I don't think it's worth going past 2-way SLI, the scaling is not nearly as good. Also much more problems with heat build-up in the case. That can end up reducing your clocks due to throttling or instability. So 2-way SLI is definitely the sweet spot. Even that can be a struggle if you have a small case or poor ventilation.

The other thing to consider with SLI is that it increases your lag by 1 frame (this is an unavoidable consequence of alternate frame rendering). So the frame lag for 120 FPS SLI is the same as 60 FPS single card. Of course 120 FPS looks smoother. If lag is your main concern, then a single 980ti would serve you better than SLI 970s. You'd give up some frames/sec but your lag would improve without SLI.

Luck100

Just as an example, I'm playing BF4 at max settings (ultra everything, 4XMSAA) on my current 1440p monitor and I get 100-150 FPS on big multiplayer servers. Most of the time it's at 120 FPS or higher, just very occasional dips down to 100. This is with SLI 970's boosting to 1500 MHz. CPU is 3770k clocked to 4.2 GHz.

Somecrimesitry

dusf wrote: »

After your review, and several others elsewhere I have been leaning towards the Acer Predator XB270HU myself. When you say SLI would 2 GTX 970s in SLI be enough to run everything at the moment in ultra high or would I need 3? Considering the increase in price I was going to order it at the end of the month and a second GTX 970 at the end of next month.

Though I am now weary of this...



Ah balls. I had started reading an overclock.net thread on it but I have a lot more of it to get through. I will check out OCUK's forum and Newegg, hopefully the issues are resolved.

Which monitor would you recommend instead?

I have heard it mentioned several new monitors that will rival the Predator are on the way 'soon'. Anyone know if there is much chance of these being released before the end of the month? I am we without a monitor for my desktop at the moment so I do not want to wait much longer than that.

I'm in the same boat mate:)

My creaking 2009 rig is now about two years overdue a complete rebuild, my display has also died so I'm itching to build a 1440 144Hz rig. Those latest displays are exactly what I've been holding off for in technology terms but those prices + quality control issues have made me delay things. Also been holding off to see what AMD release in the next week or two before buying.

I'm waiting until after Skylake lands to build the main rig but in the mean time I'll just make do with a borrowed 1080p display and whichever Nvidia or AMD GPU I pick up after AMD show what they've got at E3.

Dcully

Im thinking of selling my 5 month old 27" LG 29UM65 as im going three monitor route for my racing sims and its too big for my plans.
Absolutely stunning monitor,the best contrast,brightness and colours ive ever used.

runswithascript

Luck100 wrote: »

Yeah, I'm tired of waiting myself so I ordered the Acer Predator last night. If it's defective it can be returned. Hopefully I get one that's reasonably good. I already have an IPS so a bit of IPS glow isn't anything new for me.

Is IPS glow standard with all IPS monitors, or does this monitor have it especially bad, or perhaps just some faulty units?

Luck100 wrote: »

I run 2-way SLI 970's myself. It's definitely a big boost over a single 970 for most games. It will run most games at max settings with 60+ FPS, but getting to 144 FPS is harder. It really depends on the game. But to do any better you will have to spend way more money (SLI 980's is only maybe 15% faster, and SLI 980ti is double the price).

Dual 970 SLI it is then. If I had not just bought my first high end graphics card in November, the GTX 970, I might consider the 980 route but considering how short a time I have had it, and how little time I have had to use it properly, and that it has been running on a Samsung HDTV, I would like to get more use out of it. Dual 970 also sounds like the best 'bang for buck' to suit this display?

Luck100 wrote: »

I don't think it's worth going past 2-way SLI, the scaling is not nearly as good. Also much more problems with heat build-up in the case. That can end up reducing your clocks due to throttling or instability. So 2-way SLI is definitely the sweet spot. Even that can be a struggle if you have a small case or poor ventilation.

Good to know thanks, and you just answered my best bang for buck question

I bought what I consider a beautiful case back in November also, a Fractal Design Node 605, but that was for when I had to locate it up on top of a wardrobe. This renovation it was has stopped me getting good use from the GTX 970, and of course the fact that before it I still was playing laying on a bed looking up at the HDTV! I just bought a big desk in IKEA today for my new office/study so I have a lot more room for a case. I could still fit another 970 in it, I think, but to get the most overclocking out of them and the i5-4690K I should probably try find a nice black and/or brushed steel tower case!

Luck100 wrote: »

The other thing to consider with SLI is that it increases your lag by 1 frame (this is an unavoidable consequence of alternate frame rendering). So the frame lag for 120 FPS SLI is the same as 60 FPS single card. Of course 120 FPS looks smoother. If lag is your main concern, then a single 980ti would serve you better than SLI 970s. You'd give up some frames/sec but your lag would improve without SLI.

Luck100 wrote: »

Just as an example, I'm playing BF4 at max settings (ultra everything, 4XMSAA) on my current 1440p monitor and I get 100-150 FPS on big multiplayer servers. Most of the time it's at 120 FPS or higher, just very occasional dips down to 100. This is with SLI 970's boosting to 1500 MHz. CPU is 3770k clocked to 4.2 GHz.

Please explain this to me like I am 10 years old. If the frame lag for 120 FPS SLI is the same as 60 FPS single card, that seems the same, rather than double? And is this frame not something G-SYNC will counter, and how would I experience it as the play exactly?

How ,much did you pay for your predator? I still have to see if I can find a better price somewhere myself, but an Irish guy on reddit posted this link where it is going for €749:

https://www.alternate.de/Acer/Predator-XB270HUbprz-NVIDIA(R)-G-SYNC(TM)-LED-Monitor/html/product/1181210?event=search

Somecrimesitry wrote: »

I'm in the same boat mate:)

My creaking 2009 rig is now about two years overdue a complete rebuild, my display has also died so I'm itching to build a 1440 144Hz rig. Those latest displays are exactly what I've been holding off for in technology terms but those prices + quality control issues have made me delay things. Also been holding off to see what AMD release in the next week or two before buying.

It is a lot of money for a display, it really is, though it is something I hope to get a few years from, and considering I have only ever played what I consider a high end PC on a HDTV, I am expecting to be blown away! From my very limited experience, I feel better investing in NVidia technology than AMD, despite the fact AMD are using open source (or something like open source) for Freesync. What are you expecting them to release?

Somecrimesitry wrote: »

I'm waiting until after Skylake lands to build the main rig but in the mean time I'll just make do with a borrowed 1080p display and whichever Nvidia or AMD GPU I pick up after AMD show what they've got at E3.

I will not build again myself for awhile, unless I learn over the next few months it would be most economic to sell the hardware I have and build rather than waiting a year or two etc. I see E3 is in a few days, and before I will have the rest of the money I need for the Predator. What do you think the chances are a monitor will be released better than it?

This looks nice, though I cannot wait until September and even if it were available it would be an irresponsible purchase for me without waiting until the follow end of month pay cheque! Also, I have not done enough research into curved screens and worked out if I like them or not.

Acer XR341CK Curved Monitor Features G-Sync; FreeSync Version Forthcoming

Dcully wrote: »

Im thinking of selling my 5 month old 27" LG 29UM65 as im going three monitor route for my racing sims and its too big for my plans.
Absolutely stunning monitor,the best contrast,brightness and colours ive ever used.

Thanks for recommendation, though I am set on 1440p and GSYNC.

Luck100

Let's say a single 970 is giving you 60 FPS steady. That means each frame takes 16 ms to render. Then you add a second 970, and if it scaled perfectly you'd get 120 FPS. But SLI never scales perfectly, so a more realistic result is that you might get 100 FPS with 2-way SLI . That means you get a frame every 10 ms, sounds better than 16 ms right? But the cards are taking turns rendering frames so each card is individually producing frames every 20 ms. That's why the lag is higher with SLI - the lag is related to the rendering time for each card because that's how long it takes any new information (mouse click, enemy move, etc) to get rendered to the screen.

By the way ms = millisecond, 0.001 seconds.

Anyway, if you have been playing with a TV as your monitor you most likely also have massive lag from the signal processing on the TV itself. So just getting a proper monitor with low input lag would make a huge difference right there.

Luck100

I ordered my predator from computeruniverse.de, also for 750 euros (well a little bit more with shipping and extra VAT impose by Ireland). They're out of stock at the moment so I may be waiting a couple of weeks. I don't you can get it any cheaper in Europe. UK prices are much higher due to euro being weak vs pound at the moment.

Luck100

By the way, that problem with SLI and increased lag is due to the current "alternate frame rendering" technique used in SLI (AMD crossfire does the same). Under DX12, it will be possible for games to do "split-frame rendering" (both cards working on a single frame at the same time), which WILL reduce lag. I think spit-frame rendering is technically possible even in DX11 but the scaling is terrible, which is why nobody uses it. So I think SLI is a good bet going forward since windows 10/DX12 is nearly here.

runswithascript

Thanks for further clarifying. It sounds like the moral of the story is, even with the extra lag you mention, it is still worthwhile to SLI because of the other benefits.

I ordered parts for my PC from hardwareversand.de and I was not hit with import duty. There is no customs/import duty etc when we order from within the EU, no?

Some reports I have looked at since on the XR341CK say June, I may have been looking at an older article which had the wrong information.

Were you tempted to wait for this?

Could I rule out the XR341CK on the basis that I will not be able to utilise it fully with dual SLI 970s?

Luck100

Yes, all in all I think benefits of SLI outweigh slight lag penalty. Really only a concern to people who are play ultra-competitive fast twitch games where lag is #1 priority.

No import/customs between EU member states. They will adjust the price to reflect difference in VAT ( I think we have 3% higher VAT than Germany).

Not really interested in the XR341CK, as it's only 75 Hz. I really want 144 Hz (or at least 120). Also not a lover of the curved monitors. My understanding is that current display port spec is maxed out by 1440p 144Hz. We'll need next generation displayport on both monitors and graphics cards before we see 120/144 Hz at higher resolutions.

runswithascript

Luck100 wrote: »

Yes, all in all I think benefits of SLI outweigh slight lag penalty. Really only a concern to people who are play ultra-competitive fast twitch games where lag is #1 priority.

Agreed, though it is of course nice to have as little as possible. You have made different references to lag, single card, versus SLI etc, but I think that is not the amount the user would actually experience. Could you give me a rough number on it, say connecting to a CS server in the UK with latency of 20ms, how much would this be increased by, maybe 2ms, or 5, or 10?

I just saw you mentioned elsewhere in thread SLI increases lag by 1 frame, so can we say say SLI increases your latency playing online by 1ms? Is it apparent at all when playing single player, or do the cards compensate for that somehow?

Luck100 wrote: »

Not really interested in the XR341CK, as it's only 75 Hz. I really want 144 Hz (or at least 120). Also not a lover of the curved monitors. My understanding is that current display port spec is maxed out by 1440p 144Hz. We'll need next generation displayport on both monitors and graphics cards before we see 120/144 Hz at higher resolutions.

Makes sense, thanks.

Luck100 wrote: »

No import/customs between EU member states. They will adjust the price to reflect difference in VAT ( I think we have 3% higher VAT than Germany).

Yeah, I ordered a lot of compontents from Hardwareversand.de for my PC and I did not have to pay anything on delivery, hopefully neither of us will get hit with it.

On my side I am now able to order my XB270HU this evening! You mentioned having to wait a few weeks as they are out of stock at computeruniverse.de, would you have ordered from alternate.de if you had known about them having it in stock?

I am wondering if anyone knows if they are reputable? I am definitely ordering from germany to save the €200 or whatever it is, but I just hope to choose the best place to order from, and somewhere that has it in stock! I entered germany into pcpartpicker.com but it did not show anywhere selling it, like it does with UK and US.

runswithascript

Balls, Alternate.de now out of stock, delivery date unknown.

Luck100

Some games compensate for latency to the server. Pretty sure BF4 does this, don't know about CS.

On top of that you have the latency of your own rig, which can be much more. 1 frame latency at 60 FPS is 1/60 = 0.016 seconds = 16 ms. So if you are running 60 FPS + vsync + SLI + a slow 60 Hz monitor, your rig latency will be roughly:

16 ms (frame latency) + 16 ms (1 frame extra latency for VSync) + 16 ms (1 frame extra latency for SLI) + monitor latency (could easily be 40 ms or more for a non-gaming monitor) + keyboard/mouse latency (pretty small for good mouse/keyboard).

So you could easily have nearly a 100 ms of latency just from your own PC if you have a slow monitor, vsync, and SLI. Whereas with a fast monitor, no sync, and no SLI you can get that under 10 ms. That's a big advantage in FPS games. A 90 ms head start in reacting to other people is massive for fast games.

Gsync doesn't have any significant latency penalty, and at 144 Hz the SLI penalty is less than 7 ms (because 1 frame at 144 FPS is less than 7 ms). So your latency can still be very low with a Gsync + 144 Hz monitor even if you have SLI.

dog_pig

Luck100 wrote: »

The 27" Asus ROG Swift is WQHD resolution (2560 x 1440). The AOC is only Full HD (1920 x 1080). There's also the Acer Predator XB270HU which is IPS, G-sync, and WQHD resolution. Personally I'm leaning toward the Acer as it has better colors and response angles than the others.

A single 970 will run any of those nicely. SLI 970's is even better if you want to push very high frame rates at max settings on new AAA games.

What are response angles?

Luck100

dog_pig wrote: »

What are response angles?

Sorry, I mean viewing angles. TN monitors tend to look washed out/faded from any angle except straight on. IPS monitors look almost the same from any angle.

runswithascript

Luck, any update for you on delivery date? Have not had time to order this yet, hoping to get to it tonight after work, may very well end up going with computeruniverse.de despite the 1 - 2 week wait time as they have been recommended to me in the past.

Luck100

I got an email (in German) which google translated as "Expected receipt shortly". I think that means they expect to receive it in stock shortly - I didn't get any shipping info or tracking number.

runswithascript

Ordered XB270HU from computeruniverse.de! :cool: :eek:

It sucks how when you select Ireland it adds an extra few euros with no explanation! I appreciate this is the extra costs you mentioned earlier Luck. I do not remember hardwareversand.de doing that, but maybe I did not notice!

Also, their homepage advertises a discount when using Paypal but I was charged nearly €10 for doing so and saw no discount.

Anyway, I will be a very happy man when this arrives, and it is much cheaper than ordering from the usual UK suspects.

Luck100

Yeah, let's hope we both get good ones!

FAILSAFE 00

I run dual 970's in SLI with the Acer XB270HU. It works great. Something to note is that when G-Sync is on you need to turn Vsync off in game settings.

Also by default the monitor runs at 60hz so be sure to set it to 144hz in the monitor settings.

runswithascript

Luck10, any sign of yours?

I called during the week and their agent told me they expect delivery to their warehouse Thursday or Friday of this week. I checked their website yesterday and the order status had changed from out of stock to receipt expected shortly. I checked again this morning and it has gone back to out of stock. I called them again and they told me they now do not expect to receive it at their warehouse until the end of June

Also, they said they have lowered the price and asked if I wanted a refund of €25.17 which I duly accepted. You should ring and see if they can refund you same.

Luck100

Haven't heard anything from computer universe. Thanks for that info dusf, I'll definitely go for that price reduction!

I'm hoping that this delay means they are waiting on a batch of more recently manufactured panels - hopefully with fewer defects/problems. I also saw on overclock.net that some people who got recent panels (manufacture in May) found that they could enable ULMB mode at 120 Hz. All the reviews and the early models seemed to only support a max of 100 Hz for ULMB mode.

runswithascript

I like the positive spin you have put on the delay!

FAILSAFE 00

Luck100 wrote: »

Haven't heard anything from computer universe. Thanks for that info dusf, I'll definitely go for that price reduction!

I'm hoping that this delay means they are waiting on a batch of more recently manufactured panels - hopefully with fewer defects/problems. I also saw on overclock.net that some people who got recent panels (manufacture in May) found that they could enable ULMB mode at 120 Hz. All the reviews and the early models seemed to only support a max of 100 Hz for ULMB mode.

I can test that for you.

Got mine in May. So I am looking to enable ULMB mode at 120hz. Just so you know you can't run ULMB when using G-Sync btw.

I'll redit this post to tell you what I find.

Luck100

Cool, thanks FAILSAFE.

Luck100

Hey dusf, I'm not seeing any change in price on their website. Which number did you call to get their customer service?

runswithascript

Luck100 wrote: »

Hey dusf, I'm not seeing any change in price on their website. Which number did you call to get their customer service?

I only learned of it when I called them. Number at top of their website +49 6031 7910-0. I am not sure if you have German or not, but if you just call and listen to the IVR it will connect you to an agent without having to press any numbers etc.

I would be interested to learn when they expect yours to arrive at their warehouse since you ordered before me.

It took a bit of work to get our two 32" Samsung TVs mounted perfectly in the two rooms so I am leaving them up which means I only have a sh!tty 720p no name brand to game on at the moment!