VEGACORTEZ
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- Aug 6, 2006
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UPDATE -
Updated better quality pixperan photo in new post below
Received mine yesterday and am very pleased with it. The stand is just the right height for my viewing position which is great and the monitor has a nice joystick on the back for the OSD adjustments. Hope the review is of use to you guys.
I'll start off with my calibaration settings and results. I calibrated using an i1 display pro and HCFR using 1080p RGB full range test blu-ray patterns via a PS3. I have adjusted all my displays and TV's this way before.
Brightness - 30
Contrast - 60
Sharpness - 60
Game mode - off
Magic bright - custom
Magic angle - off
Colour - R 63 G 50 B 51
Colour tone - custom
Gamma - mode 1
RGB range - N/A when using the PC over displayport
Eco saving - off
PC/AV mode - set to PC
The greyscale ended up like this but could not be made any better than this it appears.
The gamma after calibration (aiming for 2.2 gamma)
Colour (REC709 HD colour space)
As this is a TN panel I am very pleased with the results and the panel manages to not have too much of an issue with vertical viewing angles when sat dead on the middle at eye level from 2ft back wherein the fullscreen light greys don't show a warm tint at the top too much and a lot colder at the bottom. It only very slight and not as bad as the Benq new 27" Z series gaming monitors.
These settings achieve 136cdm2 whites and 0.189cdm2 blacks.
I did not lower the backlight (brightness) further as 30 is the tipping point to avoid PWM, any lower and it's shows up easily on moving images, 30 and above and it's free of PWM.
Contrast 60 avoided bleaching and discolouration of top end white shades and helped bring the gamma in line a bit. Contrast ratio ended up at 719:1 which is a good result. It could be higher if you are not as fussed about PWM or gamma accuracy at the high end or slight white discolouration by raising contrast to 70 and dropping the brightness.
Out of the box in standard or custom with brightness 30, contrast 70, colour at normal mid setting and gamma mode 1 the results were still good with greyscale having more blue and less red but looking decent and the gamma was still good at circa 2.2 ish. The colours were not as accurate as red was less saturated and magenta was off hue as well as a few other things but before I calibrated I was still impressed on games and most would not notice or need calibration.
Response times (using the faster mid setting) -
The monitor is not as fast as the best TN panels like Benq Z series and it is on par with a decent IPS I would say. It has no overshoot problems at all on this setting but there is some slight ghosting. I found that at 4k with lower frame rates that this would never be an issue anyway but even at 60 fps it still is great and does not become an issue at all. It would have been nice if Samsung had pushed the OD further or made more OD settings but it is a not a huge problem for this particular monitor. Here are a few images (sorry about the quality) to show some ghosting.
Input Lag -
I can't measure 4k input lag but it felt similar to my 1440p IIyama which is around the 20ms mark using SMTT 2.0. It seems to have the usual range of lag as most brand 1440p monitors.
I did measure 1080p input lag using the Leo Bodnar device and that came in at an average across all 3 measurements at 26.93ms one time and it fluctuated another time to 28.8ms. Obviously the SMTT and Bodnar measure input lag differently and can't be cross correlated but you can compare against other monitors measured using the respective ways.
For comparison the IIyama 1440p measures at 1080p on the Bodnar at 26ms on average and the 27" Benq Z series measures 10.5ms on average.
I found the input lag to be fine and not a problem even at lower frame rates at 4k as long as I use triple buffering or v-sync off.
TN panel -
I seems to be a very good TN panel and uses the BGR pixel layout so clear type in windows 7 had to be amended. It has the usual TN viewing issues compared to IPS but I felt that the flat 2.2 gamma helped the top and bottom of the screen screen appear not too dark or washed out and in general head on it is excellent. Certainly the Benq 27" Z gaming monitor did not achieve flat 2.2 gamma and the colour temp tint differences from the top compared to the bottom were quite annoying after greyscale calibration so I had to boost blue along the range to remove this issue, although it did track greyscale perfectly though beforehand. Colours are great on both TN's but the Samsung is slightly better and can keep that accuracy as I did not need to change the greyscale to be less accurate to avoid annoying tints of grey as described.
The coating is light haze and does not look too grainy but up close you can see it is not glossy like the IIyama 1440p. It does not reflect at all really and is okay for brighter rooms.
The panel has zero backlight bleed or clouding or banding and I have not spotted any dead pixels (not that I could spot at any rate)
Scaling -
Using blu-ray test discs at 1080p and 720p resolution the scaling is pretty good but not perfect. 1080p is interpolated a bit and has some minor ringing artifacts but is pretty good, 720p the same.
I even tried some PS3 and Wii U games and they look good but I prefer the IIyama which doubles 720p very nice and clear. All in all a good result but really this monitor is for 4k. I would have tested the PS4 but I have had two go wrong on me so I have got a refund now and got this monitor to try 4k PC gaming.
4k PC gaming -
My rig uses an i5 3570k OC at 4.2ghz with 8gb ram and a palit GTX 780 super Jetstream 3GB vram (equates to about original GTX titan performance) I am using a WD caviar black HD, no SSD at this time.
I usually avoid MSAA and use injector SMAA if I can or in game SMAA. I like to game at max settings usually. I tried the following games but only measured two games with fraps (crisis 3 and watch dogs) the rest I eyeballed the framerates. Depending on the levels I had a look at fps could vary. But using 1 GPU the results were great and surpassed my expectations. This is a rough guide only.
Grid 2 - max settings at MSAA x2 with shadows at high v-sync on - in the 50's fps range
Hitman absolution - AA off using injector SMAA at low max settings but shadows lowered one v-sync on - 40's and 50's fps
Tomb Raider 2013 - AA off using injector SMAA low at max settings but shadows lowered one and tress FX off v-sync on - in the 40's and 50's
COD ghosts - SMAA in game and max settings - 40's - 50's
Metro Last Light - max settings AA off - 30fps range
Sonic racing transformed - injector SMAA low max settings with motion blur etc off - 60fps lock
Thief - no AA in game and max settings - 30's 40's - 50's
Far cry 3 - max settings - 30's - 40's
Assassins Creed 4 - SMAA in game max settings but god rays low and shadows on non soft high variant (not updated with Nvidia PhysX patch though) 30fps with a few dips slightly under
Watch dogs (fraps) - ultra textures and max settings no AA - 30fps with slight dips to late twenties, SMAA drops it to 25fps (the Ubisoft patch which hopefully improve performance a bit)
Splinter cell Blacklist - SMAA injector and pretty much max settings 30'sfps range
Max payne 3 - max settings SMAA injector low, SSAO used - 30's - 40's
Crysis 3 (fraps) - max settings motion blur off SMAA low in game - welcome to the jungle grassy areas - 20-22 fps and changed to - textures very high with high preset SMAA low 28-30fps
I also got 60fps on some 3d indie titles as well like "The last tinker: city of colours"
I can run most of these games but not all at a locked 60fps at 1440p but 4k does offer less jaggies and the detail in the distance is more refined and I am happy with 30fps or above with v-sync triple buffering so it is a nice upgrade. I have not ran into any vram issues with my 3GB at the moment.
Windows 7 scaling -
Using 150% zoom on fonts makes the desktop crisp and with nice size desktop icons.
Overall I am very pleased with this 4k monitor and recommend them. I also have no issue running it at 4k60hz with audio over a 5m quality display port cable.
I hope you found this review useful.
Regards
Updated better quality pixperan photo in new post below
Received mine yesterday and am very pleased with it. The stand is just the right height for my viewing position which is great and the monitor has a nice joystick on the back for the OSD adjustments. Hope the review is of use to you guys.
I'll start off with my calibaration settings and results. I calibrated using an i1 display pro and HCFR using 1080p RGB full range test blu-ray patterns via a PS3. I have adjusted all my displays and TV's this way before.
Brightness - 30
Contrast - 60
Sharpness - 60
Game mode - off
Magic bright - custom
Magic angle - off
Colour - R 63 G 50 B 51
Colour tone - custom
Gamma - mode 1
RGB range - N/A when using the PC over displayport
Eco saving - off
PC/AV mode - set to PC
The greyscale ended up like this but could not be made any better than this it appears.
The gamma after calibration (aiming for 2.2 gamma)
Colour (REC709 HD colour space)
As this is a TN panel I am very pleased with the results and the panel manages to not have too much of an issue with vertical viewing angles when sat dead on the middle at eye level from 2ft back wherein the fullscreen light greys don't show a warm tint at the top too much and a lot colder at the bottom. It only very slight and not as bad as the Benq new 27" Z series gaming monitors.
These settings achieve 136cdm2 whites and 0.189cdm2 blacks.
I did not lower the backlight (brightness) further as 30 is the tipping point to avoid PWM, any lower and it's shows up easily on moving images, 30 and above and it's free of PWM.
Contrast 60 avoided bleaching and discolouration of top end white shades and helped bring the gamma in line a bit. Contrast ratio ended up at 719:1 which is a good result. It could be higher if you are not as fussed about PWM or gamma accuracy at the high end or slight white discolouration by raising contrast to 70 and dropping the brightness.
Out of the box in standard or custom with brightness 30, contrast 70, colour at normal mid setting and gamma mode 1 the results were still good with greyscale having more blue and less red but looking decent and the gamma was still good at circa 2.2 ish. The colours were not as accurate as red was less saturated and magenta was off hue as well as a few other things but before I calibrated I was still impressed on games and most would not notice or need calibration.
Response times (using the faster mid setting) -
The monitor is not as fast as the best TN panels like Benq Z series and it is on par with a decent IPS I would say. It has no overshoot problems at all on this setting but there is some slight ghosting. I found that at 4k with lower frame rates that this would never be an issue anyway but even at 60 fps it still is great and does not become an issue at all. It would have been nice if Samsung had pushed the OD further or made more OD settings but it is a not a huge problem for this particular monitor. Here are a few images (sorry about the quality) to show some ghosting.
Input Lag -
I can't measure 4k input lag but it felt similar to my 1440p IIyama which is around the 20ms mark using SMTT 2.0. It seems to have the usual range of lag as most brand 1440p monitors.
I did measure 1080p input lag using the Leo Bodnar device and that came in at an average across all 3 measurements at 26.93ms one time and it fluctuated another time to 28.8ms. Obviously the SMTT and Bodnar measure input lag differently and can't be cross correlated but you can compare against other monitors measured using the respective ways.
For comparison the IIyama 1440p measures at 1080p on the Bodnar at 26ms on average and the 27" Benq Z series measures 10.5ms on average.
I found the input lag to be fine and not a problem even at lower frame rates at 4k as long as I use triple buffering or v-sync off.
TN panel -
I seems to be a very good TN panel and uses the BGR pixel layout so clear type in windows 7 had to be amended. It has the usual TN viewing issues compared to IPS but I felt that the flat 2.2 gamma helped the top and bottom of the screen screen appear not too dark or washed out and in general head on it is excellent. Certainly the Benq 27" Z gaming monitor did not achieve flat 2.2 gamma and the colour temp tint differences from the top compared to the bottom were quite annoying after greyscale calibration so I had to boost blue along the range to remove this issue, although it did track greyscale perfectly though beforehand. Colours are great on both TN's but the Samsung is slightly better and can keep that accuracy as I did not need to change the greyscale to be less accurate to avoid annoying tints of grey as described.
The coating is light haze and does not look too grainy but up close you can see it is not glossy like the IIyama 1440p. It does not reflect at all really and is okay for brighter rooms.
The panel has zero backlight bleed or clouding or banding and I have not spotted any dead pixels (not that I could spot at any rate)
Scaling -
Using blu-ray test discs at 1080p and 720p resolution the scaling is pretty good but not perfect. 1080p is interpolated a bit and has some minor ringing artifacts but is pretty good, 720p the same.
I even tried some PS3 and Wii U games and they look good but I prefer the IIyama which doubles 720p very nice and clear. All in all a good result but really this monitor is for 4k. I would have tested the PS4 but I have had two go wrong on me so I have got a refund now and got this monitor to try 4k PC gaming.
4k PC gaming -
My rig uses an i5 3570k OC at 4.2ghz with 8gb ram and a palit GTX 780 super Jetstream 3GB vram (equates to about original GTX titan performance) I am using a WD caviar black HD, no SSD at this time.
I usually avoid MSAA and use injector SMAA if I can or in game SMAA. I like to game at max settings usually. I tried the following games but only measured two games with fraps (crisis 3 and watch dogs) the rest I eyeballed the framerates. Depending on the levels I had a look at fps could vary. But using 1 GPU the results were great and surpassed my expectations. This is a rough guide only.
Grid 2 - max settings at MSAA x2 with shadows at high v-sync on - in the 50's fps range
Hitman absolution - AA off using injector SMAA at low max settings but shadows lowered one v-sync on - 40's and 50's fps
Tomb Raider 2013 - AA off using injector SMAA low at max settings but shadows lowered one and tress FX off v-sync on - in the 40's and 50's
COD ghosts - SMAA in game and max settings - 40's - 50's
Metro Last Light - max settings AA off - 30fps range
Sonic racing transformed - injector SMAA low max settings with motion blur etc off - 60fps lock
Thief - no AA in game and max settings - 30's 40's - 50's
Far cry 3 - max settings - 30's - 40's
Assassins Creed 4 - SMAA in game max settings but god rays low and shadows on non soft high variant (not updated with Nvidia PhysX patch though) 30fps with a few dips slightly under
Watch dogs (fraps) - ultra textures and max settings no AA - 30fps with slight dips to late twenties, SMAA drops it to 25fps (the Ubisoft patch which hopefully improve performance a bit)
Splinter cell Blacklist - SMAA injector and pretty much max settings 30'sfps range
Max payne 3 - max settings SMAA injector low, SSAO used - 30's - 40's
Crysis 3 (fraps) - max settings motion blur off SMAA low in game - welcome to the jungle grassy areas - 20-22 fps and changed to - textures very high with high preset SMAA low 28-30fps
I also got 60fps on some 3d indie titles as well like "The last tinker: city of colours"
I can run most of these games but not all at a locked 60fps at 1440p but 4k does offer less jaggies and the detail in the distance is more refined and I am happy with 30fps or above with v-sync triple buffering so it is a nice upgrade. I have not ran into any vram issues with my 3GB at the moment.
Windows 7 scaling -
Using 150% zoom on fonts makes the desktop crisp and with nice size desktop icons.
Overall I am very pleased with this 4k monitor and recommend them. I also have no issue running it at 4k60hz with audio over a 5m quality display port cable.
I hope you found this review useful.
Regards
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