Problem Statement: 1/22/23 My taskbar freezes multiple times every day, requiring a reboot. 

Dell-Inspiron-3891-Compact-Desktop Bought: 12/25/2021

Yes, a monitor can indeed cause a PC to crash. I would never have thought that to be the case. It took me about a year to figure it out.

My old Monitor, “HP-2509M” Retired 4/2024:

It was causing my PC to crash, Note HP Website has no support past windows8.  I was using an HDMI to Digital converter cable, as when I went to straight HDMI, the image was a too large for the screen. the other cable seemed to fix that issue. Then the crashes started getting more frequent, like several times/day. The taskbar would freeze, and sometime copy/paste wouldn't work.

I did all the MalwareBytes/CCleaner and other repairs.I don't know what exactly made me suspect the video card and Monitor. But I tried a new monitor which was the lowest hanging fruit and the problem is now completely fixed. It could have been an incompatibility with the video card, but this different (OLD Samsung) monitor has fixed the issue.

Thanks, Crzzy1

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https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-monitors/dough-spectrum-black-27-oled-gaming-monitor-review/

Just got the samsung neo g7 32"... and my god. It really makes you feel like the lighting is real. It always felt like there was a weird... filter with lights in a video or a video game, it didn't feel real.

I tried HDR for the first time while playing Baldur's Gate 3, used my Paladin's smite ability and... it felt real. Same today, I was watching Invincible and there was scene from the perspective of someone on an operating table, with a light shining above them, and the light also felt real, like I was on that operating table.

The colors are really vivid too. Best 1000€ I've ever spent.

I saw TechYesCity's review of this monitor at a great deal. I knew it was VA and I had my expectations kinda low in terms of black smearing and input responses. I got the monitor just tweaked the color settings and its kinda good. I came from an IPS panel with 165hz. I honestly cannot tell theres a huge difference from 165 to 240. It might be slightly smoother but the jump is not crazy. The only thing i didnt like was the stand since its too big, had to use a monitor arm. Still a solid buy for the price.

What point of reference did they have??? The first oled displays didnt come to market until years later. Right??

Anyway..i though id share this here. I love history

For the life of me I can’t understand why this is. I can possibly see cost of scale being a factor, but aren’t the majority of people buying a 42” using them as a monitor in the first place?

Alternatively, why not remove the 42” from the TV line all together and just make it a monitor? Maybe im underestimating how many actually use a 42” mainly for tv purposes.

The winners of the LG 2024 Giveaway are:

/u/_dotMonkey

/u/Mooseiah

/u/00_koerschgen

If you haven't already been contacted by LG, you should be contacted soon - check your DMs!

Currently I am using an LG Ultrafine 27" 5k monitor for work and it's great. The Mac world really sold me on glossy panels, but for my personal computer, high refresh rate (144Hz) and FreeSync would be very nice at that 27" size. And so, I'm looking for a list of Monitors which have the following:

• 120Hz+
• Glossy panel
• 2k resolution or better
• Some VRR (Freesync/Gsync)
• Non-OLED
• Reputable brand

I know that OLED panels are glossy, but I'm not convinced of their longevity. But it's very hard to filter by these particular critera, so I was hoping this subreddit could help :)

Currently I see the following:

• Alogic Clarity (27", Glossy, 4k, 60Hz)
• Innocn 27m2v (27", Glossy, 4k, 160Hz). (EDIT: This is not glossy, it is "a light matte anti-glare coating that prevents reflections without making the image too grainy." link

Within this world, MiniLED seems like a reasonable compromise, but I've heard the algorithm to have local dimming can really affect image quality, hence the reputable brand.

Is anyone else in this boat? It may be best to just wait until OLED and MiniLEDs battle it out.

I'm on my second unit because the first one had HDR that was absolutely trash right out of the box. Now after 3 months, the second unit goes totally black. Power LED is on, but the screen is dead.

Here's the crap fest I've been dealing with:

1. First Monitor: Straight from the store, HDR is fucked. The 'Movie' and 'Game' preset modes turned it into an 8-color joke.
2. Replacement Hell: Took over a month just to get someone to understand the problem, thanks to their damn AI chatbots and useless support team in India.
3. Second Monitor Fails: After 3 months, the second unit goes totally black. Power LED is on, but the screen is dead.

It's been 16 days since I requested another warranty service, and they haven’t even picked up the defective unit. Every day it’s the same bullshit: "We have raised an escalation and rapid actions are in progress." Absolute garbage!

The support? Absolute worst. Endless loops of "I understand your concern" and "Apologies for the delay" from their AI bots and some guy named Shubham who’s apparently a supervisor but can't do shit to fix anything.

This monitor is a piece of trash. Dell's support is garbage. The internet is full of similar horror stories about this model. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere. This shit isn’t worth the headache. Avoid at all costs!

https://edgeup.asus.com/2024/8k-and-hdr-meet-in-the-proart-display-pa32kcx/

Introduction

The Q27G3XMN and the Samsung Odyssey G7 are currently known as two of the best 1440p 27" VA monitors on the market, with the AOC being known as the king of budget HDR, while the Odyssey G7 is known as the king of "VA, but no smearing". This post will be comparing the two against each other.

A few days ago I wrote a review of the AOC Q27G3XMN/BK (European model). I recommend giving it a read if you want more details, though a lot of information will be repeated here as well.

After being a little dissappointed by HDR in general (annoying to set up, doesn't look good in every game, the brightness can give headaches) I decided to try out the Odyssey G7. I decided to keep the monitor that I prefer for SDR content.

Disclaimer: phone camera pictures are not always accurate.

Comparison table

Models: AOC Q27G3XMN/BK and Samsung Odyssey G7 C27G75T.

Each aspect in the below table will be explored in detail throughout the rest of this post.

​

The main differences between the two monitors

About me and testing methods

This section will give some of my references and perspectives which you can use to interpret my subjective thoughts.

Old monitor: AOC G2460PF 24" 1080p 144Hz TN. The monitor is so old that when I bought it, 144Hz was still considered high instead of standard and you needed TN for that. Contrast is notably grey in games.

Second monitor: iiyama ProLite E2083HSD-B1, 1600x900 60Hz TN.

Phone (used for photos): Samsung Galaxy S23. Photos of monitors are not always accurate, however I try my best to make sure that what I see on my phone matches what my eyes see in real life. Sometimes that meant adjusting contrast or saturation. I also disabled picture optimization in my camera settings for a more accurate image.

My eyes: My eyes are not perfect, I need glasses but currently cannot get them for a while. I put most sites at 125% and also put Windows resolution scale at 125% when I switched to 1440p, which is enough for me to read most text. However I sometimes still lean closer to my monitor.

Viewing distance: I sit close to my monitor due to a small desk and a small room. If I stretch out my 186cm tall adult male arm, the monitor touches the middle of my hand. I sometimes lean closer to read something too.

Testing method

I am not a professional monitor tester, I'm a slightly-above-average Joe who is buying a new monitor for the first time in 6+ years after multiple weeks of research and checking reviews.

I did not use calibrators/colorimeters or special tests, I simply used my eyes to judge what I think looks good or not and changed OSD settings until I was satisfied. I used a pure white image on fullscreen for RGB settings.

Due to limited desk space, I cannot put the two monitors next to each other for side-by-side comparisons, I have to physically swap them if I want to test one or the other, which I did multiple times throughout the week. Sometimes I took photos with my phone for comparison, but those are not always accurate, so you guys will simply have to trust my words.

Games I tested include Rocket League, Overwatch 2, Final Fantasy 14, Final Fantasy 16 (ps5), Stellar Blade demo (ps5), Lethal Company, Hollow Knight, Granblue Fantasy Relink demo (ps5), Lords of the Fallen and Tekken 8.

I tried my best to test as much dark content as possible. In Elden Ring, that meant playing at night, in caves, catacombs, in Siofra's River, during rain etc. In Lords of the Fallen, that meant playing through Pilgrim's Perch Hollow Knight and Lethal Company are naturally dark all the time. In FFXIV I also played through dark dungeons and areas. I also played both with and without a night filter.

I also compared a few random anime scenes with each other but did not notice significant differences between the two monitors after I finished RGB calibrating.

Design (shape, panel, reflections)

Winner: AOC

Both monitors have very long V-shaped legs, but the G7's legs are too long for my small desk, restricting how much space I have to move my mouse around. Buying a separate monitor arm is also not very practical in my case due to limited room around my desk, not to mention it costing extra money, some being up to €100 in my country.

The G7 also has an extreme curve, which is up to preference whether you like it or hate it. Personally it does not actively bother me, but if I was forced to choose between liking or disliking the curve, I'd say I dislike it.

Both monitors have a matte coating, but AOC's panel is slightly on the glossier side, resulting in inkier colors. It's like looking at paint so fresh it's still wet, while the G7 looks like paint that has dried for a few days. A TN monitor though looks like paint that has dried for 10 years.

However, the AOC's slightly glossier finish results in more reflections in dark content when there is a lot of sunlight in your room. Example pic one and example pic two. These examples are the worst case scenario with a very bright morning sun shining directly on me through the window behind the monitor. Here's a less bad scenario, where it's 6 pm with the sun on the other side of my house, not shining directly into the room.

It's also worth nothing that the AOC has very bad OSD buttons. It's four buttons that feel hard to press and they're right next to the power button. I've turned off my monitor by accident too many times to count. I expect to use the OSD only the first week of my monitor though and then never again.

Viewing angles

Winner: G7

The bad viewing angles of the AOC are noticeable even when you sit directly in front of your monitor, especially if you sit close. White or colorful UI elements in the corner of your screen become more grey-ish. If you have a strong orange night filter active, the edges of your monitor will look a little grey instead of orange if you lean forward to read something better. The vertical viewing angles are good though if you like to lean back with your legs on the desk.

Below is a picture from FFXIV that explains what the bad viewing angles will do to your image quality.

​

This is what happens to FFXIV's chat, even when sitting directly in front of the monitor

Below are two more attempts at showing what happens to the corners of your screen. Note that these camera photos are not very accurate, causing the effect to become exaggerated. I also tried a FFXIV comparison between the two monitors but my camera was not able to capture the difference.

Viewing angles comparison, sitting closer for the second photo. The second photo is not quite this bad in real life, the x0.6 zoom ruins image quality.

​

Viewing angles comparison. The second photo is slightly less bad in real life.

Thanks to the G7's curve, viewing angles are not a problem when sitting somewhat directly in front of your monitor or when sitting close. Only if you really start looking at your monitor from the side (why would you do that?) do things become dull.

Colors and contrast

Winner: Too subjective, but I prefer AOC

Note: since I didn't use any calibrators, this section is very subjective and is influenced by my eyes, limited knowledge, what I consider "normal" from previous monitors and personal preference. Consider checking reviews from RTINGS and TFT Central for a more technical analysis. I personally use over double the brightness compared to most reviewer's recommended settings. Coming from an awfully grey TN monitor, I also prefer saturated colors.

Settings

These are my personal settings that I used to create the kind of image I personally like.

AOC: Overdrive Medium, Brightness 40, Contrast 50, Gamma1, Color Gamut: Panel Native, RGB 38/43/48, local dimming off.

G7: Response time Faster, Brightness 40, Contrast 70, Gamma2, Sharpness 60 (if your eyes are normal use 56) RGB 48/45/60 RGB, Black equalizer 13, local dimming off.

Reviewers recommended around 20 brightness for these monitors, but that was way too dim for my taste.

The AOC started off with a very strong red tint so I had to decrease the Red by a lot. The G7 on the other hand had a yellow-ish tint, which is apparently sRGB "accurate" because sunlight is yellow, but I personally despise it, I prefer paper-like whites. There is a Cool color temperature but that's too blue. I decreased the green by a lot and increased the blue but it's still not exactly the color I like.

Impressions

The AOC has bright, vivid, saturated colors, though the default settings have way too much red (especially on skin tones). The contrast is amazing with the backlight being nearly invisible on a pure black screen in a dark room even at high brightness.

The colors are so impressive that I'm considering completely uninstalling ReShade from Final Fantasy 14 and Elden Ring, which I previously used to make those two rather grey games look more colorful and to give them more contrast. In Lords of the Fallen, I reduced the Saturation slider from 70% to 50% and Contrast from 60% to 50%, and it still looks better than my previous TN monitor.

If you need even more color then the OSD also includes a "Game Color" slider to increase your overall saturation, but without costing performance.

For those who prefer more "accurate" colors, the AOC has an sRGB color mode you can turn on. This looks noticeably duller and locks all color options but probably looks a little more realistic. However, there have been reports from reviewers, such as PC Monitors and TFT Central that the sRGB mode does not work for everyone. I have the Q27G3XMN/BK European model, and for me the sRGB mode works.

Below are some comparison photos I took of streamers (forsen and penny meowy) to compare the sRGB mode.

​

AOC: sRGB vs Panel Native

Another photo:

AOC: Panel Native vs sRGB

The G7 is slightly less colorful with slightly less contrast, but (probably) more accurate. It noticeably has a little bit of a yellow tint, even after reducing the amount of red and green quite a bit. Unlike the AOC, I would not uninstall ReShade from FFXIV and Elden Ring if I continued using this monitor.

Below is a comparison photo I tried to take. My phone is not very accurate on the AOC picture. Her hair buns appear pink-ish on the photo while in reality they're brown.

​

AOC vs G7

Backlight bleed

Below are photos of the backlight with local dimming turned off. The G7's backlight was more noticeable. It bothered me during black loading screens or when watching full screen videos with black bars.

Disclaimer 1: these photos are not very accurate, the monitors do not look like this in real life, my phone struggled to capture the images in a dark room.

Disclaimer 2: my brightness was set to 40 on both monitors, while reviewers recommend around 20.

Backlight bleed comparison, with a screenshot for reference. The photos on the left have my camera's brightness turned all the way down, while the photos on the right has the camera at the default brightness.

​

Backlight comparison using a full black image with my camera set to default brightness.

Response times and smearing

Winner: G7

Whenever people point out VA's bluriness and smeariness, people like to point out "but the G7 doesn't have those problems!". And after trying it out, I can now see that that claim is completely justified.

The AOC is no slouch either though. When it comes to VA panels, Monitors Unboxed also calls it "the best tuning he has seen from a non-Samsung implementation".

Gameplay

The AOC supports 180Hz and the G7 supports 240Hz. Despite being able to reach those framerates and double checking fps caps and Windows settings, my eyes could not really tell a difference in smoothness. If anything, the increased hertz probably decreased motion blur slightly.

My eyes could not spot any smearing or ghosting during regular gameplay on both the AOC and the G7. They might be visible if you watch videos at x0.5 speed while focusing on specific objects, but that's not how you play games. When you move your camera in a game, you tend to stare at the center of your screen while the world spins around you.

What I did notice (coming from a TN panel) is a very slight motion blur when moving the camera around in darker scenes. So slight that simply turning on motion blur in a game's graphic settings is more noticeable than what these monitors produce. I also got used to it after a single day, after that only noticing it if I'm specifically focusing on specific objects while rotating my camera. Comparing reviewers' motion tests with those of highly praised IPS panels, the motion blur did not seem worse than IPS. Rocket League, Overwatch and Tekken 8, three competitive multiplayer games, all looked normal to me.

The only time where the motion blur negatively stood out to me was when panning around the world map in Elden Ring (60 fps). Here is a photoshopped comparison of what my eyes see when the map screen is in motion. I recommend looking at the image from a normal viewing distance.

Bright text on dark backgrounds

Does this happens on the monitors?

On the G7: no, never.

On the AOC: scrolling through text on regular dark mode websites or apps looks fine. Notepad, Notepad++, Reddit (new and old), pure black Twitter, Youtube, Discord, all of these look fine in dark mode.

Only if you have an orange night filter active does text on (very) dark mode websites become a little brown while scrolling, which might be a little annoying if you do a lot of night time programming, but for regular web browsing I don't think it's too annoying.

Only in the worst case scenario (pure white text on pure black backgrounds with a strong orange night filter) does the screen look a little like that Reddit video, but still not that bad. As soon as a website or app is around 90% black instead of 100% black (so, dark gray, like almost every night mode app / site) it already noticeably becomes less of an issue. Twitter is pure black but also has the text centered on your screen instead of running the full width of your monitor.

Here is a video of me scrolling on the AOC and afterwards scrolling on my TN second monitor, without night filter.

Here is me scrolling through this subreddit with a night filter active.

Finally, here is me scrolling through Twitter with a pure black background and a night filter, the absolute worst case scenario.

Do not pause the videos. You cannot pause your scroll in real life.

HDR

Winner: AOC

The AOC has 336 local dimming zones, blooming is unnoticeable in most scenes and minimal in >90% black scenes. The G7 is edge lit, which is terrible for HDR. The AOC can also get twice as bright compared to the G7 to the point where it can painfully strain your eyes.

Monitors Unboxed recently called it the best Value (budget) HDR monitor of 2024.

If you want to know more about the AOC's HDR capabilities, check out my review where I tested multiple games. I did not test HDR on the G7 because I do not recommend buying the G7 for HDR.

Miscellaneous

Fluctuating prices for the AOC

I bought my AOC for €400 2 weeks ago. Yesterday the cheapest price in my country (Netherlands) was €370. At the time of writing this post, it's now €500. Supply seems to also frequently run out. I had to wait over a week for my AOC to arrive (in a country where most shops and products have next day delivery!) because the web shop had to wait for their own supplier to deliver it to them first.

PS5 issues with the G7

The G7 refused to work with my regular HDMI cable. Every few seconds it would lose signal and the screen would go black for a second until it located a source signal again, even though the HDMI cable works fine on the AOC monitor.

I then tried the brand new HDMI cable that was inside the AOC's box, and it worked... But now there was heavy screen tearing every ~15 seconds, which was quite noticeable during cutscenes or when the camera wasn't moving. Not a recommendable experience.

Samsung monitors are notorious for defects, could this be one of them?

VRR

I turned on GSYNC on both monitors. The G7 had very noticeable flickering issues, even during regular desktop usage, so I turned it off again. This was apparent within the first hour of usage and has also been mentioned by many reviews and reddit posts.

Neither monitor supports HDMI 2.1, so you can't use VRR on consoles.

For the first few days I thought GSync worked fine on the AOC, but then I sometimes noticed a very slight occasional flicker. It's really hard to notice while the G7's flicker is a bright white flash. I think the Nvidia App's overlay was also going crazy because of GSync and I think GSync was causing games to flicker white when playing in HDR, but this is just speculation. Nevertheless, I turned it off on the AOC too since I get good framerates in games anyway.

Extras

The G7's OSD includes a sharpness filter, which is very nice for someone like me with bad eyes. There's a black equalizer setting to make shadows brighter for competitive advantage. There's two USB 3.0 ports. There is RGB illumination on the back, and two lights left and right below the panel. You can adjust these to a specific color, to rainbow, or turn them off completely.

The AOC has a Game Color slider to increase overall saturation.

Which monitor do I recommend?

It's a very tough decision.

If HDR is your main priority, you play a lot of games with good native HDR implementation, and you don't want to buy an OLED, then buy the AOC. If you absolute hate curved monitors, buy the AOC. If you have a very small desk and can't afford a separate monitor arm or stand, buy the AOC, or a completely different monitor. If you want the most vivid (not necessarily most realistic) colors, the best contrast and the inkiness of a half-glossy panel, buy the AOC.

Otherwise, I think most users would probably enjoy the G7 more because of noticeably better viewing angles, better response times and the 240Hz refresh rate.

I will personally try the AOC for a few more days because I like the colors and contrast, and the G7's stand legs are quite frankly too big for my small desk. The AOC's viewing angles however actively bother me as someone who often leans close with my head resting on my hand above my desk, so I'll see if I can get used to it before the end of my return period.

Worth nothing that the Samsung monitors are infamous for quality control issues. Mine has the popular VRR flickering and on PS5 there is screen tearing every 15 seconds.

Scepture 240hz gaming monitor

(First of all I want to clarify that I am using a translator)

Well, after trying and trying, I think I found the best configuration. I did it with the configurator that Windows comes with.

The only mode of the monitor that managed to correctly reconcile brightness and contrast is the "race mode". I realized that by selecting this mode it doesn't matter how much you raise or lower the brightness, nothing will simply be modified in Windows. It is a shine only for the user. So as long as you set the "career mode" the brightness and contrast is the user's choice.

That is why I believe that specialized websites recommend a brightness of 5. I recommend that it be at least 15 and up (if you play in dark rooms).

Contrast is the same case as brightness. It is only for the user, there is no correct value. It seems to me that a minimum of 45 and above should be placed so that it compensates for the brightness and does not look so dull. Comment what contrast you use and the brightness too.

In Reds, Greens, Blues. With the configuration of windows monitors. These are the correct values:

Red: 90

Green: 91

Blue: 100

With these values ​​it was the closest to the gray scale that Windows provides. These values ​​compared to setting it to "Normal" It shows that there is an improvement

Something I noticed is that the reds are very warm but because it is that way from the factory. If you try to modify it, it disrupts everything else. It's a matter of getting used to it if you come from colder reds I suppose.

​

And that's it, the translator is very imprecise but the basics are understood.

​

I did what anyone over in /r/ultrawidemasterrace would consider a cardinal sin. I switched back to a 16:9 panel after having an ultrawide for a couple of years.

After a couple of years of having the UW QD-OLED (and being very happy with it), I started to want to potentially try a 4K monitor and switch things up a bit again.

Enter 2024 where every company has a beautiful 4K OLED releasing, and I decided to make the jump back. Considering how much I loved my Alienware monitor, I decided to give them my business on the new 32 inch 4K OLED.

Considering the fact that I have been using OLED technology for years not only with my monitor but with the televisions in the house etc, and considering that I had been using a beautiful 34 inch ultrawide monitor, I did not expect to be blown away by the new one.

I was wrong. This thing absolutely has blown me away, and I cannot believe how impressive this monitor is. It is BEAUTIFUL. 4K resolution is BEAUTIFUL. I actually am so surprised at how much of a perceived difference in resolution there is jumping from the 1440p UW to the 4K 16:9. I did not expect to notice it this much, but god damn it is amazing.

The monitor, in my opinion, feels so much more immersive than my UW did, even when that is the ultimate selling point people give for UW. This screen feels huge in the best way possible.

Speaking of the screen size, I actually feel the just very slight curve of the Alienware lends itself greatly to a screen of this size. Its hard to explain, but it just takes that little bit of edge off of the size and helps you feel a little more immersed in it. I honestly believe for me personally, a flat version of this might feel a little big for me. I am probably wrong about that, but its just my gut feeling after having this curve.

There are so many YouTube videos discussing the more nuanced specs and tests and everything so I simply wanted to share my thoughts as someone who went from a 34inch UW back to 16:9 with this 32 inch 4K OLED form factor.

I am sticking with Alienware because I do prefer the slight curve, but I can guarantee that anyone picking up one of these 4K QD-OLEDs this year from any manufacturer will not be disappointed.

Congratulations to anyone picking up one of these from any of the great options we have this year. I cant wait to try more games out on this thing.

​