Gadgetory

welcome back to hadron box so ever since Nvidia opened up support for adaptive sync monitors on NVIDIA GPUs I've seen a ton of comments asking me what free sync monitors I would recommend I guess with free sync now working with GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA with Intel also to support it soon people looking at upgrading to something new and the good news is NVIDIA GPU owners can finally upgrade to an adaptive sync monitor without having to pay the g-sync tax I've done a few monitors in the past going over some monitor recommendations and they have usually ended up as mostly free sync monitor recommendations because for a while now I haven't felt as though the premium for J sync has been worth it even when NVIDIA GPUs didn't support free sync but this video is going to be a little different in that I'll be recommending a lot more products over many more categories hopefully trying to cover what most people will be looking for I won't be covering everything though there will be a strong focus on gaming monitors because I assume most people after an adaptive sync display want adaptive sync for gaming it's not really a necessary feature for workstation creative or office focus monitors so those types of displays well they won't be talked about here as is the case for most of our monitor recommendations there is also a strong focus on value products so those that deliver the best bang for buck in any given specification bracket I've also made sure that every monitor I'm talking about here supports free sync via DisplayPort a key feature that's necessary for NVIDIA GPU owners as well as low framerate compensation a feature I feel is necessary for a good adaptive sync experience as a quick refresher low framerate compensation or LFC is a technique that extends the monitors refresh rate window from the minimum listed value to an effective refresh rate of one Hertz so a 48 to 144 Hertz monitor that supports LFC will effectively support a refresh rate range from 1 Hertz to 144 Hertz pretty much all high refresh free sync models support LFC but I double checked for this video and as a result I won't be discussing refresh rate windows all that much so let's kick things off with a look at 1080p monitors at this resolution there are a number of options but most are either 24 or 27 inches in size you can find some 32 inch 1080p monitors but that sort of sighs I don't think 1080p is sufficient for a monitor you should be looking at 1440p or higher while there are three main monitor technologies those are t NVA and IPS we can rule out IPS for 1080p monitors because there aren't any high refresh IPS panels at this resolution so we're down to TN and VA and the choice between those two could depend on whether you want something curved or something flat TN monitors at this resolution insides are flat whereas VA panels are curved if this is a big factor view well I guess we're narrowing things down a bit further the other big consideration between TN and VA comes down to color quality VA panels have higher contrast ratios and better viewing angles and some models are more color accurate and have a wider gamut so if you can put up with the curve all those factors will be an advantage however response times are slower making TN the faster option with less ghosting and in some cases higher refresh rates TN panels also tend to be slightly cheaper although that depends on the model so let's go through my recommendations for VA panels which I typically prefer over TN for the reasons just mentioned it's a clean sweep for biotech here at 1080p I'd recommend the vo-tech GN 24 C and GN 27 C at 24 and 27 inches respectively both pack 144 Hertz refresh rates and new Samsung VI panels which are pretty decent from what I've tested in the past delivering noticeably better colors than the 10 pounds I'm about to go through both options also great value the 24 inch is just $200 and if you want the 27 inch model that's going to be 240 us which make these monitors some of the cheapest in its category so these are my go-to recommendations for 1080p gaming Moroz however some people might want a TN display instead either because they're flat faster or cheaper the best value options here tend to be the 1080p 24 inch 144 Hertz offerings you can get an Acer GN 2 4 6 hl4 around 190 us which is a popular choice but actually sway towards the AO CGT to 590 FX while this panel is the same 190 dollars on new egg the design is nicer the panel is decent and you get the bonus of it being officially g-sync compatible of course the precinct wonders I've already talked about will still work with invidious GPUs through the toggle in the Nvidia control panel but as the g2 590 FX is g-sync compatible adaptive sync will be enabled by default at 27 inches 1080p 144 Hertz and TN there are any decently priced options right now so I'd go VA in this category the final consideration for 1080p monitors is the super high refresh category so 240 Hertz personally I don't think the price premium for 240 Hertz monitors over 144 Hertz model is is worth it right now you're looking at over $100 more for a small increase to smoothness at the higher refresh however if you are interested in this refresh rate I'd look at the $300 a set xf 250 q at 24.5 inches and the 370 dollars xf 2 7 th at 27 inches right now basically all 240 hertz monitors use the same a Optronics pounds so there's no real difference between any of the options on the market alright let's move on to 1440p and this is where the market really opens up a lot with a wide variety of options 24 inches is the easiest category to make a recommendation in because options are limited here you're basically stuck with a TN panel it's a decent TN panel but it's still 10 for what it's worth anyway the monitor I recommend is the 24 inch 1440p 144 Hertz IOC AG 2 for 1 QX which also has the benefit of being chasing compatible and it's only 310 dollars making it one of the cheapest 1440p high refresh monitors I'm not sure how many will be interested in a 1440p monitor that's only 24 inches in size but one does exist and this is pretty much won't go with at 27 inches 1440p and high refresh there are tons of options including all of TN VA and IPS panels again the choice between these technologies is similar to what I previously mentioned in that TN panels are the fastest and cheapest v err panels have the best contrast ratios and at this size are exclusively curved while IPS provides a balance of color quality and more response times while being flat so let's start with the TN option and this is the monitor you choose if you want something fast in terms of response times again considering most monitors here use the same panel I'd go for the pix UOP X - 7 6 if you can find one in stock and just 310 dots it's great value for these specifications and I really do like the design as well if you can't find one you're probably looking at spending $400 on the aoc AG 271 QX which considering the price of ba options I'm about to discuss probably isn't a good buy right now VA monitors in this category have become extremely competitive lately with lots of options thanks to a price drop for Samsung's 27-inch 1440p 144 Hertz and VA panels the standard option here is biotechs GN 27 d it isn't anything fancy but it offers basically the same feature set as other monitors around this price on just three hundred and thirty dollars through amazon it's a great buy for a free sync compatible monitor from a brand i've tested again this is the monitor I'd recommend for most people while it is curved it has better black levels than the TN option and while response times aren't amazing personally I'd choose colors over response times one very important note here relates to the Samsung JG 50 though yes this is the same price at three hundred and thirty dollars for the same specifications and panel however Samsung has chosen not to support adaptive sync with this monitor presumably to save a few dollars considering the vo-tech option is the same price but does support free sync this is a much better choice even though it may not be as big of a brand as Samsung 27-inch 1440p high refresh IPS panels are effectively a premium product as prices start around $400 the key benefit here is they are flat and in most cases have somewhat superior response times compared to their VA counterparts however unless you're a massive curved display hater I don't think these factors justify the price increase especially as VA panels also have deeper blacks for a superior contrast ratio the pic 0px 277 H is my recommendation here at 420 dollars but the GN 2070 is overall better value a quick note on 165 Hertz Morrow's to most of these options at 27 inches are g-sync so the carry a bit of a price premium starting at $600 for an IPS version considering there was almost no difference between 144 and 165 Hertz in practice the massive price increase however the cheapest 144 Hertz options is definitely not worth it while not as cheap as 27 inch monitors 32 inch 1440p high refresh precinct models are also a great option right now because I feel they're priced at an appropriate amount higher than the 27-inch equivalents if you want the extra size you can spend a few extra coins without it feeling like a stretch at this size resolution and refresh rate we're looking at VA pounds exclusively however the good news is there are both flat and curved VA options at this size the overall best option in my opinion is the pic 0px 3 - 9 which is flat and supports up to a 165 Hertz refresh rate there freesync is limited to 144 Hertz contrast isn't as amazing with this panel of some of the best videos out there but for 307 US dollars and without a curve I think it's a pretty good buy if you want a curved monitor right now you're looking at spending a little bit more my recommendation here goes to the AOC AG 322 QC X again contrast isn't as good as other VA s because it's essentially just a curve version of the flat panel used with the px 3 to 9 but otherwise it's decent and this monitor is available for a touch under $400 at 4k there aren't many good free sync options every 60 Hertz 4k free sync monitor on the market does not support LFC so I can't recommend them because the adaptive sync experience won't be very good thanks to a narrow refresh windows typically 40 to 60 Hertz in these situations you have to go with something g-sync for example the 28 inch Acer predator xB 2 8 1 HK for around five hundred and thirty dollars as a teen option all the ASA predator xB 271 HK at 27 inches and IPS for a touch under $700 there is one 4k free sync monitor I can recommend though and that's the a-sun nitro XV 273k a 27 inch IPS panel with a maximum 144 Hertz refresh rate this is essentially the same panel as used in the g-sync HDR monitors like the ASA Predator X 27 but without the local dimming backlight and at a low cost this is a relatively new display and it's not particularly cheap at nine hundred US dollars but it does offer both 4k and 144 Hertz at a compelling price much cheaper than the x27 if you don't care about HDR and it's better value than the 60 Hertz IPS g-sync option as I mentioned before due to its higher refresh rate next up we have ultra wise and there are lots of different sizes and revolutions here especially as this category of displays is growing at a pretty rapid pace however I'm gonna keep things simple here and stick to 21:9 as I feel if you're thinking of buying say a 32 9 super ultra wide there are lots of compelling options scheduled for release later this year that I think are worth waiting for either as they pack higher resolutions higher refresh rates or a combination of the two a 21-9 the main size to be concerned with is either 34 or 35 inches which are basically the same any way you can get 2560 by 1080 monitors at this size but I don't think they're worth the price considering a good high refresh model is at least $400 as is so I feel the best value is in 34 40 by 1440 displays at the moment my recommendation here is the msi optics ma g3 for one C cube which is an 1800 hour curvature uses VA Tech and tops out at 100 Hertz this uses the same 34 inch Samsung panel as most others in this price bracket and it's a pretty decent panel under cutting 35 inch a Optronics VA s and 34 inch IPS LG models by a significant margin while offering comparable image quality the msi variant is 480 dollars and I think that makes it the best bang for buck offering there are 34 40 by 1440 ultra wives at 120 + 144 Hertz these days but we're looking at prices over 780 dollars for these monitors and I don't think a $300 premium over the 100 Hertz models is worth it considering the relatively small increase in refresh rate the final category I want to mention is HDR because this is the topic I get asked the most questions about in our Dischord community is such a large selection of HDR monitors on the market now recommendations for HDR displays are a bit of a hot topic among hardware and box viewers wanting to buy a new monitor however I've been largely unimpressed with free hgr offerings the majority of monitors advertised the supporting HDR don't deliver a good HDR experience usually these are display HDR 400 certified and simply don't offer much over an SDR presentation it's really not worth buying a monitor with this level of HDR especially if that monitor is priced higher than the competition of course if the monitors still delivers a good SDR experience for a good price it could be worth considering but there's no reason to spend more only to receive crappy HDR in return so far I haven't seen a single freesync monitor that delivers a good or real HDR experience so my recommendation right now is not to buy a free sync monitor for its HDR functionality yep in my opinion there is no freezing gauge gr monitor where the free sync to or otherwise there's worth buying it because the HDR support simply isn't good enough this is largely because there are only a limited selection of monitors that have a proper full array of local dimming backlight which is necessary to achieve the contrast requirements of a good HDR experience with an LCD panel outside of invidious g-sync ecosystem F Ald back lights are reserved for high-end professional-grade displays which tend to be expensive and not well-suited to gaming due to limited refresh rates I hope this will change in the future I hope we get some decent affordable fruits and kamana meters with an F Ald backlight that's suitable for gaming but right now they pretty much don't exist the closest to a good HD experience you'll get right now is with Samsung's chg series and the free sync side however as these are edgelet locally dimmed panels they're only semi HDR in my opinion not true HDR displays now across these recommendations I've mostly focused on quality panels with good specifications and this tends to be pretty straightforward considering in anyone's spec category most monitors end up using the same panel in my opinion the panel is the most important aspect to a monitor which is why I'm comfortable recommending brands like fire tech that don't pack in as many features as say and equip on a sous monitor things like cheap crosshairs RGB lighting headphone stands FPS counters and so on don't really interest me all that much so these things didn't really factor in whatsoever there are some reasons I would consider a more expensive monitor of those I listed for example if it comes with a height-adjustable stand where the option I recommend doesn't offer its factory color calibrated unfortunately though not many gaming monitors are factory calibrated that's more of a professional-grade feature so unless you're spending hundreds of dollars more you're unlikely to get a calibrated monitor at a good bang for buck price that said these are just suggestions and recommendations if there's a particular feature you're after that my recommendations don't have of course just do your research read reviews because there are lots of other good models out there that I haven't mentioned here and of course pricing may also vary if you're in other regions like Europe or Australia because I've recommended a lot of products in this video here's a quick summary that goes over everything with up to date prices as of this video being made if you're interested in current prices we have links in the description for that anyway that's it for this video hopefully this has helped any prospective adapter similar buyers make a choice as to what they should go with seems like there's a lot of excitement in the Nvidia chip you own in community right now about having access to a wide range of adaptive sync motors which is always good as always you can subscribe for more monitor content consider supporting us on patreon to get access to our exclusive discord community and I'll catch you in the next one