Gadgetory

it's reviews day Tuesday in our YouTube sponsor entry to awesome stuff week 2015 and and this keeps freaking happening to me I am always declaring some new monitor to be the best thing ever compared to other 3d monitors that I've seen this is hands-down the one to get it might just be the best I've ever seen only the lack of JPEGs prevents this from winning my coveted Editors Choice Award the only choice for someone who wants all about 4k is off my wish list and large format for one by nine is on it my new top choice for a Productivity minded workstation display in the XR 3501 is my new top dog gaming monitor and then someone be it a sous LG Acer BenQ whoever keeps standing up and being like um excuse me ours has a high refresh rate or like ours is IPS or ours is bigger or ours is curved fool well today it's finally over because the x34 predator is here from Acer bringing perhaps an end to my quest for the perfect monitor let's find out if it succeeds shall we the mastercase 5 by Coolermaster gives you the freedom to truly make your mid-tower pc case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check out the link in the video description to learn more physically it seems like whether it's through careful market research or pure trial and error acer has improved a lot in terms of their performance II looking industrial design because the x34 predator manages in my mind to look gamer II without crossing the line to tacky starting at the back I do wish that the entire industry would lose the infatuation with glossy surfaces but there's an optional base amount adapter and the tilt and height adjustable stand has these kind of sharp angles and lines to it and with only a tiny orange accent on the cable management pass-through to reveal that it's a gaming monitor the bezels are as slim as they can be while keeping that required chin bar to house electronics and even the front logo issues a brightly colored affair in favor of a monochrome one with a subtle orange backing material but enough about how it looks on a shelf let's talk specs and see if the x34 predator ticks all the right boxes 34 inch curved display okay not as curved and therefore immersive feeling as the Ben qxr 3501 but better than flat IMO check eh IPS panel technology for superior color performance and viewing angles big check 34 40 by 1440 resolution much more difficult to drive than 2560 by 1080 more on that later but a much finer image and way better for regular desktop use check again so that sounds great so far Linus but hold on a second none of this is anything we haven't seen before in fact what the hell is the difference between this and the XR 341 CK that you reviewed literally two months ago great question and here's the answer the things that set the x34 predator apart from anything else that I've ever seen is that in addition to all of that it features g-sync technology which you can learn more about here but basically it eliminates stutter and screen tearing during game rendering on supported GeForce graphics cards and it can be overclocked from its stalks 60-hertz refresh rate to a whopping 100 Hertz for a very noticeable improvement in how frequently updated frames can be delivered to the gamers eyes so that's it acer has officially delivered everything that I've been asking for since first laying eyes on an ultra wide one and a half years ago everything else at this point is just gravy which isn't to say that gravy is bad revisiting the rear of the monitor we've got a bit of an unusual i/o layout there's a four port USB 3 hub power input for the external brick an audio pass-through that maybe someday a monitor manufacturer will put somewhere usable and what's this ah perhaps some gravy Acer has implemented not only the standard DisplayPort 1.2 that's been required for g-sync operations since the technology was first introduced but also an HDMI input that along with the 100 Hertz refresh rate capability of the display suggests that the predator is running something more than just the original g-sync module the secondary input is limited to 50 Hertz by default indicating that to my disappointment it is an HDMI 1.4 rather than HDMI 2.0 port but it's redeemed somewhat by my successful overclock to 60 Hertz on a gtx 980ti and it's still a heck of a lot better than nothing if you have a secondary PC or a console that you want to plug into your main monitor periodically and speaking of display overclocking how does that 100 Hertz overclock work well actually the process was too straightforward for me and I got confused I should probably explain that people who are familiar with display overclocking know that it's done through the graphics card control panel not the monitors on-screen menu well not on this bad boy to achieve the advertised up to 100 Hertz overclock you just navigate to it in the menu confirm a reboot of the monitor and configure your shiny new refresh rate in Windows the same way that you normally would which of course instantly made me curious to see if it could be pushed even further using the Nvidia control panel and no not even one Hertz Acer has already put their balls to the wall so to speak 100 Hertz is all you get so then let's change gears and talk about what it's like gaming on my ultimate monitor well to put it succinctly it's super awesome but that doesn't really get my point across properly I mean I guess it's just hard for me to deliver that amped up you know like yeah yeah I'd like skin Rox speech here because for me none of this is a surprise I've experienced g-sync I've experienced high refresh rate and I've experienced curved ultra-wide I've just been patiently somewhat patiently waiting for someone to put them all together so the experience here is more akin to getting home sitting down after a long day and taking that first bite of my wife's amazing homemade pizza than it is to ripping open a surprise present on Christmas morning this is a deeply satisfying amazing gaming experience and everything from racing to shooters to third-person to anything it's the bomb which doesn't mean I'm not going to try and find problems with this monitor starting with input lag testing the x34 predator managed a mere 13.7 milliseconds with my Leo Bodnar input lag tester so that won't be an issue and picking up with panel color performance well damn when did gaming monitors get so good at this I mean no it's not perfect but at 98% coverage of srgb and color accuracy falling in the Delta II of 2 to 4 range pretty much across the board this monitor of gaming aside is even suitable for prosumer photo and video editing in the bog standard default user mode without any calibration hot-diggity there's a touch of backlight bleed on a black background but nothing out of the ordinary and I feel like the anti-glare coating while not the most glare reducing I've ever encountered strikes a good balance between the clarity of the image and the reduction of reflections so then my only real complaints that I can find are in the on-screen menu the monitor axé any ultra-low motion blur settings for controlling back light strobing something that I don't personally use because it can't be used at the same time as g-sync right now which I prefer but it's been a staple on modern g-sync monitors for quite some time so it's disappointing that it's not there and my second complaint the on screen menu is just generally really clunky to navigate it's hard to tell what button you're pressing and it takes forever to get anything done but I guess that's about oh no there's one more thing the price the x34 predator may be amazing but it comes in at a whopping $1,300 u.s. MSRP not to mention that because it runs at such a high resolution that to even benefit from its hundred Hertz refresh rate you are going to need some serious graphics and CPU horsepower for modern triple-a games at high settings but if you're a baller I can say with confidence this is the best gaming experience you can put on your desk and here's a cool side note if you're a baller thanks to this video's inclusion in awesome stuff week 2015 there should actually be a new ad unit on it that YouTube is testing that allows you to see where to buy it from right within the video for most of us this is probably a non-factor but if you've got a couple grand burning a hole in your pocket then I guess it saves your mouse and keyboard a little wear and tear and on that subject mass drop you guys might have heard of mass drop before or you might not have but if you do want to check it out it's draw ups slash Linus tech tips and they've got all kinds of great stuff whether you're looking for like a cool new knife or an audio recorder a pair of headphones a keyboard they've got all kinds of great stuff and the way it works is simple the community gets together and says hey we've got this amazing thing that we want to buy but it's a little expensive mass drop takes those requests back to the manufacturers and distributors and gets authentic products that the more people commit to buy the more mass the lower the price drops for when they all go ahead and pay at the end of the draw up and ship out to everyone very cool model and it is definitely worth shopping if you got a couple bucks and you don't mind finding something cool and spending it because I have certainly fallen into that trap before like oh this is cool oh that's really cool no way that's the drop price done so check them out at draught ups slash Linus tech tips and that is linked in the video description so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying a cool t-shirt like this one if this isn't a t-shirt whatever you get my point we're even with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum now that you're done doing all that you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out luke's video where he determines what is the optimal positioning of the next bound card when you're running a graphics card in your top slot for best performance and cooling