The Acer XB280HK is a 28" 4K G-SYNC display which will launch next month at expected price of US$799 or $849.99CDN. The XB270H is a 27" 1080p display also with G-SYNC support and is currently available at $599USD or $649CDN. As both are rated with a 1ms response time it is likely these are backlit TN panels but with the recent advances in TN panels the viewing angles should be much better than the original generation.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 18, 2014 – Acer America is bringing its new XBO series gaming displays featuring NVIDIA G-SYNC technology to gaming enthusiasts in North America. This cutting-edge line delivers significant performance advantages that infuse gaming with incredibly smooth, realistic and responsive visuals, elevating game play to a new level of stunning realism.
The two XBO series display models for North America include the Acer XB280HK boasting a 28-inch 4K2K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) display with a @60Hz refresh rate and the Acer XB270H with a 27-inch screen and a maximum Full HD 1080p @ 144Hz resolution. Both models provide a quick 1ms response time, further enhancing in-game performance. They also feature revolutionary NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, comfortable ergonomics and excellent connectivity.
“We’re excited to bring these first-rate gaming displays to gamers in the United States and Canada,” said Ronald Lau, Acer America business manager. “The incredibly sharp and smooth images provided by NVIDIA G-SYNC technology are sure to thrill the most avid gamers. Combined with Acer’s highly flexibly ergonomic stand, non-glare ComfyView panel and low dimming technology, users are assured long hours of both comfortable and visually stunning game play.”
NVIDIA G-SYNC: Picture-Perfect Visuals
NVIDIA G-SYNC technology ensures that every frame rendered by the GPU is perfectly portrayed by synchronizing the monitor’s refresh rates to the GPU in a GeForce GTX-powered PC. This breakthrough technology eliminates screen tearing and minimizes display stutter and input lag to deliver a smooth, fast and breathtaking gaming experience on the hottest PC gaming titles. Scenes appear instantly, objects look visually sharp, and gameplay is more responsive to provide faster reaction times, giving gamers a competitive edge.“NVIDIA G-SYNC technology dramatically improves the way gamers see their games, by delivering images that are fast, sharp and stutter-free,” said Tom Petersen, distinguished engineer at NVIDIA. “This is the way games were meant to be played, and gamers will absolutely love these new Acer XBO monitors.”
Comfortable Ergonomics
By making gaming as comfortable as possible, the XBO series monitors help extend game time with three Acer innovations. Acer flicker-less technology reduces eye strain via a stable power supply that eliminates screen flicker. Its low dimming technology provides users the ability to adjust brightness down to 15 percent in low-light environments and Acer ComfyView non-glare screen reduces reflection for clearer viewing, a significant benefit for gamers.A flexible, multi-function ErgoStand extends a wide range of options for maximum comfort and viewing perspectives. For finding the best angle, the screen tilts from -5 to -35 degrees and the height can be raised by up to 5.9 inches. In addition, the base rotates 120 degrees from left to right for easy screen sharing during game play and collaboration with others. Plus, the screen pivots from horizontal to vertical to accommodate two entirely different gaming scenarios.
Both new XBO series monitors deliver wide viewing angles up to 170 degrees horizontal and up to 160 degrees vertical. The Acer XB280HK delivers 1.07 billion colors and the Acer XB270HL provides 16.7 million colors, while both offer a native contrast ratio of 1000:1, a 300 nits brightness and a 72 percent NTSC color saturation, a combination that delivers exceptionally vibrant, detailed and high-quality imagery.
Superb Connectivity
The displays come with DisplayPort as well as high-speed USB 3.0 ports (1 up, 4 down) that are located on the side and down of screen for easily connecting a mouse, keyboard, gaming headset, joystick and other peripherals. One of the USB ports is equipped for battery charging.Eco-Friendly Design
EPEAT Gold registered, the highest level of EPEAT registration available, the displays meet all of EPEAT’s required criteria and at least 75 percent of EPEAT’s optional criteria. They’re also mercury-free and LED-backlit, which reduces energy costs by consuming less power than standard CCFL-backlit displays. ENERGY STAR 6.0 and TCO 6.0 qualified, they adhere to strict environmental, performance and ergonomic design standards.Pricing and Availability
The Acer XB270H is available now at leading online retailers in the United States and Canada with a MSRP of US$599 and $649.99 CAD. The Acer XB280HK will be available next month at leading online retailers in the United States and Canada with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of US$799 and $849.99 CAD.Acer displays are backed by professional, high-quality technical support and a three-year warranty. Acer’s online community at community.acer.com provides customers discussion forums, answers to frequently asked questions and the opportunity to share ideas for new and enhanced services and products.
Does anyone know if any of
Does anyone know if any of these G-Sync displays will work with the adaptive sync or whatever it’s called that AMD are employing?
Probably not. G-snyc is a
Probably not. G-snyc is a hardware approach, while Freesnyc is a software one.
Wrong.
Project FreeSync isn’t
Wrong.
Project FreeSync isn’t just hardware it requires the same things G-Sync does but doesn’t lock you down to Nvidia only.
Nvidia G-Sync requirements
Nvidia G-Sync capable GPU
Nvidia G-Sync module in monitor (DisplayPort 1.2)
AMD Project FreeSync requirements
AMD FreeSync capable GPU
VESA standard Adaptive-Sync certified monitor (DisplayPort 1.2a or higher)
Doesn’t lock you down to
Doesn’t lock you down to Nvidia only… just AMD only.
Wrong,
Nvidia is free to use
Wrong,
Nvidia is free to use the VESA Adaptive-Sync standard. They are part of the VESA body and sit on the board of directors.
No they wont.
No they wont.
This time last year you
This time last year you needed about $6000 minimum for a good 4k setup, and now you can get this gsync monitor and upcoming gtx 980s for 1/3 the price and experience will be better.
$800 for the 4k model sounds
$800 for the 4k model sounds like a pretty good deal, but $600 for the 1080p model seems really steep.
sounds great. except with 4k
sounds great. except with 4k i will essentially get rid of my 30″ 1440p monitor and switch to a 48″ one. wish there were tv’s with almost no lag & gsync…
4k that is
4k that is
HDTV’s don’t have G-Sync,
HDTV’s don’t have G-Sync, though I know NVidia wants it to happen and FreeSync (or possibly both) should happen at some point.
SONY would be smart to support FreeSync to offer an HDTV that makes the PS4 run smoother. In theory I believe they could support G-Sync but there’s an added cost plus the AMD GPU that puts a damper on that (it’s possible from a hardware point of view).
G-Sync should be slightly better than FreeSync (despite AMD’s confusing FAQ page) but FreeSync should be noticeably better than nothing especially for a console where it currently uses Adaptive VSync so you have VSync lag and occasional screen tearing.
Other:
LAG. You may not realize it but most HDTV’s have a “gaming” mode which you enable for the HDMI input. This basically disables any video processing done by the HDTV thus avoiding added lag.
If anything ps5 or next xbox
If anything ps5 or next xbox have a higher chance of supporting active sync vs this gen.
This seems a somewhat
This seems a somewhat superfluous comment, since both current gen consoles (XBONE and PS4) are slated for a 10-year shelf-life.
Do you honestly think that is
Do you honestly think that is true? I personally don’t think the PS4 or XB1 was set up to last more than 5 years despite what the companies may be telling us. The technology in these machines was already a few years outdated when it was released.
I don’t get the choice
I don’t get the choice between 4k@60Hz or 1080p@144Hz for a 27-28″ size display. I want to upgrade from a 23.5″ to a 27″ display but the sweet spot is in between the extremes of these two products. And yet, it is as if display manufacturers are actively avoiding it. I imagine people would jump on a quality monitor with variable refresh that doesn’t cost as much or more than the GPU(s) required to drive it.
Compared to a 23.5″ 1080p@60Hz monitor (a very common and affordable display with good PPI at arms length):
A 27″@1080p is essentially like stretching the image so the PPI drops. I guess the thought is to sacrifice spacial detail (pixel density) for temporal detail (refresh rate). It feels a bit like paying a premium for a compromise.
A 28″@4k makes the PPI is so much higher (unnecessarily so) that it breaks typical DPI scaling and signal bandwidth places hard limits refresh rates. Not to mention that you’ll want to keep high image quality settings to take advantage of that overblown PPI, but then no single GPU can deliver solid frame rates at this resolution. The mainstream enthusiast doesn’t have $2k to spend on a monitor and the GPU’s to drive it to it’s full potential.
As for variable refresh, if I can regularly push 120+ FPS then I have to think that variable refresh starts to have a greatly diminished effect. And if graphical settings result in frame rates swinging between 40-140 FPS then I would expect that minimum frame rates would still dominate the “smoothness” of the experience even when using variable refresh.
Finally, there is the disproportionate pricing of display size vs. resolution. Aggressive 4k pricing cuts have helped make those displays less ridiculously expensive starting at about $500-600 while good 1440p displays have been stubbornly stuck around $400-500 for a couple of years. Meanwhile, a solid 23″ 1080p IPS display can regularly be found for around $130 or so.
Is it asking too much for a display that can do the following?
1) use a good 27″ 1440p non-TN panel
2) support a variable refresh range of at least 24-96 Hz
3) don’t lock buyers into a single GPU vendor
4) cost less than $300 or so
If you build it…we will buy!
The sweet spot you want is
The sweet spot you want is the Asus ROG Swift PG278Q. It’s $800 but a better monitor than both of them (my opinion).
Surely you jest? “It’s $800”
Surely you jest? “It’s $800” which is about where the Asus alphabet soup monitor loses it’s appeal. That’s $50 per character if you count spaces. Maybe if they drop the “ROG Swift” part it will only cost $300…? I’m sure it’s a nice monitor that has great specs and performance. But is it $800 good? I can’t believe that it is. Nothing about it says compromise, price included.
I put it there with $120+ cases, $200+ motherboards, and $80+ keyboards. It is a luxury item that provides marginal (or even no) practical benefit over well rounded alternatives at a heavy premium. My dollars, like most people, have to be spent more judiciously than that. Hell, $800 is about what I paid new for my entire system minus my monitor. An i7-2600k ($200), Z77 MB($50 after Microcenter combo and rebate), 16GB DDR3 1600 ($80, when it was dirt cheap!), Radeon 7950 Boost ($200 on clearance, yay rebrands!), 256GB Samsung 830 ($120), 1TB HDD ($50), CoolerMaster case and 212 EVO ($70), and some case fans (~$30). To be fair I put this together over a few months and reused my XFi Xtreme Gamer sound card, CM Real Power Pro 650W power supply, Logitech mouse, and MS keyboard from my previous Core2Duo machine. I still think it demonstrates my point.
I fully expect to be waiting for the market to mature (Acer products are usually strong on value), but I see some odd forces at work. Cell phones are starting to have higher res than my 60″ TV, 4k is being thrust into a market without enough content, bandwidth, or GPU power (in the case of PC gaming) to really drive it, meanwhile current broadcast, cable, and satellite struggle to achieve even 1080p ubiquity in their service, and laptops are still being sold with 1366×768 displays.