HARDWARE REVIEW

ViewSonic XG2703-GS QHD G-Sync Monitor Review

by Luke Walsh, November 5th, 2017

What is the ViewSonic XG2703-GS QHD G-Sync Monitor?

ViewSonic’s latest monitor the XG2703-GS QHD is G-Sync enabled which allows you to get lag-free gaming from your Nvidia compatible PC but it does come at a price, exactly that, a higher price. In this review, we will look to see if that higher price is worth what the XG2703-GS can bring to the gaming table.

Inside the XG2703-GS sits an AHVA panel which is one of the reasons for the higher price, this is not your run of the mil panel but more of a luxury product. With this, gamers will look receive every last drop of performance the monitors are able to achieve. IPS panels are still able to produce better colours and the TN as they are still able to offer the best refresh rates and lower latency times.

The AHVA panel is still offering good colour saturation and is the best at off-axis image quality, combine this with the G-Sync, overclock the panel to 165Hz with ULMB and a decent solid build quality it could shape up to be one hell of a monitor.

ViewSonic’s gaming monitors are a lot different in design from their other screens as they are built more around the gaming aesthetic. This means you’ll get some brighter trims, lighting and some sharp angles for the base, back of the monitor and mount.

Screen space is decent thanks to the 11mm bezel around the top and sides with it being a little bit thicker at the bottom where the logo is. The base is fairly deep and wide allowing a stable position on the desk and the shape allows multiple XG2703-GS monitors on the desk side by side. It has a 175-degree swivel, with a 4-inch height adjustment and a 5-degree forward tilt with a 15-degree backwards tilt.

Usually, tiling monitors backwards/forward and moving them around is not usually a massive requirement for most gamers unless you have someone around. Height adjustment is useful though when you have different desk sizes, chair heights to make sure everything matches up. Let’s also hope you are “ergonomically sound” with your setups.

Instead of red trim this time you will find some subtle lime green elements, most notably for the headphone stand at the back of the screen which folds down and the trim found above and below the screen. There’s also lime green trimming inside the cable management hold on the monitor arm at the back.

On the back, the XG2703-GS is well designed with a small vent and slick surfaces which stand out against the black plastic. Speakers are situated on the back and should bounce off a nearby wall pushing the sound towards you. At the top underneath some of the green trim are air vents but to be honest, the whole thing ran cool and quiet the entire time it was used even after many long gaming sessions.

On the right-hand side, you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports and the control keys for the OSD which are on the most poorly designed buttons I’ve found on a monitor. They are nice and responsive with an almost mechanical (not mechanic) click but their layout behind the monitor is confusing when trying to match up the correct button with the corresponding OSD command. View Sonic should have stayed with their touch panel buttons on their other monitors or gone for something similar to the ASUS displays with the joystick-like control scheme.

The OSD set up is pretty packed out with options but is fairly sparsely laid out within sub menus rather than it all be together. Even with the layout like it is, there are a lot of options for every type of gamer who wishes to tweak pretty much everything they need to.

Pressing any of the keys on the side of the monitor will bring up the quick menu for the OSD and also brings quick access to the brightness, contrast, input selection and Game Mode. ViewSonic offers four different picture modes with six different pre-sets under the Game mode.

They don’t really look all that different from each other but the Standard Mode offers the most accurate colours and with a few further tweaks to the colour mode the colour accuracy can be brought to a pretty decent level.

Inside the ViewMode menu, you’ll find additional settings including ULMB mode, Dark Boost, Adaptive Contrast, Blue Light Filter, Response Times. With response times the middle options seemed the best as too high and the image goes a little off.

ULMB or Ultra Low Motion Blur mode is built by Nvidia and will only work after G-Sync is turned off. The tech is designed to decrease motion blur and reduce ghosting when objects are moving quickly making them look smoother than they usually do. The ULMB mode will only work at refresh rates of 120, 100 and 85Hz, so using this mode you won’t get the overclocked speeds the XG2703-GS is capable of.

Colour Temperature settings will do the usual Warm, Native, Bluish and User Colour that allows you to tweak the temperature to your liking. The Native temperature seemed a bit too white, I opted for the Blueish option first but after tweaking the colour manually, Red 100, Green 97 and Blue 96 seemed the perfect balance without it burning your eyes. Colour Adjustment sub menu has more additional options to change brightness. 6-axis colours, gamma etc. Gamma should really be set at 2.4 to get the best picture, the review monitor that was sent had it set to 2.0 which felt a little washed out, a common tweak I make to most ViewSonic monitors.

From a brightness level, the max luminance it can achieve is about 330 cd/m² which is a little short of their documented 350 cd/m2 brightness. This is usually down to ULMB blur reduction needs to compensate for the loss in brightness from the technology. It’s a shame they did not adjust the brightness output enough for it. From a black’s level, it does exceptionally well measuring around 0.295 cd/m²and a contrast ratio of 1100:1 which is again very good. This for games is a great balance to be able to see dark areas clearly without it being washed out to grey. Moviegoers will also like this for scenes which are at night or darkened for a much more realistic effect.

Viewing angles on the XG2703-GS are great and this is thanks to the AVHA panel which are most known for offering the best angles. In our tests, there was only a slight drop-off in gamma when you moved to the sides. From the top, there is some colour deformation but every step in the test can be seen which is much better than most IPS and TN panels.

Now down the good stuff, gaming with the ViewSonic XG2703-GS monitor. The monitor with G-Sync allows you to play at high framerates and no tearing what so ever. Even when playing Fallout 4 with an FPS count of 100, there were no problems with the images. Same is also said for the input lag or stutter it was non-existent.

Playing Overwatch with the XG2703-GS was exceptionally fun as it was able to keep up with my crazy mouse movements no matter how fast I was moving. Motion blur was not a thing I had to deal with so everything was easily seen at a moment’s notice, something gamers will enjoy after continuous gaming sessions.

A QHD monitor seems to have a nice sweet spot for offering performance and picture, so you won’t see any pixelation in games when on lower level settings. A good find for those without the money to spare on a new graphics card (after you have bought this monitor). The little details within games are picked up and in games like Fallout 4 the environments look much better down to the fact textures are highlighted making them pop more.

Verdict

For a G-Sync monitor, ViewSonic has created a meld of performance and image quality which will appeal to a lot of gamers looking to have a decent one size fits all gaming monitor. The AVHA panel has been successfully used to deliver exceptional viewing angles and very good black performance. There’s a chance it won’t be as bright as some other monitors on the market but still packs a decent punch. ULMB mode does make the brightness suffer even more but if you have an Nvidia card G-Sync is all that you’ll need.

The 165Hz should be an achievable result for most gamers as not everyone has a Titan sitting under their desk. Although the monitor is only 1440P I personally believe that is fine as it makes it more accessible to gamers when using these kinds of monitors. If you go to UHD, the Titan is something you’ll need to even come close to getting decent framerates to use this monitor correctly.

The XG2703-GS is pretty accurate out of the box but to get the right balance of colour, you’ll want to tweak the settings a little bit. I found it just a little too much from the get-go and wanted to tweak the level of harsh white is had when first opened.

How much does the ViewSonic XG2703-GS cost?

Overall the XG2703-GS will be something gamers will want to look at with a wide range of options even if the menu system is a little funny to use. G-Sync is still one of the best technology for serious gamers as it still comes as a premium, currently going to cost you £599 on Amazon. Price aside though, it is still a monitor worth checking out as it makes a decent effort as a one size fits all device.

Correction: We mentioned that the monitor was only 1080p which was wrong as it is 1440p. This has been updated.