AOC AGON AG271QG Gaming Monitor Review
Not so long ago, gaming monitors included all monitors with minimal matrix response time. Today, there are many solutions designed to provide gamers with a gaming advantage over an opponent with a more primitive monitor. We will look at the AOC AGON AG271QG monitor, one of the most advanced and sophisticated gaming monitors on the market, in this review. The design is made in military style, strictly and non-standard. The creators did not strive to make another super-aggressive alien-looking gadget; AOC AGON AG271QG is more like, hmm, a device for industrial frag collection. Simple, reliable, neat, like military equipment. The developers cannot be denied originality and a sense of style.
Screen resolution – 2560 x 1440, WQHD. In the era of development and promotion of 4K, it would seem that this is a limited and compromise solution, but do not forget that AOC AGON AG271QG is a gaming monitor. It is adapted for video cards with the highest fps values, and the higher the resolution, the more difficult it is for the video card to calculate frames. Only the top video cards are capable of delivering more than a hundred frames per second in the latest games, and even then, perhaps, in conjunction with several similar ones and after optimizing the drivers for the game. In short, 4K is a cinematic format rather than a gaming one.
A diagonal of 27 inches is considered optimal today. At a standard distance of a little over a meter from the player to the monitor, the image on the screen occupies almost the entire field of view, but at the same time the player does not miss anything.
It is a common belief that for better immersion in the gaming world, it would be good to have a monitor with a larger diagonal, so that even information from peripheral vision comes from the monitor screen. This is, of course, great, but in exchange for immersion you risk missing out on important visual information. What remains on the periphery of your vision is right in front of your opponent’s eyes. In games with a PvP component, the advantage will always be with the player who prefers to keep everything that happens under control.
The matrix installed in the AG271QG best suits the epithet “super advanced”. AHVA matrices, such as those in the AOC AGON AG271QG, are by far the best for gaming monitors: fast like TN, but with color rendering and black depth like IPS, as well as excellent viewing angles. These monitors can be used not only as gaming or multimedia home monitors, but even for professional image work.
Why does a gaming monitor need professional color rendering? The depth of black, high contrast and variety of color shades will allow you to better distinguish the enemy’s silhouette from the rest of the picture. This is primarily true for shooters, for example, Counter Strike or Battlefield, as well as for other war games where the enemy is camouflaged and tries to blend into the landscape (tanks, yes). At the same time, as practice shows, in both MOBAs and MMORPGs, even in strategies on a similar monitor with an AHVA matrix, in large-scale skirmishes it is convenient to understand what is happening or track a specific target in the thick of things.
Let us pay attention to one practical point. A purely gaming monitor is something that would only be appropriate in a gaming club, of which there are fewer and fewer as online tournaments grow in popularity. At home, a computer needs a universal monitor. Even if movies in the house are watched exclusively on TV, and no one processes or examines photographs on a monitor, there are still streams, gameplay videos of games and video guides, as well as articles with photographs, like this one. And Internet sites simply look much better on a professional monitor. Thus, color reproduction is the most important thing even for a gaming PC monitor.
The AOC AGON AG271QG matrix pleases the eye not only with a beautiful and informative picture, but also with record speed performance. A 165 Hz frame refresh rate means that the monitor is capable of outputting 165 frames per second, versus 60 Hz for most high-speed gaming TN-matrices, and even versus 144 Hz for the very top gaming monitors of the recent past. And physical support for high fps comes with a lot of gaming technology. About them below.
Let's move on to special technologies. The 165Hz refresh rate is especially useful thanks to NVIDIA G-Sync technology. Let us remind you: a video card with G-Sync support commands the monitor to output a frame immediately after it has generated the frame. As a result, there are no frame drops and, as a result, jerks, image stutters, additional drops in actual fps, input delays and other minor troubles that were encountered with gaming monitors without support for the new NVIDIA technology. If you have not yet had the opportunity to verify this personally, take my word for it - in shooters, especially e-sports games like CS:GO and Overwatch, the smoothness and accuracy of crosshair movement increases greatly. In games of other genres, where it is important to point the cursor somewhere in a timely manner, the effect is also significant. By the way, with G-Sync the actual fps value also increases.
Another technology that has proven itself and is found in gaming monitors of different brands under different names is called Ultra Low Motion Blur. Motion Blur – trail, blurring of an object when moving. In many ways, this blurring effect is a consequence of the work not of the monitor itself, but of the eye. The essence of the ULMB technology is the alternation of informative frames with a picture with empty black ones, as a result of which the influence of retinal inertia is reduced and the image becomes clearer. Also, the use of this technology reduces eye strain.
Unfortunately, Ultra Low Motion Blur cannot be used simultaneously with G-Sync. When this feature is enabled, the screen refresh rate is fixed at 60Hz, so we get 60Hz V-Sync + black frame every frame. It is unlikely that this will be useful in shooters like CS:GO or in strategies, but in sports simulators like FIFA 17 or fighting games, where you do not need to position the cursor, but quickly identify the movements of enemy characters at speed, using ULMB may be more useful than G -Sync.
Another well-known technology implemented in the AOC AGON AG271QG monitor is Flicker Free, uniform illumination of the matrix without PWM and flicker. If you've put Visine in your eyes or have ever sat at the computer to the point of dizziness and nausea (or headaches), then you know what Flicker Free technology is designed to save you from. At the very least, it can increase the time you spend harmlessly at the computer.
The AOC AG271QG is equipped with two more technologies designed to improve the quality of the game. More precisely, filters for image processing. They are called Game Color and Shadow Control. Game Color makes colors more contrasty and saturated. This helps, for example, to better notice the enemy or highlight other elements that are important for the course of the game from the background. The effect will be especially strong in shooters when “professional” graphics settings are set, and to call a spade a spade, munchkin ones are as lightweight as possible, with primitive textures selected so that the enemy really “glows” among the environment. The disadvantage of using the Game Color filter is stronger (faster) eye fatigue.
Shadow effect Control serves all the same purpose of detecting the enemy. In this case, as the name suggests, hiding in the shadows. Acting as a compressor of sorts, enhancing subtle tonal differences, the effect compresses contrast and brightness in dark areas of the image, allowing you to better distinguish objects in the dark without changing overall brightness and contrast settings.
Summary
As you can see, the AOC AGON AG271QG is a powerful gaming monitor, with a record refresh rate, excellent image quality, optimal diagonal size and excellent price/quality ratio. For a top-end device, the price is quite modest.
Perhaps the lack of 4K support can be considered a disadvantage, although it depends on how you look at it. Firstly, the decision to limit ourselves to the WQHD format allowed us to keep the price at a gentle level, and secondly, 4K is a multimedia format, not a gaming one, due to extreme loads on the video card and even the video card system.
