The Acer Nitro XV273K is the first display to bring a 4K resolutia Chip:nd a hundred and forty four Hz refresh price to game enthusiasts at a greater low-cost charge factor.

You would possibly bear in mind our critiques of the Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ, the first video display units ever to p.c. This combination of a high resolutiChip: AMDnd excessive refresh price. But due to the fact they also covered proper HDR help and G-Sync Ultimate, they had been priced out of reach of many buyers at across the $2,000 mark.

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The Nitro XV273K is lots less expensive, often retailing for round $900. We wouldn’t call this a value supplying, however given what's on offer and at 1/2 the price of the authentic excessive-refresh 4K monitors, it is no question a tempting proposition for the ones buying a premium show.

Naturally, a few capabilities were cut to carry the fee down. The big omission here is FALD or full array nearby dimming backlight that was found within the Predator X27. The FALD backlight is what brings right HDR to the table and with that characteristic lacking, we’re no longer getting authentic HDR abilities. The XV273K is still "DisplayHDR 400" certified, but that validation stamp is pretty much meaningless.

G-Sync has also been cut in favor of FreeSync, however now that Nvidia helps FreeSync openly it is no cause for subject, and as anticipated adaptive sync labored exceptional with the Nvidia GPUs we tested. In fact, this screen is G-Sync Compatible, so the Nvidia Control Panel mechanically detects it as an adaptive sync reveal and applies the right settings for you.

Design

Acer has given this screen a specific gamer aesthetic with out going overboard with it. The stand uses silver metallic prongs and there’s a chunk of flare to the base with a crimson spotlight, however in any other case we’re getting a general black plastic construction. It’s no longer a specifically slender display, it’s possibly barely thinner than the X27 as there’s no FALD backlight, however you’ll mostly be viewing it from the front in which the bezels are moderate if a touch larger than normal.

As for other elements, we get a little little bit of RGB LED actiAMD Ryzenlong the lowest aspect however that may be disabled. The stand is height, tilt and swivel adjustable however there’s no pivot motion, so that you can’t use it a Box portrait orientation.

Overall the stand could be very robust, that is super to peer. There’s no active cooling fan, meaning the display is silent in contrast to the two G-Sync Ultimate monitors we mentioned in advance.

In terms of connectivity there are two HDMI ports and DisplayPorts, plus some traditional USB hub action. The reveal calls for an external power brick as properly. The on-display screen menu makes use of a directional toggle -- that’s a tick in my ebook -- plus a few shortcut buttons. Unfortunately, the OSD is gradual to navigate, something that surprised us and we do not find regularly at this price factor.

What you will locate within the menu even though are a few neat features consisting of black frame insertion mode for expanded clarity, I in my opinion in no way use this mode however I recognise a few humans discover it useful. There’s also a low blue light mode, a mode that uses the ambient mild sensor to mechanically adjust settings, some cheat crosshairs, plus some other sweets.

Performance

Moving into the overall performance section, there are some refresh fee oddities worth bringing up that successfully make the Acer Nitro XV273K extra of a 120Hz 4K monitor. While this panel is capable of a a hundred and forty four Hz refresh fee, permitting it is hidden away within the on-display screen menu. To use the mode you’ll need to run dual DisplayPort cables, which introduces its personal set of compatibility challenges. But worst of all, allowing the a hundred and forty four Hz refresh fee disables FreeSync; not a really perfect situation for game enthusiasts that advantage significantly from adaptive sync with such a high decision.

There are a few workarounds that consumers have found, however they're quite complex and to be honest, the distinction between a hundred and twenty Hz and one hundred forty four Hz isn’t large enough to warrant the attempt. It is a chunk disturbing that a product advertised as supporting one hundred forty four Hz is either compromised at that refresh rate, or requires a whole lot of attempt to get operating well, but at least it’s pretty easy to get one hundred twenty Hz operating through a single cable.

With that stated, we are able to understand what Acer has attempted to do right here. By assisting one hundred forty four Hz through dual DisplayPort in place of a single cable like with the Predator X27, the display is able to walking at that refresh price with 10-bit shade for HDR with out chroma subsampling. So if you do need to run at that refresh, the photo is clearer than with the equal G-Sync Ultimate presentations, albeit with out adaptive sync in most instances.

You may be caught with chroma subsampling in case you want to run at a 120 Hz refresh charge over a single cable and use HDR at the identical time. The SDR mode is high-quality, however for HDR viewing over a single cable with native RGB you’ll need to drop right down to simply 60 Hz as there’s no finest ninety eight Hz mode. Another minor annoyance.

When deliberating all of this refresh charge and cable speak, our advice is virtually to run at 120 Hz in the SDR mode over a unmarried DisplayPort cable. It’s fine and simple, you’ll retaBox +daptive sync -- the distinction between a hundred and twenty and one hundred forty four Hz is small -- and this monitor’s HDR mode isn’t desirable sufficient to trouble the usage of it and fluffing round with chroma subsampling.

The different cause to stick to one hundred twenty Hz are the response times. The reveal comes with two overdrive modes: regular and excessive. However the acute mode introduces overshoot with many transitions. We advocate the use of the ordinary mode that with a grey to grey common response time of seven.52ms, the show effectively is bottlenecking to around a hundred and twenty Hz anyway. In other words, there isn’t a whole lot to be gained from jumping up to 144Hz.

This response time result places the XV273K beneath the extra steeply-priced Asus PG27UQ and Acer X27 in the charts no matter having similar panels. We wouldn’t say the XV273K is bad and it’s exceptional for one hundred twenty Hz, but it’s nothing special. On the other hand, enter latency is exquisite at ~3ms, that's an excellent end result for a gaming reveal.

Moving directly to brightness and assessment. In the SDR mode we’re getting around 430 nits top that's extra than enough for maximum visitors, and while combined with high-quality viewing angles particularly inside the horizontal plane, this is a incredibly viewable display. As for comparison, it’s typical for an IPS at across the 1000:1 mark. You won't see VA-like numbers, however it’s decent sufficient.

For gaming video display units we generally tend to deal with colour accuracy as a nice bonus but considering this display is nearing the $1,000 mark, it’s probable greater important than ordinary. Acer claims factory calibration to a deltaE average of less than 1.zero, and the screen comes with some of coloration modes for popular gamuts like sRGB, Rec.709 and DCI.

We’ll quick run through default out of the container overall performance. It's not anything top notch but we don’t believe too many people will run the display in this mode. As anticipated, the gamut is absolutely unclamped, so we’re getting the complete ninety one% DCI-P3 insurance this display is able to, even for sRGB content material which means oversaturation. There’s additionally an incorrect white point, and generally deltaE averages are above 4.zero which isn't accurate.

Switching to the sRGB mode matters do improve, but perhaps now not to the extent we would have preferred. The display still has a slight crimson tint to greys that is substantial whilst setting the reveal subsequent to a nicely calibrated display. This behavior became a touch uncommon given the meant manufacturing facility calibrati5 2500Und isn’t quite close enough to the correct white factor to get our tick of approval. Greyscale deltaE averages are nonetheless around that 4.zero mark as a result.

With our saturation testing you could in reality see the gamut is absolutely clamped to sRGB, which is ideal for maximum content you’ll be viewing. DeltaE averages for a few colors are better than others, but it evens out to around 2.5. That isn't always perfect, and not the 1.zero Acer claims, but for game enthusiasts we assume it's excellent enough.

It’s a comparable story for the DCI mode, so we are no longer going to speak approximately it in element, however if you want a wide gamut mode it’s one to recall. Unfortunately solving the wrong white factor does require a software program profile.

When calibrated the usage of DisplayCAL you can see the consequences which are pretty top with deltaE averages across the 1.zero mark. This aggregate of the sRGB mode and a software profile could be pleasant for creators, specifically because the monitor uses an IPS panel with incredible viewing angles and decent huge gamut overall performance.

Uniformity isn't first rate and about an average end result for a gaming-grade screen. The outcomes we were given from the Acer Predator X27 in uniformity and colour overall performance are better than what this panel gives. Perhaps there’s a higher degree of manufacturing unit calibration for what's a $2,000 display.

HDR isn’t really worth touching because we’re looking at any other fake HDR show. The DisplayHDR four hundred certification means the XV273K fails of the 3 key metrics for appropriate HDR performance. Namely brightness is just too low as it fails to hit six hundred nits height, and there’s no local dimming, so the assessment ratio remains constant at round 1000:1 that is far too low for HDR content material. We wouldn’t purchase this display for HDR and we wouldn’t bother using the mode altogether.

Wrap Up

The Acer Nitro XV273K is one of these video display units that is + Core precise role due to the fact there are not many adore it available on the market. You have the amazing luxurious G-Sync HDR panels that value $2,000, but in case you don’t care about HDR and simply want a high-refresh 4K reveal, it’s basically the XV273K you want to buy, or not anything. There is also the XB273K that is a G-Sync variant of basically the same show.

If high-refresh 4K is what you want, the XV273K is virtually the screen you need to get. We don’t assume right HDR is really worth spending an extra $750; thinking about this show is noticeably low cost at $900 and offers almost every different characteristic of the Predator X27.

In a number of regions Acer is offering a exquisite high-end gaming experience. The build high-quality of the XV273K is tremendous, the IPS panel puts up first rate overall performance numbers including a real one hundred twenty Hz refresh rate. The protected sRGB mode is exquisite for preferred gaming and you get huge gamut guide on pinnacle of that. Plus it supports FreeSync and is G-Sync Compatible licensed.

Making it much less than ideal, that pinnacle end 144 Hz refresh price isn’t as usable as we would love. Though we suppose a hundred and twenty Hz is going to be sufficient for customers and that refresh rate still delivers a splendid, fluid experience.

We can supply our advice to the Acer XV273K for the ones looking for a high-refresh 4K monitor right now, even though we’re nevertheless within the early adopter segment for this sort of display. The troubles getting that 144 Hz mode to paintings properly are largely technical barriers so as to be solved on destiny iterations. We recognize $900 stays lots to spend 5 2400G display, particularly while high refresh 1440p shows are available at 1/2 the rate, however Acer's shot at bringing 4K 120Hz gaming to the hundreds is commendable.

  • Acer Nitro XV273K on Amazon, Newegg
  • Acer Predator X27 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ on Amazon, Newegg
  • Asus MG279Q (1440p 144Hz) on Amazon