Acer’s swanky new gaming monitors marry high resolutions with ultra-fast speeds
Fast refresh rates? Tons of pixels? Buttery-smooth adaptive sync capabilities? Acer’s trio of new gaming monitors offer it all.
If you’ve felt the need for gaming speed, Acer’s trio of ultra-fast high-resolution monitors might just catch your eye. Announced ahead of CES 2021, all three also offer adaptive sync technology for buttery-smooth, tear-free gaming experiences, as well as TÜV Rheinland Eyesafe ( go.pcworld.com/1sfe)- certified screens designed to emit less blue light than standard LCDS. Maybe that’ll help you get to sleep
more quickly after a long, late-night gaming session.
The most interesting display actually rocks the lowest resolution. The 27-inch Predator XB273U NX features a 2560x1440-resolution IPS display—pc gaming’s sweet spot—but pushed to insane speeds. It hums along at a blistering 265Hz when overclocked, with a 0.5-millisecond grey-to-grey response time. Acer said the monitor is “HDR capable” without offering more detailed specifics (don’t expect true 1000-nit HDR visuals) and says the screen covers 95 percent of the DCI-P3 spectrum.
This sort of monitor is built for no-compromises twitch gaming, and as such, Acer baked in Nvidia’s new Reflex Latency Analyzer technology. Reflex Latency Analyzer measures how much latency is being added from the various parts of your system—from mouse click to the final frame being drawn— to help you identify hardware that could be holding you back, or just help you evaluate how responsive your games become when tinkering with various graphics settings.
We covered the Latency Analyzer technology in-depth in our look at the Nvidia Reflex suite (see page 75). Previously, you could only find the Reflex Latency Analyzer in 360Hz, 1080p monitors, and it’s great to see the technology spreading to other types of panels. As an RLA display, Acer’s monitor also includes Nvidia’s G-sync adaptive sync feature.
The Acer Predator XB273U NX will be available in May for prices starting at $1,100. This sort of cutting-edge display tech doesn’t come cheap.
If you’ve moved beyond 1440p, Acer also unveiled a pair of 4K displays with speedy 144Hz refresh rates. Both include AMD’S Freesync adaptive sync technology.
The 31.5-inch Acer Predator XB323QK NV display features an IPS panel that covers 90 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and comes with a VESA Displayhdr 400 certification. Those 400 nits don’t offer the sort of contrast ratio you’d expect from a proper HDR television, where 1000 nits is the standard, but it should be a pleasurably bright display—and 1000-nit PC displays are very rare and tend to be significantly more expensive. This monitor is also certified by Nvidia as being G-sync Compatible. That essentially means it’s a Freesync panel that has passed Nvidia’s more stringent evaluation. The adaptive sync will work with Geforce graphics cards out of the box rather than needing to be enabled manually.
The Acer Predator XB323QK NV will cost $1,200 when it launches in May.
Finally, the Acer Nitro XV282K KV opts for Freesync Premium instead. It also comes with an HDMI 2.1 port to easily allow next-gen gaming consoles to connect to the IPS display and still enjoy the buttery smoothness of variable refresh rates. It’ll start at $900 when it launches in May.