Viewsonic XG2703-GS Review - 2K 165Hz Nvidia Gysnc Gaming Monitor

[Derouiche™]

Gaming monitors are designed with precision to assist hardware for realistic graphic approach. Without it your high-end hardware is incapable to show its power. Considering the best graphic quality of games, these monitors feature superfluous technologies to empower life like images, and so we have Viewsonic XG2703-GS. A potent LCD display powered by SuperClear IPS-Type Panel Technology, 165Hz Refresh Rate and 4Ms response time.

Viewsonic XG2703-GS has a 27inch Anti-Glare TFT LCD Display powered by NVIDIA G-Sync and Quad HD Resolution. We see it as an optimum display for playing games on ultra-high settings with no glitch. To get the best possible output you need a compatible gpu featuring NVIDIA G-Sync, an AMD FreeSync version is also available at lower price tag.

We are quiet delighted to test this model, at initial stages it performed well on our games and test results. We are going to share the details ahead, before that let’s have a look on major features and full specification of the model.

• Features:
• Designed for Gamers
• Adaptive Contrast Control
• Flicker-Free and Blue Light Technology
• Dual Speakers
• Versatile Connectivity
• WQHD 2560 x 1440 resolution
• 165Hz on DisplayPort 1.2a
• SuperClear IPS-Type Panel Technology
• NVIDIA Ultra Low Motion Blur, Dark Color Enhancement & G-Sync Technology
• 6-Axis Color Enhancement
• Ultra-fast 4ms response time

 

• Package: Below is the list of content of box:
• Monitor with attached stand
• 2x Power cord’s with AC/DC Power Adapter
• Display Cable
• USB Cable to power Monitor USB Ports
• Quick Start Guide and Manual.
• Note: It does not comes with a HDMI cable.

Design:

Viewsonic XG2703-GS is a part of premium monitor segment under 2 K categories. It is powered by Nvidia Gsync technology that gives you no tearing and lag free gaming remember it is a power hungry beast, which is said by its energy rating as well.

Front: 27inch Wide Angle Anti-glare screen covers max area at front followed by thick black border and a green opening at the bottom for cable management backed by huge stand base to keep it stable. Mostly covered in plastic, the monitor weight is roughly 7kg with stand. Viewsonic XG2703-GS is a large monitor that requires a good amount of space for proper placement. We suggest maintaining sufficient distance between you and monitor for low eye tension and regulate brightness contrast accordingly for the best viewing. You’ll notice a green cable management space right above the base with power light indicator. This green is clear indication of its favor to NVIDIA Gsync technology so this surly goes matching with team green theme.

Sides: Two USB ports on the right, two USB 3.0 ports facing downside at the back aligned with another port to power them, a cable is in the package and DC power input. Towards the right, there are two ports, one HDMI that supports max resolution of 2560 x 1440 @60Hz and another one a Display Port 1.2 which delivers 2560 x 1440 @165Hz Max. Later ahead an audio jack for headphones.

Back: The body features VESA Mounting stand which allows you to tilt the display to be used in portrait mode and as well as good degree of back and front tilting as per need of your situation. The stand has easy monitor shift mechanism, you can move it up and down to get rational height, along with easy twisting from landscape to portrait mode. It is a removable stand, you can also wall mount with compatible VESA mounting panel. Creative thought of putting headphone hook at back of stand but I feel it could be more useful if it would be on side of display but again you may find it useful for various other reasons.

The dual 2W stereo speakers doesn’t provide the dual sound quality at all, it’s very low and you need a headphone if sound is one of the things that makes your gaming complete.

All keys to access OSD menu are visible from backside. Can be used for easy navigation, adjusting monitor settings is comfortable, I think touch sensitive buttons are lot easier to use compare to these clickable keys.

Overall the design is remarkable, it gives a look of huge gaming display with a number of sober features.

Speakers:

We are not content with the speaker audio output but. The sound is not as loud as promised for immersive multimedia experience. The dual 2W stereo speakers doesn’t provide the dual sound quality at all, it’s very low and you need a headphone if sound is one of the things that makes your gaming complete.

Display Quality:

Light matte anti-glare display has good characteristics of anti-reflection. Wide range of viewing angle maintains the quality of colors, so don’t worry about getting lesser visual quality from distance and different angels. We got 100% of sRGB Color on our color gamut test. It has HDMI port but to get true juice of quality you need to use DisplayPort only, on which you unlocked the refresh rate of 165Hz, on HDMI gaming quality is not so pleasant. ViewSonic didn’t ship the HDMI cable in packaging which is another indication of DisplayPort preference.

For Gaming, The Gsync feature is actually a game changer here, if you have Gsync compatible card then this monitor is gem for you else you might not be pleased with the quality. There is also FreeSync version available for Red team Graphics card users, can’t say anything about that yet, hopefully it works good for AMD users as good this one works for Nvidia users. The price tag varies on the basis of model, G-Sync version is the costliest one.

OSD Menu:

Viewsonic XG2703-GS has 4 different preset View modes in the OSD menu with all basic and advance settings. They are Standard, Game, Movie and Web with pre-configured settings to adjust the screen quality. Another 6 different sub-preset modes are available for gaming, under Game in the OSD Menu, they are Gamer1, Gamer2, FPS1, FPS2, RTS, and MOBA. By selecting any one from them gives you different saturation levels, Gama, color, and other type of image correction. We recommend sticking with pre-set modes, to get the best possible effects.

The first button allows you to select those 6 sub-preset modes. The second key gives access to actual monitor menu, along with manual contrast/brightness adjustments and input selection.

The main menu has ample of different settings like speaker volume control, view mode, color adjust, manual image adjust and OSD setup. View Mode further has 4 modes, they are Standard, Game, Movie and Web. The Standard mode further offers access to adjust ULMB (NVIDIA Ultra Low Motion Blur), Dark Boost, Adaptive contrast, Blue Light Filter, Response Time and Recall. These settings can help you to optimize the monitor output. For example Dark Boost offers different levels to enhance the darker area of screen. Use adaptive contrast for brighter picture, and if the screen seems too flashy use Blue Light Filter for plummeting eye strain. The monitor has three modes of Response time, which are Standard, Advance and Ultra fast. As per the specs 4ms is the fastest response time it has, and it is a common standard in various gaming displays.

The Color adjust section offers settings like Control, Brightness, Saturation, 6-Axis Color, Color Temperature, Input Range and Gamma. Idle for expert users who want to play with custom settings for best output. Finally in Manual Image Adjust you can try the Overclocking feature. By default it is set on max on 165Hz or you can set it to native which will reduce it depending on the input source you are using, for example 144Hz.

Viewsonic XG2703-GS gives utmost control for screen optimization. High refresh rate is possible only on DisplayPort, the HDMI is restricted to 60Hz max. So if you want much higher amount of detailed image quality go with DisplayPort that comes in the package. A HDMI is good for consoles or home theater systems.

Performance Test:

Viewsonic XG2703-GS shifts to WQHD resolution for gaming. 2K seems possible on the screen, but having a low refresh rate on HDMI cause issues with the image quality. We had noticed screen tearing and pixilated darker areas, caused by low refresh rate on HDMI and DisplayPort both. We assume this could be our Radeon GPU that lacks G-Sync support. There is a FreeSync version also available, so at the time of buying do check your Graphic Card compatibility with the monitor specification.

Color reproduction seems well from a distant, our color gamut test shows, the monitor is capable of giving 90% of color accuracy on AdobeRGB and 100% on sRGB on 100% Saturation. As far as our quality test is concerned we are happy with the output. Without going much into the color detailing, Viewsonic XG2703-GS is capable of giving out good output as it promises. The different set of profiles via OSD menu and customization is something you need to work on, if your views demands best adjustment at gaming. So do spend some time with that and you will see the results.

Verdict:

So my verdict is, if it fits your budget and 2k Gaming is your thing then you should go with this model else look for 4k variant. The price tag varies on the basis of model, G-Sync version is the costliest one. If you own an AMD based gaming system, so your preference should go with the FreeSync model. But if you are having Nvidia enabled gpu in your system, a G-Sync monitor is required and obviously a higher price tag follows.  Viewsonic XG2703-GS works seamless with a fast response time, IPS-Type Panel, good viewing angle, adjustable stand, etc . For us it is absolute for gaming setup. It features all new techs you need to get high end output, but only under the 2K Resolution range. Our test gave us satisfactory results, and we recommend it for consoles as well.