Author Topic: ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Review: Matte 144hz 1080p TN with AMD Free-Sync  (Read 16115 times)

NCX

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ViewSonic VX2458-mhd product pageAMD Free-Sync Compatible GPU List.  I did not test the Free-Sync with a graphics card since I do not own a compatible gpu.

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Review Testing Methodology & PC
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« Last Edit: May 19, 2019, 05:57:48 am by NCX »

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NCX

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Paradise Not Included
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2019, 03:47:24 am »
Features & Stand

DSC_0296 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The VX2458-mhd's matte, 144hz, 1920x1080 AUO TN panel supports AMD Free-Sync, is housed in sturdy black plastic casing, and has one downward facing Displayport (48-144hz Free-Sync range) and two HDMI 2.0 ports (48-120hz Free-Sync range) in the back.  The stand only allows for tilting, is quite wobbly, and the bezel is made of glossy black plastic which reduces the perceived black depth and attracts dust.  Button indicators are located on the bottom right size of the bezel, and the buttons are on the back.  The VX2458-mhd comes with a Disayplort cable and power cable. 

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd

VIewSonic VX2458-mhd by Dr NCX, on Flickr
« Last Edit: May 26, 2019, 03:22:41 pm by NCX »

NCX

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A Cozy Set-Up
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2019, 03:47:46 am »

The Free-Sync setting is the only setting which needs to be changed, and only if using a Free-Sync compatible graphics card or Xbox One X.  I do not have a Free-Sync compatible graphics card, but I did test the VewSonic with the Xbox One X.  The Free-Sync setting must be enabled in the monitors Set-Up Menu, and the Xbox One X must be restarted or power cycled for the Xbox One X to recognize the monitor as Free-Sync compatible and make the the Allow Variable Refresh Rate Option to be selected or de-selected:


DSC_0440 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

Refer to the Xbox 360 & Xbox One section of the review for console settings.


Response Time/Overdrive Control
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The Advanced Response Time is the default setting, and may be considered to be the best by those sensitive to the tiny amount of overshoot the Ultra Fast setting causes.  Read the Ghosting/Overdrive part of the review for my in-depth analysis.  The Response Time setting is located in the Manual Image Adjust menu.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2019, 12:51:06 am by NCX »

NCX

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This Is Library! Flick Is Not Tolerated!
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2019, 03:48:29 am »
Flicker/PWM Dimming

DSC_0220 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The ViewSonic is advertised as Flicker Free, which means it does not use back-light flicker or LED PWM Dimming (read about the side effects), regardless of high or low the brightness is set.  I checked for and did not see LED PWM Dimming with the Blur Busters Test UFO Blur Trail/PWM Test with 0-100% brightness settings in the ViewSonic's menu. The lack of PWM is a good since PWM or Flicker ruins motion clarity (example), and makes some people suffer from health issues such as headaches, and/or eyestrain.  PRAD's oscilloscope measurements also confirm that the VX2458-mhd is Flicker-Free as advertised, or does not use LED PWM Dimming.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2019, 03:54:55 am by NCX »

NCX

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Brightness & Contrast

DSC_0221 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd B & C by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The VX2458-mhd can dim down enough to be used comfortably in a light-less room since the brightness can go below 80cdm/2, and it is bright enough for sun-lit rooms since it can output over 300cdm/2 at maximum brightness.  The 870-930:1 contrast ratio is good and typical for an AUO TN panel, especially when considering the fact that quite a few AUO TN panels such as the curved 144-165hz 2560x1440 resolution TN panels have 700:1 contrast. 
« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 09:35:57 pm by NCX »

NCX

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The Glare Of A Monster
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2019, 03:49:35 am »
Matte Coating

DSC_0310 by Dr NCX, on Flickr
Matte Qnix QX2710 (Samsung PLS Panel)
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The ViewSonic VX2458-mhd is the first 24" 1080p TN panel with a grain or sparkle free matte coating comparable to the matte coating the Dell S2719DGF and most AHVA, IPS and PLS panels use.  When viewing light colors and white I usually immediately notice that matte TN panels are grainier or sparklier than the matte AH-IPS (Acer H257HU) and matte PLS (Qnix QX2710) I've been using for two or more years.  I did not notice any obvious grain or sparkle when viewing light colors and white unless I viewed the monitor from less than 15cm away.  The light matte coating handles reflections as well as stronger and grainier matte coatings, and does not look hazy or suffer from obvious reflections:

Acer EB321HQ awi: Almost-Glossy/Low Haze Coating
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Sony 43X750F: Semi-Glossy Coating
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ViewSonic VX2458-mhd: Matte Coating
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« Last Edit: May 17, 2019, 03:49:54 am by NCX »

NCX

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The VX2458-mhd's overdrive setting named Response Time is located in the Manual Image Adjust menu, and offers three settings: Standard, Advanced and Ultra Fast.  The Response Time setting is preset to Advanced which is the best setting for 60hz (console gaming) while the Ultra Fast setting is the best for 120 (Xbox One X) and 144hz.  The Ultra Fast setting causes obvious dark overshoot ghosting at 60hz, and some of Viewing Modes such as the Text Mode lock the Response Time settings and set it to the Standard mode resulting in slower pixel response times and more obvious streaking.  Overshoot ghosting appears in the form of bright, colored or dark transparent halos or glow on colors and shades in motion.

Dell U2713H Obvious Overshoot Ghosting Example
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At 144hz the default Advanced Response Time overdrive setting provides very fast and overshoot free pixel responses times when the default Standard Viewing Mode is selected.  The Standard Viewing modes provides the best image quality and gaming performance out of all the Viewing Modes since the others are either significantly less accurate and/or lock the the Response Time setting to the Standard mode which while still fast, obviously provides slower pixel response times than the higher Response Time settings.  The overdrive performance offered by both the Advanced and Ultra Fast response time settings is excellent, but typical for modern 144hz TN panels, and thus not an area of performance to rave about.  For example, the VX2458-mhd offers nearly identical performance to the Acer XF240H and ViewSonic XG2402 I tested, and PRAD's oscilloscope measurements of the pixel response times prove that it offers similar performance to many other monitors.  PRAD's oscilloscope measurements prove the VX2458-mhd's Ultra Fast Response Time setting also provides slightly better performance than the XG240R's best setting which is the Faster setting.



Such minute pixel response time differences are irrelevant to 99.99% of users, but the VX2458-mhd is significantly cheaper and more accurate and consistent preset color accuracy wise. 


VX2458-mhd Response Time Flaws

I observed a bit of obvious dark transparent black overshoot ghosting on the white clouds in the blue sky of the Overwatch map Illios when using the Ultra Fast overdrive setting at 144hz and quickly panning the camera and dragging this screen shot around:


It's quite common for monitors to suffer from a bit of obvious (to an experienced LCD user) dark overshoot or white streaking on the clouds when they move quickly across the screen as the result of a camera pan (via controller or mouse) in game.  When the Advanced Response time setting is used a tiny bit of white streaking occurs on the clouds while the Ultra Fast setting causes a bit of dark transparent overshoot, and is inferior when dealing with high contrast light blue colors and white, but superior for everthing else.

Tiny grey streaks are visible at the top of the Eiffel tower when the ghosting test speed is increased from 960 to 1440 pixels per second, and when both the Advanced and Ultra Fast settings are used, but the Ultra Fast setting suffers from slightly less since it speeds of the pixel response times slightly.

VX2458-mhd 144hz Advanced vs Ultra Fast Close Up
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In the Response Time Test UFO Ghosting photo comparison above the photos also show that the light trailing after or ghost images (color streaking) in the Advanced Response Time photos are reduced, but replaced by a darker transparent trail (overshoot) in the Ultra Fast photo.

60hz Response Time Advanced versus Ultra Fast
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The default Advanced Response Time setting provides the best 60hz performance comparable to the best 60hz TN panels such as the BenQ Zowie RL2460HT which along with the VX2458-mhd offer marginally better performance than the Acer XF240H and ViewSonic XG2402 I tested, both of which have worse image quality than the VX2458-mhd.  As expected, the VX2458-mhd is slightly faster than the fastest 60hz AHVA/IPS/PLS panels like the Acer XB321HK. 

At all refresh rates the VX2458-mhd offers outstanding performance since it is free from what my highly experienced and trained eyes would deem obvious color streaking or very overshoot ghosting.   At 144hz he Ultra Fast is marginally faster than the Advanced setting, but suffers from a bit of overshoot with fast light blue and white transitions (mentioned above), so very experienced display users with an eye for overshoot may want to stick with the Advanced setting.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2019, 01:10:39 am by NCX »

NCX

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Avoid Them
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2019, 03:50:31 am »
Input Lag

DSC_0311 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The ViewSonic can be considered delay free or to have negligible input lag since it has a sub 3ms (top screen Leo Bodnar measurement) delay at 60hz.  Most non-professionally oriented monitors have equally as low input lag while very few TV's have less than 10ms when tested with the Leo Bodnar device.  PRAD used an oscilloscope and measured a 1.2ms signal delay at 144hz which they combine with half the average pixel response times for a total value of 4.6ms.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 10:16:03 pm by NCX »

NCX

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Faith In AUO Restored
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2019, 03:51:11 am »
Preset Color Accuracy

DSC_0299 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Preset Color Chart by Dr NCX, on Flickr
ViewSonic VX2458-mhd 144hz Standard Mode (Default) versus Text Mode Gray Scale
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Lagom Banding and White Saturation Tests

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd 144hz Standard Mode (Default) versus Text Mode Gamma
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ViewSonic VX2458-mhd 144hz Standard Mode (Default) versus Text Mode Color Gamut
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The VX2458-mhd is preset to the Standard Viewing Mode which is the best color preset since it is the most accurate as well as allows one to edit the color and Response Time settings.  The Standard mode has slightly to low preset gamma which causes colors and shades to be too light or bright, and look marginally washed out compared a display with nearly linear 2.2 gamma.  Unfortunately there is no way to improve the gamma with a colorimeter and calibration programs since the Black Stabilization setting (preset to 50/100) raises the gamma too much and non-linearly when lowered resulting in black crush.  The Standard mode is fairly accurate, but is slightly washed out due to the slightly too low preset gamma, as well as suffers from a light preset red tint.  Though flawed, the VX2458-mhd offers good image quality for a TN panel, especially when considering how minor the preset color accuracy flaws are, how competitively priced it is and that it suffers from less vertical gamma shift than most TN panels which allows it to provide more accurate, homogeneous and vibrant image quality.

The Text Viewing Mode raises the gamma a bit too much which increases the vibrancy, but also causes a bit of black crush since dark greys darken a bit and blend.  The Text Viewing mode also locks the Response Time setting to the Standard mode which has significantly slower pixel response times resulting in more color streaking (ghosting) than the default Advanced Response Time setting which is not select-able. 
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 10:41:02 am by NCX »

NCX

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Banding
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2019, 03:51:42 am »
Banding

Dawn Engine Banding by Dr NCX, on Flickr

AUO TN panels tend to suffer from very obvious and frankly horrific banding when viewing the above Dawn Engine image, as well as when viewing this 60fps Westworld trailer.  These three monitors all suffer from the same obvious banding when displaying the above image

Dawn Engine Banding

Dell S2417DG Banding 2 by Dr NCX, on Flickr


Westworld Banding
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The BenQ Zowie RL2460, Dell S2719DGF and ViewSonic VX2458-mhd (all tested by me) are free from very obvious banding when viewing both the Dawn Engine image and Westworld trailer both before and after calibration, but I did see minor banding and compression artifacts not present on my AHVA, IPS and PLS panels when viewing some dark content on the TN panels listed above.  The banding is caused by both the source and the monitors.  If I zoom in very closely to the Dawn Engine image on my ViewSonic VP2780-4K (8 bit +FRC 4K IPS with 14 3D LUT) a tiny bit of banding is preset.  Here are the BenQ Zowie RL2460 and ViewSonic VX2458-mhd

BenQ Zowie RL2460 TN Panel Dawn Engine Lights On
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Qnix QX2710 PLS Panel Dawn Engine Lights On
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Samsung F2380MX C-PVA Panel Dawn Engine Lights On
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ViewSonic VX2458-mhd TN Panel Dawn Engine Lights On
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When the lights are off a bit of banding is visible, especially on the F2380MX which performs the worst despite using a true 8 bit panel, though the banding is only very obvious when viewing the monitor off angle.

None of the monitors mentioned suffer form obvious banding when displaying this screen shot from The Order 1886 which I display and take a photo of every monitor I test

Reddit Posts with banding:
from r/Monitors

from r/Monitors
« Last Edit: May 14, 2019, 01:11:13 am by NCX »

NCX

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Un-Calibrated versus Calibrated Gallery

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated versus Calibrated 1

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated vs Calibrated by Dr NCX, on Flickr


ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated versus Calibrated 2

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated vs Calibrated 4 by Dr NCX, on Flickr


ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated versus Calibrated 3

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Un-Calibrated vs Calibrated 3 by Dr NCX, on Flickr
« Last Edit: May 08, 2019, 03:34:46 am by NCX »

NCX

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TN Paradise
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2019, 03:52:35 am »
Calibrated Image Quality

DSC_0225 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Calibrated Chart by Dr NCX, on Flickr

DispCal Gui Calibration Verification
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Calibration only slightly improves the image quality, as well as provides the proper balance between the preset gamma which is slightly too low, and the Text Viewing Mode's slightly too high gamma which makes some colors and shades slightly too dark.  The VX2458-mhd offers good image quality for a TN before and after calibration, and is one of the best TN panels I have tested.  The calibrated image quality is pretty much the same as the Acer XF240H and ViewSonic XG2402 I tested, both of which are slightly more accurate, but less vibrant since the VX2458-mhd over-saturates colors more.  The lack of very obvious dark scene banding is what sets the VX2458-mhd apart from modern TN panels, however it is still important to note that it still suffers from some obvious banding compared to good AHVA, IPS, PLS and VA panels when viewing dark content, especially low bit rate content such as low quality streamed content from Twitch and YouTube.  Calibration removes the preset light red tint and raises the gamma slightly resulting in some colors and shades becoming darker and less washed out, however the differences are minimal and not worth buying a colorimeter for.

The ViewSonic looks good before and after calibration for a TN panel, especially since no settings need to be changed when set to 144hz since it does not suffer from an obvious contrast, gamma and uniformity drop when set from 60 to 144hz.  I must emphasize and repeat the fact that it "looks good for a TN" since it still looks obviously washed out compared to good AHVA/IPS/PLS and VA panels with proper gamma, especially when comparing content with colors and shades which span from the top to bottom of the panel, such as the horizontal and vertical grey bars in some of the below comparisons.


ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Grassy Field

DSC_0339 by Dr NCX, on Flickr


Qnix QX2710 Grassy Field

DSC_0384 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Back & Grey

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Back & Grey by Dr NCX, on Flickr


Qnix QX2710 Black & Grey

Qnix QX2710 Black & Grey by Dr NCX, on Flickr


ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Dead Island Sea Market
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Notice how the bottom horizontal grey bar is a much light shade of grey than the top bar since the bottom half of the panel has much lower gamma than the top which causes colors and shades to be much lighter than they're supposed to be.


Qnix QX2710 Sea Market
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ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Metro 2033
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Qnix QX2710 Metro 2033
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Notice much less dark the top portion of the panel is and how much more detail is visible since the PLS panel does not suffer from vertical gamma shift while TN panels do which results in loss of detail in the top quarter of the panel.  The bottom quarter of the PLS panel is also darker and properly saturated while the TN panel is washed out.

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Field Sunset
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Qnix QX2710 Field Sunset
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« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 12:52:06 am by NCX »

NCX

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Back-Light Bleed & Uniformity

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Lights Off 25s Black by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The ViewSonic VX2458-mhd does not suffer from back-light bleed or obvious uniformity issues, and has much better back-light uniformity than the Acer XF240H, Dell S2719DGF and ViewSonic XG2402 I tested which also use 144hz TN panels.  The VX2458-mhd also does not suffer from obvious contrast, gamma and uniformity loss when set to 144hz, but the unit I tested does have one dead white pixel in the bottom right.  The HP 25es shown below uses a similarly priced LG AH-IPS panel without back-light bleed.

ViewSonic VX2458-mhd Back-light 20s
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Acer XF240H 144hz Back-Light 20s
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Dell S2719DGF Back-light 20s
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HP 25es Back-light 20s
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ViewSonic XG2402 Back-light 20s
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« Last Edit: May 09, 2019, 12:04:51 am by NCX »

NCX

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Perceived Black Depth & Glow

DSC_0171 by Dr NCX, on Flickr

The VX2458-mhd's perceived black depth is poor since it has less than 1000:1 contrast (typical for TN) and has a glossy black bezel which reduces the perceived black depth since it looks much darker next to the matte panel which look distinctly different, a bit hazy and lighter when displaying black and very dark content.  If used with bright bias (light behind the display) or room lighting black looks fairly dark and black, but not compared to monitors with similar contrast ratios and matte grey bezels like the Acer XF240H and ViewSonic XG2401. 


TN View by Dr NCX, on Flickr


TN glow has never been an issue to worry about unlike with AHVA/IPS/PLS and VA panels since TN panels look awful when not viewed in one specific way which is from above, or while being looked down at.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2019, 05:57:36 am by NCX »