Acer G257HU smidpx 25-Inch WQHD (2560 x 1440) Widescreen Monitor

I'm sorry for talking about Graphics cards in this review.This is because your satisfaction with this very nice monitor, goes hand in hand with what you are driving it with.No doubt, the highest resolution you use up to now, is 1920 x 1080. This referred to as HD.Well, even though there are higher resolution monitors, well beyond the Acer G257HU,this 2560 x 1440 resolution, is a satisfying full step above normal HD!1920 x 1080, looks lackluster in comparison!If you plan to use this monitor mainly for photo enhancement software, make sure your graphics card can support 2560 x 1440.Heck, many modern CPU's /motherboard combos can facilitate that! AMD A8, A10. And nearly all newer Intel i5 & up can.I used a AMD HD 6850 and this category GPU would work fine for photo work. Even some normal graphics intensive games.But, expect to use a decent graphics card, if you want to create videos, or play popular graphics intensive games.Even though there are hi end graphics cards starting over $300, I use a mid priced NVidia 960 based card.This card melds well with Photoshop and Lightroom's new use of GPU power.AMD does not use CUDA. Nvidia card do, and in abundance!Photoshop products are made to recognize CUDA. You can look up what this means in researching.The Nvidia 960 along with this monitor, works great for most games that use 2560 x 1440 resolution.But in super hi-end, reference benchmark games, it would be lacking in frame-rate, unless you lowered greatly, the graphics parameters.It's not that it won't play these games, it's just that you wouldn't be able to "Max- Out " the graphics settings.Some would have you believe that certain GPUs will not work on "such n' such" game, when the truth is, it absolutely will!But it won't run the game in a usable way, unless you drastically tweak the graphics adjustment sliders way down!Thus, in the end run, you will probably want to play the game in its full glory, so why waste your money, and end up upgrading to a faster card?Some are looking for a 27", instead of a 25", as this Acer is the latter.Consider this; The 25" matrix is tighter 2560 x 1440, than a 27". So it is actually a tiny bit superior in the sharpness.Besides, the 27" is a lot more expensive to purchase than the 25" at the time of this review.Wait a two or three years, and a 30" 2560' x 1440 may cost less than $200. Or, get this now! LOL!

Not wanting to spend $500+ on a 4K monitor? Well, buy this inexpensive 2K monitor. This thing has some really nice whites and super dark blacks. The response time is good to above average. It's bright and colorful; crisp. All the reviews I saw about how wobbly it was is honestly an overstatement/exaggeration. I guess I just fixed mine up a little better. *shrugs*I noticed someone complained about the long wait as this monitor powers on. It's simple: go to the menu settings and enable the setting: "Quick Startup". It's that simple, then the monitor instantly turns on. Seriously, it's that simple.I am a gaming enthusiast, I am running an NVIDIA GTX 1070, AMD FX-8350 Black Edition, 16 GB RAM. The glory is real. This monitor is an amazing pair with the hardware I am using. It's flawless in 2K (2560x1440) and even runs superb rendered to 4K resolutions. Shadow of Mordor is phenomenal and runs at 60 fps. Witcher shreds. ARMA III is a delight.I also do graphic design so I wanted something more clear. I feel like now every pixel is much clearer and stands out. It's truly a gorgeous monitor for it's price. Yes, the refresh rate is 60hz. But what do you expect for this price? It can even be overclocked to 85 hz. (I have tested this) If you overclock your monitor you will not be able to use DSR to render into higher resolutions though. Juuust FYI. OH! and the bezel is very thin and nice. The only thing is there is noticeable light coming through near the On/Off switch in a dark room. It's no big deal really.Buy this monitor if you are looking to save a few bucks, it's a great value if you're looking to upgrade from 1080p but might not have 4K money. Besides, you likely won't get the most out of 4K yet anyway. That's a whole different discussion. Thanks for reading my review and Happy Shopping!(PS, Amazon, I'm still mad at you for not price matching when the price went down 30 bucks the next day!) :((((

This is a great monitor.Colors are good after some quick adjustment, games look great. I'm not a pro but I didn't notice any ghosting in Titanfall, probably the most "busy" game I'm playing at the moment. Fallout 4 looks amazing, especially with the texture mods that have started coming out. I feel like I could get more out of the color with a calibrator but it will be an easy wait until I can afford to get one. For reference I have an ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970 Overclocked 4 GB and I overclocked the monitor to 70Hz; I've been able to play everything at native res and max settings mostly comfortably although I may drop the AA.Primary problem, no VESA. If you need VESA you can get the VESA Mount Adapter Bracket for Acer Monitors G227HQL, G237HL, G257HL, G257HU - by HumanCentric, mine was on sale for $32. Works fine, it doesn't poke out from the bottom like I thought it might, but it does stick the monitor out further than usual to make room for the cables. For arm mounts, not likely a problem, but my VESA stand is front-heavy now. Given how it clips in I can't rotate the monitor either but I won't need to for my purposes. I am docking a star, I really feel like VESA should be standard and the stand it comes with is terrible.I paid $282 total (includes VESA adapter) which is about $40 cheaper than the next cheapest 1440p monitor, last I checked the ASUS PB258Q for $319. That is a sale price and it has 5ms response time instead of 4, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.The bezel is thin but not extremely so. There is about a quarter of an inch on the inside of the plastic housing. I thought the gray part across the bottom would bother me, I like all my accessories black and slightly darker black, but it's been fine.