With AMA switched to off, the average G2G response time was 4.6ms which was very good really, but not fast enough to keep up with a high 360Hz refresh rate, which results in a low 27% refresh rate compliance and some added smearing on moving content as a result. Obviously we have no real reason to want to turn overdrive off anyway, so we tested the other modes as well. The maximum brightness of 353 nits peak is average, but as mentioned earlier, it's commendable to see that strobed brightness is also high, at 330 nits. If desired, you can run this display at 42 nits, though this might not be the optimal configuration for professional gaming. Since everyone is unique, and have different vision conditions and sensation on color and brightness. Thus, The cause of the discomfort to everyone may be very different. Even if the monitor has the same settings and displays the same image, some people may feel uncomfortable, while others may not. Following are a few tips, and we suggest you can try to adjust to alleviate the discomfort condition: Learn more I want to accompany this previous paragraph with a (pretty obvious to some, but I’ll mention it anyway) disclaimer: this won’t make you an aiming God if you’re coming from a 240Hz monitor, or a good 360Hz IPS monitor. The difference isthere, and this is the smoothest and clearest panel I’ve ever used for gaming so far, but we’re talking razor-thin margins here. Margins that can and will matter for people who are very serious about their gaming, but small margins regardless. This is certainly a compromise to achieve the speed and functionality desired by competitive gamers.

What is the optimal Hz performance for users to turn on the "DyAc", "DyAc+" or "Blur Reduction" function in the OSD? Let's delve into the crucial aspect: motion performance. Regarding response time performance and overdrive settings, the Zowie XL2566K features three built-in presets along with an adjustable slider for full user customization of overdrive. This is a great feature to have, even if not essential, as the included modes are quite satisfactory. The only mode we would advise against using, except possibly for low refresh rate gaming, is the Off mode.These prices are all very high compared to regular 24-inch gaming monitors. However, the premium reflects the Zowie’s skunkworks nature with its high development costs and super-niche market size. Other 360Hz gaming monitors use IPS technology and still cost more, but they tend to be much larger and have more luxury features that suit gaming and multimedia immersion. The XL2566K builds on what has made its predecessors great, and that can be taken quite literally in some cases. The exterior and design is the exact same as that of the XL2546K, but I think that that’s a plus. ‘Never change a winning team,’ they say, and if you ask me the modern XL line of monitors have a design that’s pretty hard to beat. I’ll speak more about the build quality and design in the next section, but I love the fact that they haven’t made any unnecessary changes here. Still, the XL2566K is an extremely impressive gaming monitor, and if you’re looking for the fastest, most responsive monitor out there at this point in time then this is it. The TN Film panel is not as well suited for general and office uses as competing IPS panels. The viewing angles are the main challenge, with the image showing noticeable changes in gamma and colour tone as you move viewing position. There’s characteristic darkening of the image when viewed from below, and overall the restrictive viewing angles impact viewing experience compared with IPS panels. If you’re using it from a head on viewing position it’s fine really, but the image is not as stable and consistent as other panel technologies. The stand offers a full range of ergonomic adjustments with tilt, height, swivel and rotate available. All are pretty smooth and easy to use and offer a good range of adjustments.

If you do have a PC that can run your game(s) of choice at 360 frames per second, the XL2566K is a dream come true for competitive gamers. It’s basically tailor-made for CS:GO (that doesn’t mean it’s not extremely good for other shooters though, because it definitely is extremely good for other shooters) and that shows in some of the functions. Upon examining across the refresh rate range, the High mode emerges as an excellent choice, maintaining performance in the 3 to 4ms range right down to 60Hz, with acceptable levels of overshoot. This provides a single overdrive mode experience as well as elite speed, resulting in a highly optimized configuration, particularly below 240Hz. For new K series monitors, the way to save settings via the S Switch has been changed. If Gamer1 is selected, the customized display setting is only saved in the monitor. Learn more With that being said: as far as TN panels go, the XL2566K offers a very nice image. It required some tinkering for me to get to my preferred color settings, but once I arrived there I found it to be very passable, and it’s worth noting that the default picture setting is a lot better than what I found on the XL2546K, meaning that you can basically use this monitor straight out of the box. I sometimes feel headaches or eyes soreness while using the monitor. What can be adjusted to alleviate the discomfort if I feel unwell?

Specifications

We measure the screen at default settings (with all ICC profiles deactivated and factory settings used), and any other modes that are of interest such as sRGB emulation presets. We then calibrate and profile the screen before re-measuring the calibrated state. A TN panel, no matter how good it is, is never going to live up to a good IPS panel when it comes to the overall image quality, and that’s something that you should take into account when considering this monitor. This is a monitor that’s geared towards esports, and nothing else. If you’re someone who plays a game or two of VALORANT every week and uses their monitor for content consumption or single player games, this is notthe monitor for you. Everything about this product is geared towards tryhard (I use that affectionately) competitive gamers, and those people don’t really care for visuals all that much. It’s perhaps a very specific example, but I noticed that spraying in CS:GO just felt a lot smoother and clearer on the XL2566K when compared to IPS panels. In case you’re not familiar; spraying in CS:GO violently shakes your screen, and that can cause a blurry mess if your display isn’t up to par. I’m not saying that the two IPS panels I compared it to made spraying a blurry mess, but I did definitely notice a difference. Compared to typical IPS 360Hz displays, DyAc?™ on a TN 360Hz panel provides clearer and sharper outlines of overall moving images, helping you focus and have less distractions from the unwanted afterimage of the motions in-game. That’s not the case with the XL2566K. The base measures a mere 18×25 centimeters, and while the stand itself expands outwards a tiny bit it’s not much more than a centimeter or two, making this a very compact monitor indeed. The stand also has a bunch of markings applied to it in all the relevant positions so that you can mark down your ultimate panel position in case you’re sharing the monitor with other people. This also comes in handy if you want to curve the monitor a bit for those lounge sessions where you’re slouched down in your chair when watching some Netflix, for example. You might not make use of those markings at all, but it’s cool to see that they’re there, as it shows how ZOWIE is really thinking about all the little things with this product.

We first of tested and measured the screen at the maximum 360Hz refresh rate (with adaptive-sync off) in each of the available overdrive modes, accessible via the AMA (Advanced Motion Accelerator) settings in the OSD menu. Indeed, there are several 360Hz screens on the market but most use modern IPS technology. Some even claim to have super-speedy, grey-to-grey (GTG) pixel response times but, in this realm, it’s a claim that’s rendered to meaningless marketing speak. BenQ doesn’t even bother providing a GTG pixel response time. Out of the box, the monitor is set to FPS1 mode, which BenQ states is optimal for CS:GO gaming. As one might expect, a mode designed to maximize visibility of enemies in CS:GO won't necessarily be color accurate, so this mode does not look very good in standard desktop applications. However, switching to the Standard mode results in reasonable performance. It has decent grayscale performance, and saturation looks quite good, all things considered. This mode may not impress with its accuracy, but it's perfectly usable for desktop applications outside of gaming sessions. Calibrated Color Performance We’ve also included photos in the customizable mode at a setting of 12, which we found to be about as high as you could push things before the overshoot became visible. You can see the darker trail is now eliminated behind the yellow section but with the response times now being a bit slower, the image isn’t quite as crisp and has a little more smearing overall. In either setting though you do get excellent motion clarity from the super-fast response times combined with the high 360Hz refresh rate. There are small improvements in motion clarity relative to 240Hz, which is already very fast, but if we’re talking about the absolute fastest panels current available, supporting the highest frame rate output, this makes a difference to competitive and serious gamers. Gaming ComparisonsIt goes without saying that you need to remember this is a small screen size and with a low resolution compared with many models available today. We certainly missed the larger screen sizes and desktop space that we’re used to using day to day, but again this is not the intended market for the XL2566K. Colour accuracy in this default FPS 1 mode was poor as well with a 6.4 dE average. BenQ will often set their gaming screens up in these FPS modes out of the box but they are not what we would call “accurate” in any of our measurements really. Perhaps for competitive gaming you might prefer the set up here, but it’s not great for anything else. Thankfully BenQ do provide a much better mode in the OSD menu which we will test now. Default Setup – Standard Mode The native contrast ratio of this panel is quite respectable, improving significantly after calibration compared to its out-of-the-box performance. A recorded ratio of 1091:1 isn't impressive compared to VA LCDs or OLEDs, but it's very serviceable for a TN LCD, which typically sit below 1000:1. This level of contrast aligns with IPS LCDs, a positive outcome. Viewing Angles