1. First you need to understand that Freesync and G-Sync are in no way comparable technologies.
Freesync provides a 'soft' solution which might be called V-Sync on steroids .... it's range of significant impact is from 40 fps - 70 fps. There are still advantages to be gained above 70 fps, but the impact becomes more marginal the higher that number goes.
G-sync provides a 'soft' solution which also might be called V-Sync on steroids .... it's range of significant impact is from 30 fps - 70 fps. There are still advantages to be gained above 70 fps, but the impact becomes more marginal the higher that number goes. Where G-Sync differs however is in that it includes a hardware component which adds ULMB, a motion blur reduction technology which strobes the backlight to eliminate motion blur. Once you get past 70 fps, many users will turn off G-Sync and use ULMB.
2. The best gaming experience available today comes on the AU Optronics 165 Hz IPS panels used by Acer and Asus
Acer - XB271HU bmiprz is $700
Asus - PG279Q ROG Swift is $750
In TN, choices would be
Asus - ROG SWIFT PG278QR for $650
Acer - Predator XB1 -for $600
If ya go Freesync, then the Acer XG270HU can be had for $400
Below that ... frankly I wouldn't bother
For a list of high refresh rate gaming monitors, G-Sync monitors, Freesync monitors and monitors w/ Motion Blur reduction ....
http://www.blurbusters.com/faq/120hz-monitors/
When I play on my son's box (Acer Predator 1440p IPS), I turn off G-Sync and use ULMB when fps is above 70.
3. The entry point for high refresh rate gaming is the 1070. AMD has "no horse in the race" against the 1060, 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti. The 1070 delivers 42 (Crysis 3) to 147 fps in techpowerup's 16 game test suite.
5. The1080 Ti was tested with a new 22 game test suite and there the rank as follows @ 1440p:
1080 Ti - 95 (28% faster than 1080)
1080 - 74 (25% faster than 1070)
1070 - 59
It wa spretty hard to make a case for the 1080 until recently as, if you could justify the cost increase for the 1080, it was even easier to justify going to 1080 Ti. But prices have changed a bit since the recent mining fad and the 1080 and 1080 Ti have about the same fps per dollar.
6. SLI has long been a thorn in nVidia's side crippling sales of their more profitable cards as two mid-range cards were always cheaper and substantially faster than the top tier card and this held up thru the 9xx series. With 10xx series, things have changed:
a) CPU performance boosts generation to generation have run from immeasurable to 5% for 5 generations whereby GPU increases have been as great as 50% (or more). In short, GPU advancements are far outpacing CPU advancements.
b) With no competition at the high end from AMD, it is just not in nVidia's interests to have great SLI performance. They'd rather sell one 1080 Ti than two 1070s as its more profitable and has half the support and warranty costs. If SLI w/ 10xx series was to jump 50% overnight, the only card sales which would be negatively impacted would be the 1080 / 1080 Ti.
c) Right now SLIs impact is
18% at 1080p
30% at 1440p
50% at 2160p
Those numbers really don't make sense unless the intent is to push folks away from SLI except when there's no alternative choice available. And at 2160p no single card can push the new AU Oprtonics 144 hz IPS panels expected to drop next month.
In summary, until AMD has a card that in CF, can beat the 1070 and 1080 for less money, nVidia would be rather stoopid to improve SLI performance at 1080p and 1440p.
7. Every selection is always a tradeoff ... to get the crisp colors, uniformity of IPS at response and lag times suitable for gaming, its going to cost $700. Have built boxes w/ the Predator, and played on other Asus / Acer screens and the XB271HU remains the best gaming experience. IPS glow has always been "a thing" associated with IPS panels. I first noticed in with Diablo ... it was most noticeable when exploring caves as when getting in proximity to enemy parties, i had trouble seeing their torchight as they approached whereby on the TN panels, the player had 'advance warning" as you could see that well before they came into aggro range.
Backlight Bleed and IPS Glow are two very different phenomenon and should not be confused with one another. Good reading here:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/features.htm
8. While many of these monitors are using AU Optonics panels,they are
not all using the same exact panel
The Acer XB271HU - M270DANO2.6
The Asus PG279Q - M270Q008
Acer has:
10 bit depth (8 bits + FRC)
1,073,741,824 colors
Asus has:
8 bit depth
16,777,216 colors
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