Acer Announces $499 Price Tag For XG270HU FreeSync Monitor

News
By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

Last week, AMD's FreeSync was finally made available for consumers. Six companies already announced monitors that would support the new product. Among those was Acer, which announced today that its FreeSync-compatible monitor, the XG270HU, has an official price tag and is now available for customers.

Just like the Acer's G-Sync supported model, the XB270HU, the XG270HU features a resolution of 2560 x 1440 on a 27-inch screen and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. However, it offers DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI, and HDMI 2.0, while the XB only supports DisplayPort. Another big difference is the response time; the Freesync-supported monitor has a response time of 1 ms compared to the XB's response time of 4 ms. The FreeSync model also has built-in audio speakers, while the G-Sync variant only includes a USB port.

The biggest difference between the two, other than one supports FreeSync and the other supports G-Sync, is the panel technology. The XG still uses TN film while the XB uses IPS, although we suspect that it's actually an AHVA panel, but it's still difficult to tell the difference between the two when placed side-by-side. Nevertheless, the G-Sync variant has the advantage because IPS offers better colors and high viewing angles.

If you want to have a crack at AMD's new product, the monitor is going to cost you $499.99, but if you're keen on trying out Nvidia's G-Sync, the XB will cost you $300 more at $799.99.

Why the big price gap between the two? One reason is the panel technology. With IPS as the better of the two, you're definitely paying a premium for better colors and viewing angles. Another reason is the fact that with the XB, you're paying for G-Sync; AMD used open standards within the DisplayPort's spec in order to deliver FreeSync, which the company claims brings down the cost of development yet still delivers the same performance as Nvidia's technology.

Finally, the XB has an ergonomic height-adjustable stand versus the XG's "regular" monitor stand.

Assuming, as AMD does, that FreeSync and G-Sync offer essentially equal performance, $299.99 seems quite a markup for a better panel and a fancy stand.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Rexly Peñaflorida
See more Monitors News
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • eklipz330
    wow! hot hot hot! the disparity between prices is pretty massive, and one has to think how dramatically this will affect the gsync monitor purchases... but one thing is obvious... with the money saved, you can get a beast of a video card!

    i might have to pick this up!! acer kicked some real butt this CES. i guess they're pretty focused on being the leaders in gaming monitors!
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    so looking at reviews, the range looks to be like 40-144hz... if only it was like 21-144hz, that would perfect. i think i'll be sitting this one out until we can get a monitor with a wider range of frequencies
    Reply
  • nitrium
    Are there any nVidia fans STILL defending the 100% proprietary G-Sync (this from as a long time nVidia buyer)? There is zero reason nVidia won't support FreeSync other than that it cannablises the sales of their technology. Unless you're also a shareholder of nVidia, I utterly fail to see how nVidia's customers can staunchly support nVidia needlessly gouging them like this. Are nVidia GPUs being bundled with Vaseline and a stick to bite down on yet?
    Reply
  • Fr33Th1nk3r
    I'll stick with a regular monitor. I change brands a lot.
    Reply
  • siman0
    my thing is free sync with my dual r9 295X2 cards and this acer monitor looks like it has thin bezels. I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade my 5 monitor set up. the bezels look much thinner. I wonder what they will look like debezeled.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Nice monitor! Though I'm a little bit disappointed that it is not IPS.

    I hope Nvidia does allow Geforce products to use FreeSync monitors, since it makes no sense to me why Geforce would actually think putting a dedicated chip into the monitors is better since the DP standard already has adaptive sync as a feature.
    Reply
  • jerm1027
    15540305 said:
    Are there any nVidia fans STILL defending the 100% proprietary G-Sync (this from as a long time nVidia buyer)? There is zero reason nVidia won't support FreeSync other than that it cannablises the sales of their technology. Unless you're also a shareholder of nVidia, I utterly fail to see how nVidia's customers can staunchly support nVidia needlessly gouging them like this. Are nVidia GPUs being bundled with Vaseline and a stick to bite down on yet?

    As soon as the R9 300 series come out, I'm selling my GTX 760. I love EVGA, but I'm done with NVidia. G-Sync was one of the reasons I bought their solution, but putting such a ridiculous premium on it, and refusing to adopt an OPEN technology is just another in long list of issues I've had with them. There was driver and licensing issues that plagued Linux for the longest time, and as primarily Linux user, it's a serious concern. Then there was their misleading specs regarding the 970; they don't even care about user experience as long as they already have your money. I'd happily switch to ream Red. I've been a long time AMD user, but every time I switch to nvidia, they give me a reason to regret it. Nvidia is pretty much dead to me at this point.
    Reply
  • crisan_tiberiu
    There is a little formula used by the manufactures regarding the minimum refresh rate: If X spends 500$ / 500E on a monitor, then X would not have a problem to spend Y money for a GPU that can handle a minimum of 40FPS ^^.
    Really, my top dollar for a monitor is 200, so this hardware is way out of my range.
    Reply
  • Mike Coberly
    Show me where to get one and I'll pick it up right now. Until it's actually available to replace my Acer GN246HL, this is just another ad.
    We were told the price days ago ( here on Tom's no less, http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-project-freesync-launch,28759.html )
    Reply
  • chenw
    I was excited to see this until I saw that it has 1ms response time as opposed to 4ms... That explains part of the $300 discount

    However I do hope this monitor fares better, the first Free-Sync reviews does NOT look promising.
    Reply