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AOC G2460PG: Premium Gaming With G-Sync
It seems evident that adoption of G-Sync is going to be slow. It’s been a year since the first products were announced, and nine months passed before the first one appeared. Premium pricing isn't helping, either. Asus’ ROG Swift initially sold for $800 back in August. A quick check online today reveals that it’s actually more expensive, averaging around $1000. There’s no doubt that enthusiasts are buying them, just not in great enough quantities to push prices down.
AOC’s G2460PG represents a new value point. Granted, it’s only the second G-Sync-capable product out there. And it is a 24-inch FHD panel rather than the PG278Q’s 27-inch QHD part. But at around $500 bucks, you’re only giving up three inches of screen size and a mere 17 pixels-per-inch of density. If you do have one thousand dollars to spend on a display, you could buy two of these!
Performance-wise, it’s pretty much a wash between the two screens. Asus offers greater light output and overall contrast. The AOC has better scores for color and grayscale accuracy. They're in a dead heat when it comes to the all-important response and input lag tests. Both also offer motion-blur reduction and a 144Hz refresh rate. And there is no difference in their G-Sync implementations. Either monitor works fine with the appropriate Nvidia video card and driver.
Of course, there are more G-Sync monitors for us to look at, both now and in the near future. One screen we’re really anxious to check out is Acer’s XB280HK. It’s a 28-inch Ultra HD display with G-Sync, and the last time we checked it was selling for around $800. We’re also expecting a BenQ RL2430G in the lab soon. I have no doubt that, within six months, there will be G-Sync-equipped models from every major monitor manufacturer, inevitably driving prices down to more approachable levels.
So what of FreeSync? If you’ve followed that story, then you know it does exactly the same thing as G-Sync, eliminating frame tears by matching the input and output refresh rates in real time. As part of the DisplayPort spec, it promises to be less expensive to implement. It'll probably add something to a monitor's price, though we're hoping it's minimal. Although there was a recent rumor about Nvidia supporting FreeSync in its Maxwell architecture, that was quickly refuted as untrue.
It all comes down to this: how soon do you want signal rate matching to be part of your gaming rig? If you’re already a GeForce user, G-Sync is here now, and more products are on the way. If AMD sells your graphics board of choice, FreeSync is definitely on the way, but with a less exact timeframe.
As we said back in August, once you’ve experienced G-Sync, it’s hard to go back. The technology truly does improve the gaming experience by more than a small measure. We’re excited to see AOC deliver a more reasonably-priced option in the G2460PG. For its excellent performance, build quality and value, we’re giving it the Tom’s Hardware Smart Buy award.
