ViewSonic XG2703-GS QHD G-Sync Monitor Review

OSD Setup & Calibration

The OSD seems larger than most but that’s mainly because options are sprinkled in various sub-menus, probably a bit more than necessary. Nevertheless, everything an enthusiast would need is there somewhere. We’ll take you through the important areas.

Pressing any key brings up a small quick menu that provides access to brightness and contrast, input selection, and Game Mode. Alternately, you can change inputs in the first main sub-menu of the OSD.

Next up are the audio controls: volume and mute. They operate on the headphone output and speakers simultaneously.

ViewMode offers four main picture modes with a further six presets available under the Game category. They don’t look too different from each other and all will work for any type of game. The default mode is Standard, and it offers reasonable accuracy, though a few tweaks bring the XG2703-GS to a fairly high level. If you want a good fire-and-forget mode, we suggest Web.

In the ViewMode menu, you’ll find ULMB controls along with Dark Boost (low-end gamma), Adaptive Contrast, Blue Light Filter (100-step resolution), and Response Time (a.k.a. Overdrive). The middle setting is best for that, producing almost perfect motion with no ghosting.

ULMB works only after G-Sync has been disabled in Nvidia Control Panel, and the refresh rate is set to 120Hz or lower. It features a 100-step pulse-width adjustment that increases blur reduction at the expense of light output. Even at the brightest setting, the cost in output is significant. And Brightness is not independently adjustable. You can expect around 120 nits max in ULMB mode.

Color Adjust is where you’ll find the luminance controls along with color temp, gamma, six-axis color, and input range. That last one is important if you use the HDMI input. Set it to Full (not Auto) if you want to avoid clipping of highlight and shadow detail.

Color Temp has three presets plus a user mode. We used it to achieve excellent grayscale tracking. You should also address the gamma preset. On its default 2.2 setting, it’s well below the 2.2 line, which makes the image flat and washed out. 2.4 is a better choice. The six-axis color sliders seem to only affect color luminance. They can’t be used to correct hue errors.

If you’re looking for the Overclock setting, it’s in the Manual Image Adjust menu. The only options are Off or 165Hz. We had no trouble running at that speed during our tests. This menu also contains the aspect ratio options. 1:1 will show lower than QHD resolutions in a window, while Fixed and Fill Screen will stretch images to cover the entire panel. Obviously a native QHD signal produces the best results.

The final menu has the OSD options (language, timeout, background), along with a sleep timer, power LED colors, USB charging (when the power’s off), and a factory reset. Signal info is where you’ll find refresh and mode stats. It’s the only way to confirm ULMB or G-Sync operation. The power LED doesn’t seem to change colors with mode like some other monitors we’ve reviewed. However, every OSD screen has the input resolution and refresh rate at the bottom.

Calibration

The XG2703-GS’s Standard ViewMode is its default setting and offers reasonable accuracy though light gamma tracking results in a somewhat washed-out image. We’ll show you how gamma and color interact on page four. The Web mode is a little better, though it takes gamma too far the other way, making things a bit dark. For best results, stick with Standard, set gamma to 2.4, and adjust the RGB sliders as we did. We also set Response on its middle option for ideal blur-reduction without ghosting. Then visit the Manual Image Adjust menu and turn on the 165Hz overclock. Then you can adjust the refresh rate to your preference in Nvidia Control Panel. If you don’t have the gear, we suggest the following settings for your XG2703-GS.

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