Acer Nitro VG271U Pbmiipx 27 WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS AMD Radeon FREESYNC Gaming Monitor, 144Hz, VESA Certified Display HDR400, DCI-P3, (2 HDMI 2.0 & 1 Display Port), Black

You cannot beat this price for 165Hz 1080p

As a basic monitor, its fantastic. At maximum resolution the screen is bright, crystal clear, with much better colors than the one it replaced. It handles games and such without bleed or artifacts, with one condition. It does NOT handle 144Hz, as advertised. More specifically, you can set the resolution to that level, but I get white artifacting (read other, less forgiving reviews for more details.) This is a common problem, though not on every monitor, but Acer has not acknowledged the problem or offered a fix other than return it, and hope you do better with the next one. which is a hassle, leaves you without a monitor, and provides no guarantee the next one will be better. I have set it to 120Hz, and while there is minor artifacting there, its so infrequent for me to say its not worth mentioning. So its a great monitor, but for $350 or so, I cant recommend it without a path from the company to fixing the problem. One more note: HDR is very washed out, but from the little research Ive done, that may be my issue not the monitors. There seem to be times to use HDR and not, which I havent spent a lot of time on figuring out. Im listing it here as a possible issue, but not making it part of my overall review.

This is a great monitor for more simple competitive gameplay. Responsiveness is 9/10.

It was an amazing deal at ~$250 on Prime Day.

I am very satisfied with this monitor. Are there more brilliant 144Mhz monitors out there? Certainly. But when you consider the price, you would be hard pressed to find a better deal. Im looking forward to buying another one of these, and retiring the MSI, which seems downright drab when you compare the two, next to each other.

[UPDATE, REPLACEMENT FAILED] Just 4 months after my replacement arrived, a burn-in issue developed. Previous windows that were opened and then closed still show up. Hadnt even been on 3 hours. You can see a Steam window and a Chrome window that still show up after closing and starting to shut down. Well see how Acer handles it with warranty, but I just cant believe I got 2 lemons. [end update] All in all, I really like this monitor. EXCEPT... 3 weeks in, its already partially dead. Two columns of non-displaying pixels showed up after the screen started flashing with a snowstorm of vertical and horizontal lines. They start bright, but fade to black after maybe 20 minutes. They show up on every input, while connected to different devices, and when not connected at all. Luckily Im in the Amazon return window so well give it another shot. Im assuming the replacement will be good, if its not, Ill update the review. I upgraded to this 1440p 144Hz from an older Asus VS238, which I got a lot of miles out of (it is now my secondary monitor). The jump to 1440p was for games like RDR2, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Age of Empires 2, where visuals and extra real estate for UI and such would benefit. I didnt go 4k because Windows is TERRIBLE with multiple displays and differential scaling. I tried 4k and 1080p dual display for a year and wont be going back. Also, its VESA compatible and the stand EASILY removes if you need to switch out. The 144Hz refresh rate is rather noticeable, even just while desktop computing. Faster paced games will benefit from the extra refresh rate, especially when paired with FreeSync or G-sync. By the way, G-sync worked with my 3060 ti. As far as color goes, it has darker blacks than my old Asus VS238. I dont notice backlight bleed on my dark-colored desktop and I havent noticed any image ghosting, but I havent spent a lot of time in dark games yet.

(UPDATE DEC 2021) The pixel ghosting I mention below actually has to do with inverse ghosting, better known as overshoot. This was happening because I had Overdrive turned on to Extreme. Turning it down to Normal allowed the overshoot to eliminate almost entirely, but, you will notice a little bit of blurring while playing something. Its honestly fine, and may actually resolve itself at higher refresh rates. The problems I was having were pretty much related to Skyrim and playing it at 60Hz on this monitor. (UPDATE NOV 2021): After installing Windows 11 I decided to finally give some time to figure out how to properly set up HDR on this monitor. Im glad I did. Setting the monitor to HDR 400 (it has an Auto setting I didnt find quite as good) and messing with some color settings in Nvidia Control Panel game me an amazing experience that Im glad I took the time to get. Whites are actually white (at least in games), light sources pop, and theres just better depth to everything. Im so glad I took the time finally to do this. Still going to leave it at 4-Stars though because no matter how you cut it, this is not a top-tier monitor and still has some pixel ghosting issues when playing games where there are a lot of bright colors on screen at the same time. _____________________________________________________ (Original Review) First, Id like to say that Im using a 10-series Nvidia GPU. Changing around the refresh rate and color was done in Nvidia Control Panel, and monitor settings were obviously done on the monitor itself. That said, Im mostly happy with this monitor, and I think you will as well. Youll just need to know a few things before buying it to get the most from it: 1. Dont forget to use a DisplayPort or HDMI 2 cable. A regular HDMI cable is restricted to a 60Hz signal, so you wont get 144 unless you use the right cable. I only say this because in almost every instance where someone Ive spoken to claimed there was almost no difference between 60 and 144, it was because they used a regular HDMI cable, sticking themselves to 60Hz even if their PC was running at a high FPS. 2. If you are gaming, be sure to put the monitor on Action mode, and be sure the Over Drive is set to EXTREME, with Ultra-Low Latency to ON in the Gaming section of the monitors menu. 2. You will not get 10bit color unless you put the monitors refresh rate to 120Hz. However, doing this caused a pixel response time change, making it somewhat unenjoyable to play games because of pretty bad pixel ghosting when moving quickly, especially if the background was a light color. 10-bit 120Hz, in my opinion, should only be used for media work/editing, browsing, and other low-intensity activities. 3. The ghosting was resolved by putting the monitor back to 144Hz, 8bit color, and was perfectly enjoyable for gaming, and should be used as such. 4. HDR was pretty bad. It just overly brightened and washed everything out. I did not make any real attempt at changing settings around to compensate for it because it really wasnt all that important to me. (REFER TO NOV 2021 UPDATE REGARDING HDR) 5. FreeSync, at least with my Nvidia card, was not good. It did eliminate tearing, but it introduced bad pixel ghosting because it overrides monitor settings, shutting off Over Drive and Ultra-Low Latency. This may be completely different for you if you have a 20-series Nvidia card or AMD. Also, the Setup G-Sync option (which can be enabled on even FreeSync monitors) will not be available in Nvidia Control Panel unless you turn on FreeSync in the monitor settings first. Overall I love this monitor when I use it in the way described. When I use Photoshop or After Effects, I put it on 10-bit/120Hz. When I game, I put it on 8-bit/144HZ, all in the monitor. For the price, its a small thing to deal with, so Im pretty happy overall. Just dont expect this to be perfect with all of the features it possesses.

Purchased two of these, one for myself and one for my son. First note, both arrived but had a blue color stand instead of red as pictured. This wasnt an issue for us but may be a concern for others who are color coordinating their rigs. Interestingly there wasnt even an option to select a color, so at first I thought it might be the wrong item but the model # matched up and it is sold in blue at other websites. Of note, the stand itself is very basic, it offers no height adjustment only tilt, but works well enough at that. The speakers are nothing special, they have a slightly tinny sound but get the job done if you need basic audio support. We mostly use headphones around here. I have mine side by side with a 27 1080p monitor that is TN and this IPS monitor is so much nicer for colors than the other one. Both are 144hz but this monitor is definitely nicer to look at. I was able to get 144hz refresh using either HDMI or Displayport. Neither monitor experiencing any flickering issues. Ill update my review if that develops over time as some have reported.

Yeah there is some backlight glow along the edges of the screen, particularly in dark loading screens, but once in game you dont notice. One of the best bang for buck monitors I could come across.

Great monitor for price. Has 4K for consoles and videos and 2k and 1080p with high refresh rates for pc gaming. Stand is a bit weak and I got a blue one which doesn’t match the desk I ordered but it’s whatever since I’m probably going to replace it with a better stand. Will update this review if anything changes after a month or two